The Plus Of The Cross

 

Where can I begin to convey the great plus sign the cross of Jesus represents to me? Other forms of worship have their meaningful symbols and gods but Christianity and the cross represent a god who can empathise with his Creation. A God that can defy death. A living god full of great promises and salvation.

Jesus hung on a cross between Heaven and Earth until the death of his mortal body. He made the atoning sacrifice for our sins with his death and blood. He understood what it was like to be human. He was a man until his death on the cross. Then his divinity went to work and raised him from the dead. Jesus knows human life and death. Jesus knows the human family structure. He was Mary's son adopted by Joseph and the brother of Joseph's other children. Jesus is a family man. He worked with Joseph in the family trade of carpentry. Jesus was a fellow laborer. With his faith in his divinity, he began his doomed ministry of miracles, teaching, and prophecy until his date with the cross which he foreknew. Jesus was a man of great faith and believed that beyond death lay his greatest mission as the Saviour son of God!

Jesus is humanity's death-defiant god. He liberates us from the fear of what to do if our god dies. In Jesus the answer is to relax, he will rise from the grave. In his ministry, he raised people back to life from death but his greatest resurrection was that of himself. He will never abandon us by dying on the job. His reign will be forever. He is our eternal god!

Jesus identified himself as one with the Heavenly Father. He was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophesies about a coming suffering servant child of God. With that, there are great promises in the Old Testament for those who can believe the prophets. In his lifetime Jesus made some great promises too. Having a living God is a position of great promise as any fantasy game player knows the only thing better than a wizard's help is a living god on your side!

There you have it. When I see a cross I think of god's empathy, eternity, and great promises in Jesus. Jesus was more than a man in my belief, and a very human identifiable with deity. He was not a Zeus enthroned on a mountaintop but a living god who became like his creation and offered Salvation and the gifts of the Holy Spirit if we can believe...