LUKE 23: 26-49
‘All those who knew him…stood at a distance, watching these things’
(v. 49)
There are many people identified by the gospel writers at Calvary: the two criminals, the centurion, the chief priests, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, John and so on. Two people not mentioned, but yet there, are you and me.
While of course not physically or historically present at Calvary, we must find ourselves at the cross if we want to be disciples of Jesus, if we want to walk with him and live for him. This is so not only because it is through the death of Christ that we gain life, but because the cross and all it stands for is the central and crucial message of our faith. Without it there is no message to share, no kingdom to proclaim, and no transformation to be experienced.
Paul was clear about this, ‘I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1. Cor. 2:2), but he also realised that preaching Christ crucified was to onlookers a ‘stumbling-block…and foolishness’. This has not changed since then, but neither has the truth that for us who are called it is ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1. Cor. 1:23-24).
We can hope and dream of God’s kingdom; we can work and pray for it to be revealed more and more in our world today, but God’s reign, his justice and peace, is only experienced and manifested through the cross. It is equally true though, that we only truly embrace the cross when engaging in God’s kingdom work in our everyday life. As the English theologian Tom Wright has put it, ‘Those who are put right with God through the cross are to be putting-right people for the world’
As we today find ourselves at the cross of Jesus, let us resolve for it always to be the centre of our life, faith and service. Let us with Paul pray: ‘As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 6:14 NLT) and go, forgiven and redeemed, and do ‘the good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do’ (Eph. 2: 10)