By The Way Of The Cross

“Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so we would stop living for sin and start living for what is right.  And you are healed because of his wounds.”  I Peter 2:24

Holy Week – the week from Palm Sunday to Resurrection/Easter Sunday – was filled with worship, praise, emotions, memories, and the essence of the Christian faith.  The journey began with the birth of Jesus.  God became flesh and lived among us.  Jesus came to fulfill the purpose of redemption knowing he came to die for our sins.  It was a journey.

The journey that began at the manger, goes through the cross and ends with the empty tomb.  These are the Christian symbols for the journey.  The manger represents the birth of Jesus.  God becoming flesh and being born as a baby.  God coming to be with us.  The baby, Jesus, grows up and begins a ministry by choosing twelve disciples.  Jesus’ journey is recorded in the Bible in the four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Jesus is a teacher and a healer.  For some people, that is all they know and that’s enough.

But the journey is not complete, and it is not enough.  God had a greater purpose and plan.  The world is fallen, broken, and sinful.  God is a righteous and just God who is also loving and merciful.  There needed to be a perfect sacrifice to make humanity right before God.  God became human to pay the penalty for sin that humanity could not pay.  The journey goes through Good Friday.  Jesus died on the cross for the sins of all humanity.  The sins of the world were nailed to the cross, and through Jesus’ death, all humanity is granted forgiveness when they accept the gift of grace and mercy.  Jesus dies, but that is not the end of the journey.

Easter is Resurrection Sunday.  The tomb is empty.  Jesus conquered death and the separation of humanity from God.  Jesus is the bridge.  Easter is the celebration of Jesus being alive.  He walked out of the tomb.  There is victory over sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus.  The journey is not over, because of this victory, humanity has the hope of eternal life in Heaven with Jesus.  This is not the end. It is part of the journey home.  Easter gives the hope of new life in Jesus. 

Salvation comes by way of the cross.  It is nothing we have done to earn it or deserve it.  The words spoken by Jesus to the thief on the cross reveal that the work is done by Jesus.  The thief says to Jesus, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  And Jesus replies, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”  The thief has done nothing to merit Heaven.  But the thief knows he is a sinner and Jesus is the Savior who is going to Heaven.  A simple but profound confession of faith.

At the Good Friday service, one song has stayed in my head “By The Way of The Cross” – the words of the thief on the cross are sung as he enters Heaven –

“I have come by the way of the cross.  It is nothing I have done.  It’s the suffering of God’s Son.  I have come by the way of the cross.  I have nothing to claim but my guilt and my shame.  I was hopelessly lost and could not find my way.  ‘Til His glorious light of love shone down on me.  His mercy washed all my sin away.  And what He did for me that day was a price I know He paid.  By His grace, I too can say, forever say, I have come by the way of the cross.”

Each of us come by the way of the cross.  We are not good enough on our own.  Yes, people have good in them, but Heaven and eternal life is not based on how much good we have done to earn it.  We live in a society of measurements and rewards.  If you do the right things and enough of them – you receive recognition.  Scholarships, bonuses, promotions, being appointed or accepted, is based on what you have accomplished.  Someone makes a judgment and accepts or rejects you. 

God paid the price He knew we could not pay.  It was through the cross.  We sin, we make mistakes, we mess up, and we can never be good enough nor perfect to overcome them and be right in the eyes of a righteous and just God.  That is why God does it for us.  All the sins that have every been done or will ever be committed were nailed to the cross – absorbed by Jesus – and he paid the penalty for all our sin.  That is salvation.

We, like the thief on the cross are accepted through God’s grace and mercy when we admit our sin and acknowledge Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Therefore, we can sing -

“We have come by the way of the cross.  We have come by the way of the cross. It is nothing we have done.  It’s the suffering of God’s Son.  We have come by the way.  There is no other way, but the cross.”