Take A Look At The Cross!

Once again we are under the shadow of the cross. In Handel's famous oratorio, "The Messiah", there are to be found these questioning words: "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me."

Day after day, we pass by the doors of the church, and the uplifted cross, and hardly notice it. Person after person wears a silver or gold cross about their necks and think of it only as a piece of jewelry. Upon the steeples, and upon the altars of our churches are to be found crosses high and lifted up. Does it mean anything to us? "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"

The mystery of that cross quite overwhelms us. How could something so ugly, so much a symbol of oppression and hatred and bloodshed become so sacred an emblem to us as Christians?

It is not because of the cross, but because of One who hung upon that cross that we treasure it. Jesus represented the little people, the powerless people, the oppressed people. And there upon that cross, he destroyed the power of his enemies by forgiving them...yes, even loving them! There is great power represented by the might of ancient Rome, and the power of modern armies and warfare. But there is another kind of power represented by the Man of Galilee as he died for us upon the cross.

Let us as Christians never forget which side we are on, in that eternal battle between good and evil. And "God forbid that we should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."