Week 13—Thursday John 10:11-15
Week 13—THURSDAY
IS THE CROSS AN AFTERTHOUGHT?
We are meditating upon the cross as the supreme manifestation of agape love. Is the redemption by the cross an afterthought, read back into the account to rescue it from being a stark tragedy? Or is the cross the very revelation of the love that will not let us go? Through the cross do we see God’s Heart?
It all depends on who Jesus is. If he was a good man and just a good man, then his death is a martyrdom—a martyrdom for a cause. Lincoln’s death was a martyrdom and so was Mahatma Gandhi’s, for they were both good men dying for a cause. But suppose Jesus was the Incarnate God, then significance would be attached to his death by that very fact. And Jesus was very particular that we should get a right view of who he was. He said to his disciples, “Who do men say that the Son of man is? . . . Who do you say that I am?” (Matt. 16:13, 15). If he were only a man, why should he raise that question? It was the one and important question.
When he stood silent before the High Priest, he was asked, “‘By the living God I charge you to tell us: Are you the Messiah, the Son of God?’ Jesus replied, ‘The words are yours’” (Matt. 26:63, NEB). Or as Bishop Christopher Wordsworth puts it, “You have really said it”—the strongest affirmation. Then when Pilate asked him: “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “The words are yours.” Or the marginal reading, “It is as you say” (Matt. 27:11-12, NEB). And when one of his disciples said, “Lord, show us the Father and we ask no more,” Jesus replied, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9, NEB). So the idea of a martyr dying on a cross for a cause is ruled out. The background forbids it.
O Jesus, Lord and Savior, we dare not minimize the meaning of your cross and make it into a martyrdom. That would be the new crucifixion. Toning it down to a martyr’s death would put you on a new cross forever. Save us from that sin Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: There is no middle ground—if Jesus was not God, he was not good.