What Are We Going To Do With All This Love?

What Are We Going To Do With All This Love?

“So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha).25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,[b] here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.” John 19:17, 25-27

Intro: The parents of a ten year old son was failing math in public school.

After exhausting all efforts they decided to enroll their son into a private Catholic school.

The first day of school the youngster stormed home

walked right past them,

charged straight to his room, and locked the door.

Two hours later, he emerged for a quick meal,

announced that he was studying,

and went straight back to his studies until bedtime.

This pattern continued until the end of the first quarter.

After school, the boy walked home with his report card,

He dropped the envelope on the family dinner table, and went straight to his room.

His parents cautiously opened the letter, and saw he had made straight A’s in the subject of MATH.

They rushed to his room.

"Was it the nuns?" the father asked. The boy only shook his head and said, "No."

"Was it the one-on-one tutoring? asked the mother.

Again, the boy shrugged, "No."

Was it the textbooks?

Was it the teacher?

"No, no, no." the son finally spoke.

"From the very first day of school, I knew that these folks were serious about math.

When I walked into the lobby, and I saw a guy nailed to giant PLUS sign, I knew they meant business!"

Today I want to talk about the theology of the cross.

The meaning of the cross is pure love.

This love is offered by Christ to a world that is desperately in need of a divine embrace:

The world needs a touch of hope, a touch of faith, the touch of love.

Imagine you are present in Jerusalem on the day Jesus was crucified.

You have heard of Jesus because he is well known.

You hear that Jesus is close by.

Would you have stood at the foot of the cross?

We sing the great old hymn – “Jesus, keep me near the cross…there a precious fountain.”

We sing about the nails and the suffering and the blood.

How near the cross would we have been if we were there to witness Gogotha?

At the cross the bible specifically mentions the soldiers who were in charge of the crucifixion of Jesus

There are also four women at the cross

and then there is the disciple John.

I. The soldiers were there out of duty, they had no heart for Jesus.

They were there because they were ordered to be there.

I recently talked to a mother

who said she had made her son go to church every Sunday up until he was 14 years old.

When he turned 14

he asked if he was old enough to make his own decision about whether to go to church or not.

His mother told him yes.

She said it was the last time he was ever in church.

Her son is now in his 30’s and is an alcoholic.

He suffers from bouts of depression.

This mother’s heart is breaking.

I have to wonder… did the church somehow fail this boy and this mother?

Many today go to church out of duty and call themselves good people and Christians

and have no real heart for it all.

Out of duty they hang the cross around their neck without true heart for the Son of God hanging on that cross.

Today's message is about these who were there out of love.

Most of His followers forsook Him and fled,

If they watched the crucifixion at all they watched it at a distance.

We know that many went into hiding.

Would you have hidden, unable to see what was going on?

Would you have watched from far away, gazing straight at that cross on the hill on the horizon?

Would you have look up at the cross and saw the face of Jesus?

If we were there at the foot of the cross, we would have heard things no one else did.

Hammer on nails.

The Centurion's whip.

A dense thud as the cross was dropped into a deep hole.

Intense, anguished moaning and screams of unfathomable pain.

Mocking and taunting.

Cursing and reviling.

We would hear 7 statements from the Christ so profound we could ponder each for a lifetime.