The Cross - Trash Or Treasure? Series

The Jews had a history chock-full of miracles. It’s not like one was happening every other day, but the chronicles of their nation was not lacking in miracles. We could start with the 10 Plagues that scared Pharaoh into letting the Israelites go. Recount the Red Sea opening up and allowing a 2-million person nation to cross through it, while drowning the most powerful army in the world. The manna. Water from the rock. The collapse of the walls of Jericho. The Israelites liked to hear about miracles. They respected the power of God...too much. Often, they would only obey when they saw a spectacular act from the Lord. So our text says, "Jews demand miraculous signs."

Many today want a spectacular God. Have you ever been asked, "Does your church speak in tongues? Does your church have miracles? Healings?" And the impression is that if we don’t, well, we aren’t quite a spiritual as they. Like the Jews, they demand miraculous signs. And do they have a point? Where are the SPECTACULAR acts today???

I’m sorry for doing this, but I just have to talk about my daughter. I love her so much. What an odd thing this love is! I mean, Alethia is 14 months old. She has never done anything for me: never made my bed, cooked a meal, given me a birthday present, and yet she along with my wife are the dearest people in the world to me. But do you know what is even more amazing? Not the love that I have for her, but the love that I know she has for me. Again, here is someone who can’t talk, bathe herself, get herself up onto the couch...but every day without fail, she is able to express love to her parents.

If this love between a parent and child is amazing, how much more spectacular and stunning is the love that the Heavenly Father has for us, sinful wayward children, totally undeserving of that love! Yes, there is power in the cross: the power of God’s love.

But the world doesn’t have a clue about this power. I haven’t gone to see the movie yet; Val and I will see it tomorrow. But I almost feel as if I have seen it, based on all the things I’ve read about it. And it stuns me (I guess it shouldn’t) what those who are perishing write about The Passion. One Newsweek article that I saw this past week was written by a self-proclaimed non-Christian. And the article is entitled, "So What’s the Good News?" The author can’t find any good news in the story of a man who was kangaroo-courted into being beaten, whipped, and crucified to death. "SO WHAT’S THE GOOD NEWS?" the world asks. But they forget that the cross wasn’t good news for Jesus. All this wasn’t supposed to be good news for Christ! He was the one who got the raw deal. The cross was bad news to him. The good news...is for human beings, who realize that it should have been you and me up there, being forsaken by God, being assaulted by Satan again and again for all eternity. The good news - The Power of the Cross - is that we sinners are spared that, because God in his spectacular love punished his Son instead, and Jesus in his stunning love willingly carried out his Father’s plan.