In the Cross of Christ I Glory (Hymnal 441)

This seems to be the strangest thing about Christianity – that we claim for the enter of our faith an event of darkness and pain and death. And there is plenty of darkness, pain and death in human life already. 

Yet in the cross we see much more. We see victory because we see our God loving us through thick and thin. 

The Cross is no accident in two senses. It is no accident that we sinful men and women reject and destroy the very best that we are ever given, by placing the Lord of Glory on the gibbet of the Cross. 

But even more, it is no accident that this is where our Lord in his love for us places himself. 

God loves us so much that he sends his only son into the world not to condemn the world but that the world may be saved through him. (John 3:16) Because he loves us he takes all sin upon himself and suffers it, his arms stretched out to embrace us anyway.

Seeing the result of our sin and still seeing a loving welcome, we can allow our hearts to break and come to him to be forgiven, to be loved and loved and loved. 

This is the victory. This is the glory. This Love never stops, no matter what. Our sin is taken away, no matter what. We can now live for God as his new people.

Furthermore, we know that this is not simply our one last chance. If it were, we would be really lost because we know we stumble again and again. We hurt ourselves and we hurt other people in inexcusable ways. Yet he loves us. He suffers for us. He calls us back to him to be cleansed again, to start again.

Even more, this Cross makes some sense of our own pain. We are hurt by other. Especially when we love, we are hurt. The danger is that we will retreat into our shells, trying to escape the inescapable. With Christ and in Christ the pain we cannot avoid can be allowed and healed so that it does not poison us or get reflected out to hurt others. We can stay open, reaching out to other people, knowing our own sin and need for forgiveness. 

In the Cross of Christ I Glory

It looks like the end but it is in fact the beginning. It is the beginning of a gentler, more accepting life in which we know that we are loved and accepted and can learn through what we suffer to love and accept others.