The Power of the Cross

When you see a cross, what do you think about?  It is far more than a mere symbol, for in the cross, we recognize what Jesus has done for us and that He loved us so much that He made it possible to be reconciled to God.  Hebrews 12 says:
1Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,2looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus endured shame and suffering, pain and humiliation, and ultimately death so that He could offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice for your sins and mine.  Sin stood in the way of humanity's relationship with God, but Christ has removed the barrier and made the way for you to come to know God through Him, the One who said He is the way, the truth, and the life.   Through the cross, we can have a relationship with God - through Him, we can experience His hope, realizing He is with us.

Galatians 2:20 is a familiar Scripture, and one that is worth contemplating as we reflect on who we are in Christ and what He has done for us:
20I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Atheists went back to court last week to challenge plans to include a 17-foot, cross-shaped beam that was discovered in the rubble of the World Trade Center, which became a famous symbol of Ground Zero after 9/11, in a display at the national memorial museum that is scheduled to open this spring, according to a report on the Religion News Service website. Last year, a lower court rejected a lawsuit filed in 2011 by the New Jersey-based American Atheists that said the cross was an unconstitutional establishment of religion.

In arguments before the the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, American Atheists’ lawyer Edwin Kagin said the cross should go back to St. Peter’s Catholic Church, where it spent some time on display, not in a museum built with a mix of public and private funds.

He suggested that the cross became a form of worship for many. American Atheists President David Silverman has previously called it a “working Christian shrine.” “We’re worried about the alienation of atheists,” he said. “We’re deeply concerned this cross gives one story, and that’s for Christians.”

The judges asked whether a religious artifact in a museum would cause confusion about its current state. “Why can’t an objective observer see it as a religious artifact that was transferred to a secular environment?” Judge Reena Raggi asked.

Raggi also asked Mark Alcott, attorney for the museum, why an object couldn’t be added for atheists. “There’s no constitutional requirement the cross has to be balanced by something else,” Alcott responded. “The museum is not a proponent or opponent of religion.”

Construction worker Frank Silecchia discovered the beam In the smoldering wreckage of the World Trade Center towers. Silecchia told the Today Show that the cross comforted him, and it soon became a rallying point for first responders. “I was already working 12 hours. I was quite weary and the cross comforted me,” Silecchia said.   He was quoted in the Daily Mail as saying, "I saw Calvary in the midst of all the wreckage, the disaster...It was a sign... that God didn't desert us."   Silecchia, by the way, appears in the documentary, directed by the Erwin Brothers of Birmingham, called, "The Cross and the Towers".

This picture of a cross offering hope in the midst of tragedy can help to underscore for us the purpose of the cross for our lives.  To build on the Silecchia's phrase, in the wreckage of our own lives, we need to see Calvary.   For each of us, the cross reminds us of the death of Jesus and that He came in order that we might identify with His substitution for us in death, so that we might walk in new life.   In the cross, in the willingness of God to send His Son to be sacrificed and in that sacrificial act of death for humanity, we can find hope - to recall the words of that construction worker, God has not deserted us.

The death of Jesus on the cross provides for us the way to salvation.  And, our acceptance of Him as our Savior means that we can enter into the life He has in store for us.   Each day, the cross can bring hope for us - reminding us that God loved you and me so much that He did not turn His back on us and leave us to spend eternity apart from Him.  The cross means that in the midst of hopelessness and disappointment, we can find hope and encouragement that He is with us and we can abide in His love.  The cross is far more than a religious symbol or decorative artifact - as we meditate on Christ's work on Calvary, we can draw strength.