Reading: The Cross of Christ, pg. 320-328
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
1 Peter 3.18
I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. “The cross of Christ…is God’s only self-justification in such a world” as ours. | Stott pg.326,327
Worshipping a God who chose to enter into our world and suffer alongside us, and ultimately redeem us makes Christianity different from any other religion. How else does the suffering God allow us to have hope in any and all circumstances?
“Jesus of the Scars”
If we have never sought, we seek thee now;
Thine eyes burn through the dark, our only stars;
We must have sight of thorn-marks on thy brow,
We must have thee, O Jesus of the scars.
The heavens frighten us; they are too calm;
In all the universe we have no place.
Our wounds are hurting us; where is the balm?
Lord Jesus, by the scars we know they grace.
If, when the doors are shut, thou drawest near,
Only reveal those hands, that side of think;
We know today what wounds are, have no fear;
Show us thy scars, we know the countersign.
The other Gods were strong; but thou wast weak;
They rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne;
But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,
And not a not has wounds but thou alone.
-Edward Shillito
*We suggest, as a good devotional reading for Easter, that you read the conclusion to “The Cross of Christ” pages 329-342