AN EMPTY CROSS

David McQuel

The cross has become an unofficial emblem of Christianity. 

From the roof tops of churches, to walls of living rooms, to jewelries and grave epitaphs, the cross is boldly displayed. Why is it so important? Why have many atheists been offended by the cross? Why does a waitress wearing a chain with a cross face lawsuit? Why is the cross an offence?

From the Scripture, John 3:14-15 gives us a power exposition on the cross.

"14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 

even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him 

should not perish but have eternal life."

In the wilderness God revealed to the Israelites a type of the cross, when He told Moses to make a bronze snake, and hang it on a cross. So that anyone bitten by the judgement snake may look to the cross and live. It has become the general logo of medical and pharmaceutical profession worldwide.

From the editors of the world renown Encyclopedia Britannica, "Cross, the principal symbol of the Christian religion , recalling the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ and the redeeming benefits of his Passion and death. The cross is thus a sign both of Christ himself and of the faith of Christians."

The cross represents all that Christ is and all he has done. It is the physical evidence of redeeming love. It's the place the mercy of God met the failures of man. It is the pace God's wrath towards fallen man was fully absorbed by Christ Jesus so that we can enjoy the extraordinary power of God's love and forgiveness.

Thomas Merton wrote, "To know the Cross is not merely to know our own sufferings. For the Cross is the sign of salvation, and no man is saved by his own sufferings. To know the Cross is to know that we are saved by the sufferings of Christ; more, it is to know the love of Christ Who underwent suffering and death in order to save us. It is, then, to know Christ."

It will be hard for the unrepentant to have an excuse ever before God haven't seen the cross each day of their lives!

"The cross is not a sign of the church's quiet, suffering submission to the powers-that-be, but rather the church's revolutionary participation in the victory of Christ over those powers. The cross is not a symbol for general human suffering and oppression. Rather, the cross is a sign of what happens when one takes God's account of reality more seriously than Caesar's. The cross stands as God's (and our) eternal no to the powers of death, as well as God's eternal yes to humanity, God's remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices."
Stanley Hauerwas , Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony

I love this! 

"...God's remarkable determination not to leave us to our own devices." Imagine God leaving us to our stupidity, our weaknesses and our unredeemed heart! There is nothing a man with an unredeemed heart cannot do. His heart is full of darkness, sin and hatred.

"Jesus didn’t have to extend His love. He didn’t have to think of me when He went up on that cross. He didn’t have to rewrite my story from one of beauty to one of brokenness and create a whole new brand of beauty. He simply didn’t have to do it, but He did. He bought me. He bought me that day He died, and He showed His power when He overcame death and rose from the grave. He overcame my death in that moment. He overcame my fear of death in that unbelievable, beautiful moment, and the fruit of that death, that resurrection, and that stunning grace is peace. It is the hardest peace, because it is brutal. Horribly brutal and ugly, and we want to look away, but it is the greatest, greatest story that ever was. And it was, and it is."
Kara Tippetts, The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life's Hard

This fact is established.

But there is an aspect to this story that many either ignore or are indifferent. It is the fact that the cross in empty.

The significance of this truth is very important. The fact that the cross is empty shows that the purpose for it was completed.

Paul wrote,  Colossians 2:14-15"having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it."

On the cross, he carried our curses, our punishment, our sins, our failures, and the wrath of God for every law written against us.

And he paid the full price.

In fact, Jesus said on the cross, "It is finished!" John 19:30

He did all. 

 The empty cross shows it.
A cross that still has Jesus hanging on it is not the Christian cross. Jesus' work did end with him hanging on the cross. 

He came down, was buried and rose again.

The cross was empty that same day! Because he paid the full price.

Thank you Jesus.