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If you saw people wearing badges in the shape of a guillotine, or an electric chair, you might be shocked. If they wore in their lapels a miniature hangman's noose, you'd think they were strange. But people wear crosses, as badges and jewellery, when originally a cross was a bestial form of execution, so appalling that in the year 315 A.D. the Romans, who had used it until then, abolished it as too inhumane even for them. If we weren't too used to it, we'd be staggered by millions of people positively glorying in the cross.
Why do they do it? Because on one particular cross a battle took place of cosmic significance. Jesus of Nazareth, who had never been guilty of a sin, let alone of a crime, went to the cross as if he were the most evil of human beings. He took there his perfect life, his love, his unblemished self, and his refusal to compromise, and gave it all up, as a perfect sacrifice. To change our relationship with God, and even more mysteriously, to change God's way of relating to us the people of earth, was something which took more than words, even the words of Jesus! It required a supreme act to bring two separated parties together. TO ATONE. TO MAKE THEM ONE.
There is more about this subject tomorrow, but for now, listen to these words of Paul in Ephesians 2: 12-13: Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.
A Prayer: We behold you, Lord, crucified for us, and we see both how deeply our sins wound you, and how deeply you love us.
Now read Peter's Sermon on the First day of Pentecost in the Christian era: Acts 2: 22-41
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