SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone, it's Nancy with your Wednesday edition of our daily walk this past Sunday as we read in Luke 23 about Jesus' crucifixion, his death on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded of a book that someone gave to me years ago by Max Locato called The Cross.
SPEAKER_00: And I went back and looked through that book, and I want to share the final passages from that book with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you'll allow me to read, it begins with this thought.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about the cross.
SPEAKER_00: It seems to demand a choice.
SPEAKER_00: You either step toward it or away from it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the watershed, it's the continental divide.
SPEAKER_00: You're either on one side or the other.
SPEAKER_00: A choice is demanded.
SPEAKER_00: We can do what we want with the cross.
SPEAKER_00: We can examine its history.
SPEAKER_00: We can study its theology.
SPEAKER_00: We can reflect upon its prophecies.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the one thing we cannot do is walk away neutral.
SPEAKER_00: No fence sitting is permitted.
SPEAKER_00: The cross in its absurd splendor doesn't allow that.
SPEAKER_00: We can't go to the cross with just our heads and not our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_00: Calvary is not a mental trip.
SPEAKER_00: It's not an intellectual exercise.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a divine calculation or a cold theological principle.
SPEAKER_00: It's a heart-splitting hour of emotion.
SPEAKER_00: Don't walk away from it dry-eyed and unstirred.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just straighten your tie and clear your throat.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow yourself to descend to Calvary cool and collected.
SPEAKER_00: Please pause.
SPEAKER_00: Look again.
SPEAKER_00: Those are nails in those hands.
SPEAKER_00: That's God on that cross.
SPEAKER_00: It's us who put him there.
SPEAKER_00: Peter knew it, John knew it, Mary knew it.
SPEAKER_00: They knew a great price was being paid.
SPEAKER_00: They knew who really pierced his side.
SPEAKER_00: They also somehow knew that history was being remade.
SPEAKER_00: That's why they wept.
SPEAKER_00: They saw the Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Oh God, may we never be so educated.
SPEAKER_00: May we never be so mature.
SPEAKER_00: May we never be so religious that we can see your passion without tears.
SPEAKER_00: Father, may our souls be branded by your cross.
SPEAKER_00: May the memory of your sacrifice ignite us.
SPEAKER_00: May the song of our hearts and the expression of our lives be Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And I close with this passage from John 3, verses 14 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.