More on the Cross

In an earlier post, Ignoring the Cross, I commented on how the local church may well be ignoring the cross in its attitude toward suffering and lament. Upon further reflection, it occurred to me that many may not see any connection whatsoever, particularly if they have only ever been exposed to language in which "the cross" is nothing more than a symbol of penal substitution and juridical pardon.

To my understanding, however, when Jesus suffers and dies on the cross, God actually enters fully into the depths of human suffering and changes it forever. Though human suffering continues, its power is broken as God enters into it with us. And this ministry He extends to us as well, to enter into the suffering of others and thereby participate in the breaking of its power in their lives.

To see the Cross only as something that we are saved from, and not as something we take up in following Jesus and are saved through, is to miss far too much of what God has done and is doing in the world.

To ignore the suffering of those around us -- to act as if we cannot see it, and to require that others not speak of it -- is to ignore the Cross. And to ignore the Cross is to forsake the One who there broke the power of the cross.

In writing this, I must confess that I have far too often not been moved by the suffering of others around me in any way that would recognized as imitating Jesus' response to human suffering. May God grant me the grace not to ignore the cross around me, but to embrace it on behalf of others.