Contemplating the Cross

I am in the process of typing out my reflections from my journals and assembling them in a binder. My journals contain scriptures, songs, and quotes as well as my reflections. I have wanted to have my reflections accessible so that I could use them as the basis for some of my writings. As I was typing up the following piece I wanted to post it. This is a part of a journal entry from July 2003.



I have been reading two devotionals on the cross. My thought was “I am more comfortable with looking at scriptures about the cross of Jesus, the Lamb of God, before the crucifixion or well after the fact reflecting back on that act." The reading for today in Contemplating the Cross was so disturbing to me – Jesus is dying and He is taunted by others to prove Himself.

I think at times we focus so much on the divinity of Jesus that we forget that He is fully man as well. How would He have felt, knowing that He had struggled in prayer to come to the point of accepting and preparing to give Himself up to die for our sins? He knew that He would be beaten and mocked and abandoned. It is almost too much for me to comprehend. Even if I think of it from a human standpoint to be falsely accused; put to death; while a person who is actually guilty of the crimes you have been accused of goes free.

Jesus’ credibility was brought into question in the accusations that people threw at Him. If Jesus couldn’t get off the cross and save Himself and prove that He truly was the Son of God, then how could His words be trusted? How could His teachings liberate people from the bondages of sin and legalism? How could the healings be from God if God would not intervene and heal Jesus’ body as it hung, beaten and battered, on a cross? These are the questions that followers of Jesus, those who looked forward to a Messiah, a Savior, would be asking. It is such a puzzling thing.

Yet that is only midstream. If we stop there what hope do we have? None; Paul says that his preaching and our faith is in vain if there is no resurrection. Yet we know that God did raise Jesus from the dead. It seemed as if all sense of hope had to die in order for God to triumph.