“When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died … See from His head, His hands, His feet sorrow and love flow mingled down … Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” – Isaac Watts (1707)
For 2,000 years people have surveyed the cross where Jesus died. In fact, 700 years before Jesus’ death, Isaiah the Prophet “saw” Jesus “pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities … and with His wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
So, for 2,700 years people have surveyed the cross … or has it been longer?
Even all the way back in Genesis 3:15, in humanity’s first days, the LORD God promised that the Seed of the woman (Jesus) would have His heal “bruised” for our deliverance. As B.B. Warfield said, Old Testament passages like this are “richly furnished but dimly lit.” In other words, the Gospel is there, but not fully understood or appreciated until Jesus ultimately arrives at Calvary thousands of years later.
Make no mistake, people have been surveying the wondrous cross on which the Prince of Glory died for as long as there have been people. So, this Easter season, as we look to the cross, how do we make sense of it? What should our response be?
Does God want us to be moved to tears, seeing Jesus as a sympathetic figure wrongly accused and brutally beaten? Does God want to see us merely codify the events of the cross as merely religious remembrance on a Holy Day? Does God want us to fear the coming judgment and seek “fire insurance” protecting from eternal torment?
Well, only the coldest of hearts are not moved (at least some) by the brutality of the cross, so our tears are appropriate. And, Jesus instituted a religious practice (communion) to remember His crucifixion, directed His disciples to spend a disproportionate amount of the Gospel accounts detailing the events of the cross to be recorded in a Holy Book that would be read in religious institutions, and even DIED on a day that reframed a religious holiday – SO religious remembrance is also appropriate. And Jesus really did conquer death and make a way for us to escape the judgment to come if we trust in Him, so there is assurance of eternal life in Jesus.
BUT, the appropriate response to the cross is not just sympathy or religion or fear … because in John 19:1-16 we see these responses by Pilate and the Jewish religious leaders (people who certainly are not held up as examples for us to follow). No, there is a deeper response that is required by you and me than simply tears or religion or fears. That deeper response is to see the Christ of the cross for who He really is, and to follow Him as our King all the days of our lives.
As Warren Wiersbe has said, “We must not confuse sentimentality with true spiritual emotion. It is one thing to shed tears during a church service and quite something else to sacrifice, suffer, and serve after the meeting has ended. We do not simply contemplate the cross; we carry it.”
This Sunday morning, April 13 at Wildwood Community Church we will be gathering for Palm Sunday services at 8:30, 9:45, and 11:00. Hope you can join us for part 5 of our “Trial to Triumph” series as we explore John 19:1-16 together.
See you there, and bring friends!