This week, you'll hear a lot about Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, etc. Given the fact that Easter is this Sunday, it will be hard to ignore. One of the main things you will hear is this phrase, "Jesus died for your sins." If I'm honest, this phrase has lost pretty much all meaning to me. I know that sounds odd coming from a pastor, but I've been in church my entire life, and I've heard this phrase thousands of times. Sometimes repetition leads to over-familiarity. This doesn't mean that Jesus has lost meaning for me, or that the cross has lost meaning for me, but this phrase means basically nothing to me anymore. I don't think I'm alone in this either.
Teaching students causes me to rethink the way I say things. Because they've heard it all too, and respond with a giant, "Yeah, so what's your point?" to phrases like this. "So what if he died for my sins, what does that have to do with the fact that my life sucks right now?" In fact, it has everything to do with that, but the phrase has grown meaningless with time. So what about the cross? If this phrase has lost meaning, what is the basic central message of the cross?
Let it be said that I don't think Jesus dying for my sins is all the cross stood for. I think it stood (and stands) for many things. I don't even think that him dying for my sins is even the most basic message of the cross. I think when you boil it all down, it all really comes down to this one incontrovertible fact: you're worth dying for.
Let's go through a scenario. If you were God (I assume that you aren't), and you desired above all else to be connected to the beings you have created, what do you do? Keep in mind that every time you speak, people freak out and hide (read the Hebrew Scriptures). So you want to be close and convey this message of your desire for a relationship, but you're "up there", and your beings are "down there." How do you rectify this situation? Could it be that you decide to walk around on earth with your creations for awhile? If you want to be close, go and be close. But now you have another problem. Just showing up doesn't necessarily convey to your beings that you love them does it? You love humans with a love that is stronger than anyone can imagine, but you find it hard to accurately convey it. So what do you do? Could it be that you show these beings that they are, in fact, worth dying for? What greater compliment can you give to someone?
Jesus himself said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends." The only true and perfect way for you to show someone that you love them is to get the point across that baby, you're worth dying for. In my wedding vows, I stated very clearly, "until death parts us." If you really dissect that (and the other vows), what you're saying to your spouse is that you are committed to the point of death, if it comes to that.
The problem is that most of us can't comprehend how we're worth dying for.
Read part 2 to see the proper response to all of this.
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