My girls are
now teenagers, but every once in awhile they still play the game, “Do You Know
How Much I Love You?” You know that precious game where as parents we respond, “How
much?” and our little Delightfuls stretch their arms out as far as they
possibly can, responding through squinted eyes and strained heart vocals, “This
much”. It never gets old. I love being told that I am not just loved, but loved
to the full extent of who they are.
These
precious memories are tucked deep within my heart; and there next to the
snapshot of my girls’ outstretched arms of love for me, is another snapshot of
outstretched arms of love. These arms however, are stretched across a wooden
beam and held in place with stakes--Jesus on the cross; the crucifixion.
Without a doubt, the cross symbolizes my faith. However, the cross is not just
a symbol of a necessary sacrifice for my salvation, but it also symbolizes the
pattern I hope my life reflects.
The cross
has become so commonplace in our society that what it represents has been gravely
skewed or forgotten about all together. I’ll admit that until several years ago
when I would see a cross, it did little, if anything, to stir my heart or point
my mind to Jesus’ crucifixion on that Golgotha hill over 2,000 years ago. And
although it represented my faith, it did not actively serve as a relevant tool in
my walk with Christ. The work of the cross had been done and my eyes were (and
are) firmly fixed on the One who once hung from those beams, not the beams
themselves. However, as I have spent these several years relishing in the
friendship and guidance of the Lord, I’ve come to have a whole new appreciation
for the symbol of the cross in addition to His Lordship.
Marinating
in the heaviness and humble surrender of that Friday afternoon, picturing my
friend nailed to those wooden beams, I find that I am drawn to know more about
Him. If you believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God, you know He had the
power to escape such excruciating torment and unjust death. As Christians, we
believe He not only allowed this to take place, but intentionally sacrificed
His life in place for ours—what unfathomable love and grace for us---Perhaps
the most profound piece of this equation is that in order to die for us, Christ
had to set aside His power.
Maybe that
sounds like a no-brainer to you, but I had never reflected on that fact before. Of
course, He had to set His power aside. But as we consider what occurred three
days later, that Christ rose from the dead, we have a better understanding of
what 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 is talking about when it calls our attention to the
fact that “Jesus Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God”.
Think about that for a moment. We are not saved because of God’s power. We are
saved because He laid His power aside and humbled Himself for our sake. Brennan
Manning, author of “The Signature of Jesus (1988) refers to the cross as “The signature
of the risen One”. I love that. “The signature of the risen One”. (sigh) That
description causes my heart to beat wildly and cry out in
gratitude to my Beloved Jesus.
When Christ
set His power aside, He was showing His unconditional, inconceivable love for
us. Manning reminds us that “power forces us to change. Love moves us to
change. Power affects behavior. Love affects the heart”. With this in mind,
think about the cross. Do you see Jesus’ suffering love for us? Does it not
stir the deepest longings in your heart to be loved this much?
“Christ on
the cross is not a mere theological precondition for salvation. It is God’s
enduring word to the world, saying, ‘See how much I love you. See how much you
must love one another’”. The cross is not just a symbol of my faith anymore;
rather, it is a reminder of how much Jesus loves me and how much I am to love
the world around me. In Matthew 16:24, Jesus tells us that if we want to be His
disciples (Christ followers), we need to “take up our own cross and follow
Him”. Essentially, He is saying, “let go of what power and control you think
you have and look to me; follow me. I promise I will lead you to the
well-spring of life where you will never thirst again”. My mind wanders to the tender
words of the Apostle Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made
perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my
weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me” (2 Cor. 12:9).
With my own
arms outstretched, palms facing toward the heavens, as a symbol of my own sacrifice for Christ, I hold on to nothing, I
relinquish all of myself, all of my dreams, plans, and notions about this life
to Him and allow Him to lead me. I fully believe that Christ treasures His own snapshots of us, holding them close to His heart and saying, "She loves me thiiiiissss much".
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