Sermon Central
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Crickets And Crosses
Contributed by Loyd C. Taylor on Mar 30, 2023 (message contributor)
Early one Easter morning I stood before an old church graveyard.
The crickets were chirping their morning melody for me.
I saw three crosses that had been placed there by the congregation,
erected as a reminder of the crosses on the hill called Calvary.
Calvary, where Jesus was crucified between two thieves.
The crosses stood on a small hill between the graveyard and me.
The middle cross represented the one upon which Christ died.
As I stood still and gazed upon the scene, I let my mind drift back in time to that first resurrection morning.
I moved slightly closer as the crickets grew strangely quiet.
My eyes scanned over the graves, shadowy in the early light.
A thought played upon my mind... Without the cross, the empty cross,
what would this mean for you and me? O, what would it mean for me?
I pondered. Then I came to this one conclusion: we would be nothing more than crickets. They are born, they live, and then they die. They die! For them it all ends at death.
Graves would just be holes in the ground for decaying bodies. No hope, no! Life would end then and there. We would live and then die. We would die.
But the empty cross gives hope for life beyond this life, for all humanity!
I thought of the empty tomb.
I thought of how Christ came forth on the morning of the first day:
He came forth alive. Alive! Alive!
My heart was filled with praise, as joyful tears fell from grateful eyes.
I will always remember that cool, still, Easter morning; there in communion and worship on this mortal journey, Jesus once again made his presence so
obvious. Just as the True Gospel teaches and the sun began to rise, I saw again that the only thing between us and cold death was beautifully symbolized by the middle cross that stood in my gaze.
O, thank God for hope!
O, thank God for the cross!
O, thank God for the empty tomb!
Thank God for Easter.
Because He lives, we may live eternally!
Not like the crickets which die. They just die.
© Loyd C Taylor, Sr, March 2019
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