It’s been a bad few months. Three friends are battling cancer. The husband of one of my friends emailed last week to say that her cancer’s spread.
My friends are hopeful, and yet I am sad. It’s hard to see friends struggle. Life feels fragile and hard.
The Meaning of the Cross
I remember standing beside a graveside waiting to read the words of committal. I looked around and realized: I’m either about to speak the cruelest lies or the most profound truths. If Christianity isn’t true, then I have nothing to offer. But if Christianity is true, it can handle death and more.
So we turn again to the central truth of Christianity: Jesus died. On a cross two thousand years ago, God the Son willingly died for our sins.
Theologians have written volumes on the meaning of the cross, and will continue to do so. The power of Jesus’ death exceeds our ability to understand it. We understand dimensions of Jesus’ death, and yet find that we’re like amateur artists trying to describe the beauty of the Alps. Our efforts always fall short of capturing the beauty and magnitude of what Jesus has accomplished for us.
“The power of the death of Christ is independent of the more or less clear interpretation we can give of it,” writes Herman Bavinck. “It is also enjoyed by those who have but very little knowledge of the doctrine of truth. It is indeed not the doctrine concerning the death of Christ but this death itself that atones for our sins and gives peace to our consciences.”
Anyone can understand the basics of the cross. And yet we’ll spend the rest of our lives exploring the meaning and significance of this truth: Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3). It’s a truth so simple that anyone can understand it, so complex that no theologian can fully explain it, so robust that it can take its place in the cancer ward and even at the graveside.
It’s a truth so simple that anyone can understand it, so complex that no theologian can fully explain it, so robust that it can take its place in the cancer ward and even at the graveside.
We Keep Remembering
So we keep coming back to the bread and the cup. “This is my body…this is my blood.” We take, eat, and drink.
We keep proclaiming the truth of the death of Jesus. We who are preachers aim to follow Spurgeon’s directions: “Let your sermons be full of Christ, from beginning to end crammed full of the gospel.”
We keep repeating the catechisms and creeds. “Why was it necessary for Christ, the Redeemer, to die? Since death is the punishment for sin, Christ died willingly in our place to deliver us from the power and penalty of sin and bring us back to God.”
And we keep rehearsing truths in hospitals and at graveside services, and in other troubles. “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8:32).
It’s the quest of a lifetime: to enjoy the comfort and peace that’s ours as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross.
