Love on a cross THE STORY Chapter 26 Reinbeck UMC 1/17/15

Love on a cross

THE STORY Chapter 26

Reinbeck UMC 1/17/15

The cross is the most recognized symbol in the world. Crosses are everywhere. Everyone knows that if we see a cross on a building it is likely a Christian church. No one mistakes a cross for anything other than what it is, the central symbol of the Christian faith. However, some have tried.

In 1965, East Germany began to build a TV tower. You know the mindset of the cold war leaders. This tower was to broadcast communist propaganda all over both east and West Berlin, but included a revolving restaurant across the middle of the sphere to demonstrate East Germany’s advanced technology and give diners a grand view of the world that would surely see the light of communism. At 1200 feet tall, it was legislated, to be the tallest building in East Berlin

 It so happened that while the tower was under construction, completely independent of the tower project, the leader of East Germany, Walter Ulbricht, said that all churches had to remove their crosses.

When the tower was complete, however, Ulbricht was in for a rude awakening.

Robyn will testify to this, because she has seen this tower. When the sun shines on the spherical top of the tower, it reflects off in the shape of … you guessed it…. a cross. The tower was nicknamed “the pope’s revenge.”

The East German leaders were horrified. They tried everything… painting it, putting mirrors on it, and putting spotlights on it; all to no avail. They even tried reinterpreting it saying it is not a cross, but a plus sign, but people will see what they see. And what most people see to this day, is a huge shining cross on the top of what was supposed to be a great symbol of atheistic, communist power.

No matter how hard we try, we can’t get rid of the cross. Many have tried. They have tried to legislate it out of existence, hide it, steal it, soak it in urine, burn it, demonize it, and even reinterpret it as a sign of the failure of God’s plan, and God’s abandonment of humanity. Nothing has worked. Try as people might, there is no getting rid of the cross of Christ. It is the most prevalent, most persistent, most powerful, most recognized, and in some places, the most hated symbol in the world. The cross has proven to be more powerful than anyone could have ever imagined.

But then, that is exactly the message of the cross. The cross is God’s concrete, once and for all proof that his love is stronger any earthly or devilish power.

Think about the story we read this week in chapter 26.

·         Think about all the ways people got it wrong, but the cross won anyway.

o   You can hardly blame the crowds for grabbing on to a charismatic, itinerant, miracle-working rabbi, but in their excitement, they completely missed the point of his teaching.

o   One can kind of understand that, but the disciples were a different matter.

§  Jesus had been teaching among them for 3 years. One would think that those who followed Jesus would have figured out what he was all about, but they were just as wrongheaded as the clamoring crowds. How could they be sitting at the last supper still arguing about who would be the greatest in his kingdom.

§  How is it possible that they had no idea what has going on even when Jesus said, “This is my body. This is my blood?” How could they not make the connection that this was the Lamb of God come to be sacrificed for them?

o   It is a good thing that the power of the cross, is that God loved them more than they understood. God loved them in spite of their lack of understanding, in spite of their thick-headedness, in spite of their blindness. God loved them and us so much, that he was willing to endure arrest and trial in order to put his love on the cross for them.

·         Think about all the people who gave their best effort to stop God’s plan, but the cross won anyway.

o   How many times did Jesus predict his death? I read seven predictions in the gospels. Perhaps some of those are duplicates. I would say there are at least 5 separate occasions. Yet when the events of holy week begin to head in that terrible direction, how many ways did they try to stop it. I can think of at least two.

§  Judas’ betrayal has been interpreted many different ways, but one very real possibility is that Judas wanted to try to force Jesus to do something radical before it was too late. Maybe he was actually hoping to get Jesus to tip his hand and reveal his true identity and mission to everyone. That would certainly explain his remorse and suicide when Jesus was captured and killed.

§  Second, when the soldiers of the guard came, like a swat team, to take Jesus away, Peter was still trying to stop these events. He was in the mood to fight. He drew his sword and in the tussle cut off Malchus’ ear. We have no reason to think that he would have stopped there. Had Jesus not interceded saying, “Peter, if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword.” I think Peter would have kept going. He wanted, somehow, to short-circuit the whole plan. Peter was probably not alone in wanting to sidetrack events.

o   The power of God’s love, however, was greater than any feeble attempt to sidetrack God’s plan. God loved them so much that he would not be sidetracked. He would not be diverted from putting his love on the cross for them.

·         Think about the failure and weakness of the disciples, but the cross won anyway.

o   Think about Peter saying, “I’ll never deny you… no matter what I’ll stand by your side, I’ll even die for you.” I have no doubt that his intentions were honorable, but his weakness was stronger. When he denied Jesus the third time, and the rooster crowed, his heart must have sunk to his toes. He knew he had failed.

o   Peter gets the blame, but the other disciples weren’t all that much better. How many of them even stuck around to long enough to find out if they would deny him? None.

o   But in spite of the fact that his closest disciple denied him; In spite of the fact that his closest friends ran away like mice scattering when the cat comes leaping into the room; Nothing, nothing, nothing; neither denial, nor abandonment, could keep Jesus from submitting to the guards and putting his love on the cross for them.

>>>> God’s love is greater than our lack of understanding, greater than anything we could do to stand in the way, greater than any failure or weakness. And fourth God’s love is greater than any fear or hate

·         Think about all the fear that drove the events of the week, but the cross won anyway.

o   I don’t know that 21^st century Christians will ever fully understand what drove the chief priest and Sanhedrin to drag Jesus into their kangaroo court and condemn him to death.

§  They were powerful leaders in the faith, but they were afraid that something or someone might come and take away their power, along with it their wealth and prestige.

§  They were equally afraid of Rome, because they knew that Rome had the power to shut down the temple.

§  How much must they have hated Jesus, and what he represented and what he taught, that they had to sneak around and manipulate the trial in front of the chief priest and the Sanhedrin.

o   The power of God’s love, however, was greater than any fear, greater than any hatred, greater than anything the high priest and Sanhedrin could throw at it. Nothing could keep God from standing trial and putting his love on the cross for them.

·         Think about the injustice and politics of the week, but the cross won anyway.

o   The Sanhedrin had a specific set of laws to follow when they met. Just like our courts do. For instance they had to have specific charges to arrest someone, (they didn’t) they couldn’t meet at night, (they did) it took at least two independent witnessed agreeing exactly to convict someone, (there weren’t any) there was no investigation, the trial was too short, there were no witnesses for the defense, the judges were not impartial, they prodded him to incriminate himself, and then after all of that they changed the charges from blaspheme to treason when they took him before Pilate. One would have to work awfully hard to mess up a trial worse than this one.

o   Because the Jews could not enforce a death penalty, they had to take him to Pilate, who didn’t find any guilt and simply caved in to political pressure.

o   Pilate even tried to release Jesus in accordance with a Roman tradition of releasing one prisoner at Passover, but the Chief Priests had stirred up the crowd enough that not even that worked.

o   In spite of that, In spite of the politics In spite of the injustice, and the fundamental unfairness of the proceedings, God would not allow any of that to stop him from showing his love. He turned his back to be scourged, and allowed his love to be crucified on the cross for us.

·         Think about the pain and suffering that Jesus endured, but the cross won anyway.

o   He was scourged. We are not talking about a whipping. We are talking about a roman cat-o-nine-tails. That is a handle with 9 whips on it and metal or sharp pottery pieces mounted on the ends so that it rips and tears at the flesh and basically turns it to hamburger.

o   He was humiliated and taunted by the guards.

o   He was crowned with a crown of thorns not unlike this one. It was jammed down over the top of his head and he was mocked as King of the Jews.

o   And after he was suffering from severe blood loss and dehydration, he was forced to carry his own cross up to the place of execution. Much like having to wire your own electric chair. The crossbeam could weigh up to 300 lbs.

o   He was nailed through the wrists. We think of the hands, but actually, they used the wrists because the flesh of the hands would just tear out under the weight of the body. The wrists are bonier and more secure. And he was nailed through the feet, Pushing up on his pierced feet would be the only way he could draw a full lung of air.

o   After more blood loss, and dehydration and mocking and taunting and suffering, eventually the body would give out from cardiac rupture, heart failure, arrhythmia, pulmonary embolism, but because of the bulk of the persons weight was borne by the rib cage and chest most commonly they died of suffocation

o   In spite of all of that that, Jesus never turned away, and God never balked at seeing his love nailed to the cross for us.

·         And when death came, it was a relief. We would soon find out that not even death could keep him from loving us. But that is a story for next week.

Think about it…

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Think about all the awful, dreadful events of those last 24 hours of Jesus life: yet Jesus went to the cross for love’s sake.

 Think about the blindness of the people, the ways this might have gone a different direction, the weakness of the disciples, the fear, and hate of the priests:  all hanging on the cross for love sake.

The utter injustice of executing an innocent man, not to mention the son of God, the torture and suffering, the final darkness of death:  all wrapped up with God himself hanging bleeding and dying on the cross for love’s sake.

It’s all about John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

 In other words… “Jesus saves.”