The Cross stands as the sign of the victory of love in spite of suffering.
The Cross is God the Father’s desire to reconcile the world to Himself. What God spared Abraham—the sacrifice of his own son—He did not withhold from Himself: He gave His Son, Jesus Christ. The Cross is Christ’s act of love on our behalf, even though He knew He would have to suffer for us.
That’s how deep the Father’s desire of reconciliation is—God wants to undo the sin that began with Adam and Eve. A sin that seems so simple to our minds: simply taking an apple in defiance. But really—it was the rejection of the Father’s will. And look at the punishment that came after: being cast out of the Garden of Eden. And yet that sin, over time, grew into a monstrous rebellion that placed seeds in every human heart. Seeds of concupiscence—that give us a tendency toward sin, a sense of rebellion, in which we freely choose to reject God.
The Cross is the most horrible vision of what rejection of God looks like.
Jesus knew He would be rejected. The Prologue of John’s Gospel says:
“He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11, NABRE). So, if he knew this, why then did He come? Because the Father loves the human race and desires to reconcile us to Himself in his Son. In spite of our rebellion, the Father still loves us. And that’s not just a throwaway line. It is not a platitude to say that the worst sinner in human history is still the subject of God’s love.
The Father, who loves infinitely, loves everyone infinitely. And His infinite love is His sincere desire for reconciliation. And so that nothing could stand between us and him, He sent his own Son, so that “He who did not know sin was made to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21, NABRE).
Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance” (Philippians 2:7)—so that we, who were born slaves, might be set free by His gift of life and love.
Jesus’s entire life—from His conception to the moment He died on the Cross—His entire life was an act of reconciling love. He, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, came to speak the truth people didn’t want to hear… to give the life that people wanted to live on their own terms… and to be the Way that many people walked away from.
And in spite of all that—Jesus still entered human history.
Jesus knew so well that He was going to suffer that He sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane. And He asked—He asked—that the Father’s will be that this cup pass Him by. But not His will, the Father’s will be done.
That means something! That means it was more important to Jesus to love us unto reconciliation—and suffer the Cross—than to avoid the Cross and leave us unreconciled.
The Letter to the Hebrews says:
“For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).
That joy—the joy that allowed Jesus to carry His Cross—was His love for His people and the reconciliation he knew his death would bring. Though many rejected him, still he knew many others would hear His voice and follow Him, precisely as the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
And so desirous was His reconciliation… that even when they rejected Him to the point of bloody death…He still did not give up His purpose of love for us.
To be Christian is to live the victory of the Cross even in the face of suffering.
And here in America, I believe we are in serious danger of not knowing how to suffer. We live in a culture in which many believe that the enemy of a good life is suffering. Just look at the commercials. It seems 60% of all commercials are either pharmaceuticals or health insurance. The message is loud and clear: you should feel no pain. And if you just buy this drug, everything will be fine. If you just have this insurance, your future will be secure. We are part of a culture that acts like suffering should never happen.
At a minimum our luxuries, within this wealthy society, make us soft. We live in the lap of luxury. Our couches, our houses, our cars, our clothes, our shoes, the food we eat. And if we’re perturbed in any way, we get so self-righteous. Whether it’s on the phone, or because a server didn’t bring the water fast enough—we get offended, we get annoyed.
But it goes deeper. Many within our culture will do immoral things to avoid suffering.
• Some parts of our society think that when people are suffering at the end of life, it’s a mercy to kill them. But human life is not less because people suffer. And suffering at any stage of life is not an impediment to a happy life. Suffering doesn’t destroy dignity. In fact, suffering can reveal dignity—because it gives us the chance to offer ourselves as a gift for others. Suffering does not diminish the dignity of the human person.
• Some want to avoid suffering at the beginning of life. Genetic testing is now being used to screen out children who might have a genetic “imperfection”. For example, Down syndrome births are going down—not because the disease is being cured, but because children with Down syndrome are being avoided through genetic testing. And yet, anyone who knows a child with Down syndrome knows—they are some of the most loving people in the world.
• Our Federal Government is reinstating capital punishment—as if it is OK to kill a person for criminal behavior, even though our society can well afford, and maintain, incarceration of such persons. We’ve somehow said, “If you’re bad enough, you deserve to die.” But Christ loves all persons—no matter how bad they are. And we should stand against the death of anyone, no matter how “deserving” we might think they are.
• And no matter where you are on the issue of immigration—our defiance against an illegal immigrant cannot merely be that they are a threat to our finances or our comfort. Many are fleeing horrible situations, and the very status of their immigration is its own form of suffering—suffering from displacement, uncertainty, and instability.
• Many of us try to avoid our suffering by numbing it—through addictions, bad habits, scrolling the internet, drinking, and distractions. We just try to numb life, as if life is too much to bear.
In contradiction to all of this we must remember: Jesus never promised us a life without a Cross. And there is no Cross without suffering. Now—don’t get me wrong—we are not masochists. We do not seek suffering. And when suffering can be alleviated, it should be alleviated. But Christ never offered us a life without pain. What He did offer was the transformation of pain. He proved that love is greater than the pain He experienced. And, when we suffer for others, we prove that love is greater than pain.
Jesus did all of this to reconcile us to the Father.
So here’s the question: Are we willing to suffer to be reconciled? How many broken homes … how many households … how many workplaces and friendships remain broken because someone refuses to suffer for the sake of reconciliation? God suffered unto death to reconcile us to Himself. So we, too, must be willing to suffer—even unto death—to be reconciled to one another.
We must carry our own Cross, because the Cross is the sign of the victory of love in spite of suffering. For when we, as Christians, unite our sufferings to the Cross, those suffering “fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, on behalf of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24, NABRE). In him, our sufferings become effective for the reconciliation of the world.
So, as we hear the narrative of Christ carrying His Cross and dying on the Cross, let us remember the words He spoke: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24, NABRE).
He who suffered to prove to us His love, now invites us to, like Him, love others in spite of suffering.
This, then, is the victory of the Cross in our own lives.
Father Jarrod Lies, Pastor