14 Sept 2014 - crossed in

We are called to fix our gaze on the cross of Christ this morning. But that only sounds like a good idea until we think about it. Our natural response to the cross is not to gaze upon it. Instead, this is a supernatural grace which we are offered.

Do we really want to see the consequences of our sinfulness? When we mess up like the Israelites and bring upon ourselves saraph serpents in all their many forms we turn to God for forgiveness. But wouldn't we prefer to never see these serpents again?

Yet God lifts high the consequences of our sin. The cross embodies all of the pain our sin causes. It embodies death as our ultimate punishment. He has planned this for a long time. He said that we "will look upon me, on him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child" (cf. Zec. 12:10). Why does he not permit us to just sweep this all under a rug? Why does he insist that we come to terms with the full gravity and severity of sin? Is it because he wants to condemn us?

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him. 

He wants us to be saved! And we can't do that if we don't really know what is going on. If we don't see clearly the pit from which we are pulled we wander back into it without thinking. Indeed, we are only ever out of the pit incidentally. He wants us to remain free intentionally, though not through our own strength. He wants us to make a genuine choice for the freedom he offers.

And so the serpent is lifted on the pole. We must gaze upon it if we are too be healed. But that in itself too abstract. We still don't quite get it. So he escalates the issue. It is not merely the consequences of our sin on which we gaze. It is their effect on the very one who deserves them least of all endured out of love for us.

Rather, he emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
coming in human likeness;
and found human in appearance,
he humbled himself,
becoming obedient to death,
even death on a cross.

Because God is so good he will not force us to see our sin or the consequences thereof without at that very time revealing his love for us. Even as he shows us the ugliness and severity of sin he dwarfs that revelation with the fact that "God so loved the world".

So let's "not forget the works of the Lord!" He is more than merciful and more than simply forgiving. He turns his anger back and does not destroy us.  It is not done begrudgingly. He loves us! He loves us unto death! As God reveals this love to us he enables us to gaze upon the the ugliness of the cross and receive it as a blessing. He empowers us to enthrone him in our hearts.

that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.