It's all about the cross

Jesus said, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. (John 12:27)

On a recent trip to the Cities, I passed the new statue of Jesus outside the Christian Family Church and World Outreach Center just north of Owatonna.  The statue, titled The Coming King, depicts Jesus as a conquering warrior on a white horse, sword in hand, ready to slay his enemies.  It’s a powerful statue, based on images from the book of Revelation.

That statue raised some questions in my mind.  How do we depict Jesus?  When do we see Jesus the most clearly?

This is a good week to ask this question, for Holy Week has arrived!  It began on Sunday with the waving of palm branches and shouts of hosanna.  Jesus rode into Jerusalem as a conquering king with crowds shouting his praises.  Holy Week ends on Easter Sunday with an empty tomb and amazement at a resurrection.  Glory at the beginning.  Glory at the end.  The statue in Owatonna fits these days well.  Nothing can stand in the way of our conquering Lord!  But what about the rest of Holy Week? 

We can’t just build a bridge from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday and pretend that nothing comes between them.  Even before Jesus arrived in Jerusalem he knew full well that he went to his death.  In these next few days we will join Jesus in his walk to the Last Supper.  We will journey to the Garden of Gethsemane to hear Jesus’ anguished prayers.  We will stand by as Jesus is arrested…convicted of trumped up charges…beaten and spit upon by the religious authorities…hauled before the governor…whipped mercilessly…mocked and laughed at…sentenced to death…nailed to a cross…hung to die.  We will hear Jesus’ anguished cries of pain…abandonment…and death.  The image here is of a beaten and bloody body nailed to a cross.  The Coming King statue makes little sense in this context.

We see Jesus the most clearly on the cross.  As powerful as the images of Palm Sunday and Easter might be, they cannot overpower the image of cross.  The cross shows how much God loves us, willing to die so that we might live.  Jesus conquered death by enduring death.  Jesus came to give his life so that others might live.  That's not weakness - that's love!

It can be tempting to only want to see the glory of our Lord.  Without the cross, the glory makes no sense.

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

   did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

rather, he made himself nothing

   by taking the very nature of a servant,

   being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

   he humbled himself

   by becoming obedient to death—

      even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

   and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

   in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

   to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11