Good Friday, the Cross and Its Shadow

[HKHaugan]

There is no more lingering shadow across the landscape of history than that of the Cross of Jesus. Wherever any person walks the daily pace of existence that shadow falls in front, behind, over and under the path they take. The Cross is the continuing reminder of four things. First, death takes us all. Second, Jesus, the One who hung upon it. Third, a question---why did He die? Fourth, the decision every heart has to make about Him. But the Cross is also a reminder that without it, without its lingering shadow, there would never be an answer to death and its cycles of desperation in the individual heart. No ultimate life, no final existence, no hope for every next moment. It is the empty Cross that carries the footnote of history’s great questions, Who am I? Why am I here? and Where am I going? Finally, for each of us, alone in our bodies and our unique individuality, the common nature they share is the consciousness of “I.”

It is not the Cross itself that gives it its meaning. Its meaning comes from the One who hung upon it, who suffered upon it, who died upon it and who had perfect faith upon it. It was a Cross born out of man’s need to shake his fist at God and take control of how he defines humanity, a person and the very nature of all existence. It was born from the insidious desire to declare one tribal fantasy, the glory of Rome, or, for that matter, the glory of any man-made tribal existence, as the essence of what it means to be human. Yes, Rome had become a religious cult, the state a divine entity and Rome its temple. Therefore, to those in power, the emperor and his leaders, the Cross was an exclamation point of authority, a declarative image of physical power, they used to quell any form of rebellion against them.

Therefore, the Roman world was ruled through fear, pride, injustice, hatred, prejudice, ethnic and social superiority. Its language of power was verbalized through humiliation, institutional justification, human religion, the physical might of its legions and manipulative conspiracy as its foreign diplomacy. This was mankind believing it had ascended to the heights of some kind of paradise by declaring itself divine and then inventing a national cultic religion embracing all religions as the coup d’état to declare its independency. The absurdity of this spiritual obstinacy culminates in the religion called atheism, which is believing in not believing, the non-religious religion which in itself is a self-indicting oxymoron.

Man-made cultic religion captures within it the driving impulses of sin, the pride-filled ego in civic authority, power and status. This religion is fueled by the hidden spiritual felon called the devil, the pride-power-position master of the ego-entrenched world. His spirits are felonious in self-deception and fear. They strike at the individual heart of those whose weaknesses are compromised by the social and economic survival values in their cultic locale.

There are three threats cultic state religionists fear most, a cause that questions cultic religion, the charismatic leader who promotes the cause and the individual heart that embraces the cause. Into the middle of this self-destructive chaos the charismatic Jesus came with a cause, a heart and an appeal to the individual hearts trapped in the web of social and political religion. It’s a cause that brings God the Creator back to His forlorn images raked over by the hopelessness Adam had spawned through His momentary lapse of judgment.

The devil used that lapsing moment to ensnare Adam and Eve with his spirit of sin. That’s all it takes. One moment when we suspend the image of God in us for a brief self-indulgence. It’s these suspended moments connecting one after the other that carry us far from Him. It was into these moments Jesus brought a personal appeal, a heart appeal. It was His personal love Jesus exhibited for each heart with which He came in contact. It was not only personal, it was spiritual and it was real. He knew what every moment of existence meant, its importance, its influence and effect. He came to recover them, transform them and renew them.

Embodied in Jesus was a cause, a leader and a relationship that transcended the cultic world with its social and political false idols. It was a relationship of trust, belief and faith in the individual heart with this person Jesus that challenged the finality of death, the death that the status and power cult used to keep its citizens in line. Wherever Jesus went there was something new in what He taught and what He was that challenged every person to take Him to heart.

A whole new dimension of the human spirit conceived by the Holy Spirit surfaced in Jesus. It was all about Him, His mind, His heart and His Spirit. No one before held a heart like His. He was not only a threat to man’s religions, He was a threat to the very stability of ego, pride oriented institutionalism. And it was not only Rome but every political entity that would ever be in the world plus religion itself that was exposed as relationally empty and God-less. The weight of the political world, the might of man’s hostility and their religious conspirators all conjoined against an unarmed, humble and Spirit-filled itinerant preacher, executing Him on the Cross under the illusion He could be destroyed and that would be the end of that.

What the Cross did was expose the sinful intrigues of a God-refusing world. And, like a poultice, the Cross drew the poisonous venom of sin, evil, the devil and His darkness to the surface for all to see. It was the lost hearts of everyone, lost in a self-muted conspiracy of silence, leaders lost in secret collaboration and the fearful common man excusing himself in resigned apathetic indifference.

Why? The hearts of each person were afraid, the worker fearing the boss, the centurion fearing the senator, the senator fearing the emperor, the Pharisee suspicious of the Sadducee, religious leaders fearing the people, the Levite fearing the priest who in turn feared the High Priest who in turn feared the Roman governor who feared his superior, the fear of disease, war, disaster and finally for all, the fear of death.

This is the coffin the Cross of Jesus tore open and putting Him to death brought about the greatest event in history, the Resurrection, Jesus rose from the dead. What He exposed as the path to destruction He defeated through faith and every heart that chooses Him in faith has already beaten the world’s final weapon, death. Now the Cross becomes our measuring rod, the new rod of God, the new staff that distinguishes life from death, good from evil, light from darkness, love from fear, honesty from manipulation, truth from deceit, idols from One God and courage to stand in the face of hate.

While the devil intended the Cross for evil God turned its intention for eternal good.  Now it is the symbol of victory for all who bear it both openly and spiritually. 

Dallas Holm wrote a song to hail the King of Kings, Rise Again.

Go ahead, drive the nails in My hands;
Laugh at me... where you stand.
Go ahead, and say it isn't Me;
The day will come... when you will see.

'Cause I'll rise.... again;
Ain't no power on earth can tie Me down!
Yes, I'll rise... again;
Death can't keep Me in the ground.

Go ahead, mock My name;
My love for you is still the same.
Go ahead, and bury Me;
But very soon, I will be free!

Go ahead, and say I'm dead and gone,
But you will see that you were wrong.
Go ahead, try to hide the Son;
But all will see that I'm the One!

'Cause I'll come again!
Ain't no power on earth can keep me back!
Yes, I'll come again;
Come to take My people back.