trazendoenglish

John 3:14-15; Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.

After many years, many conferences and many trips, I have discovered something rather sad and frightening; so many beautiful churches full of so many “visions” and methods yet there is almost always something lacking. Do you know what it is? A cross, yes, a simple cross.

I find it incredible that the majority of Christian churches today no longer have a cross in them. This for me is rather strange if not down right disturbing. Where is the cross I ask you? I remember back years ago to a certain, obnoxious commercial involving an old, half deaf woman, who in reference to fast food restaurants other than Wendy’s would yell, “Where’s the beef?!?” referring to the amount of soy used in their burgers and the lack of actual meat. If it’s a hamburger, where’s the beef? So, indulge me, allow me to be that hard-of-hearing old woman today and yell, “Where’s the cross?!?

Is it that perhaps the cross is no longer significant? Is it no longer relevant in our modern world? If you stop to study your Bible, you will see that beginning with Adam and passing on to Abraham, Moses, David, and the prophets, all pointed towards one person, Jesus, and all pointed towards one thing, his death; his death on a cross.

Without argument, Jesus is the most important figure in the history of the world and the cross, the most important. The cross is the reason that Jesus came.

Jesus without a cross is like an ocean without water; it doesn’t work, the two go together. No cross... no salvation. No cross... no hope. No cross... no Christianity.

The cross is all that humanity needed and needs. It wasn’t just a perfect, sinless man, but his death, his bloody death on a cross.

Hebrews 9:22; In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

We were bought with His blood. It was His death that the Father required. It’s all about Him and it all has to do with His cross. So please tell me, how is it that we no longer have crosses in our churches? 

The thing I find most insane is that we have removed the crosses on purpose. It was not some mistake or oversight, it was something thought out, deliberate, debated, and decided. Think about that. Imagine a group of church leaders sitting around discussing whether or not they should leave the cross in the church or remove it. Worse than that, they actually decided to take it out. What pure insanity! How could someone actually think that the church would be better without the cross? Is it possible that they prayed about it and that God actually told them to take it out?

And now, we put anything in the church that is not a cross. Huge, expensive banners declaring our “vision”, Stars of David, Israeli flags, glass pulpits, flowers, paintings, whatever, but we don’t put a cross.

Convincing the church to remove the cross has been Satan’s biggest joy and perhaps greatest victory in recent times.

A church without a cross is like a bar without beer. It doesn’t make sense.

Imagine a visitor entering into a church and being taken back by the beauty of it all yet seeing no cross. Talk about strange. He wouldn’t know if he was in a church or the lobby of the local Hyatt Regency. Of course, maybe that’s the point. Yet still I protest. We need to bring back the cross and not only a physical cross, but sermons about the cross.

We preach about a lot of things today, prosperity, blessings, restoration, everything we want to hear, and everything that tickles our ears and pleases our flesh. Yet let me ask you, if you are not “blessed” or “prosperous”, will you walk away, will you leave Him? Is it for this that we follow and serve Him? Since when did Christianity represent these things? When did Christianity lose the eternal focus and fall into the pit of temporal “blessings”? Was it for a new car or house that Jesus died for you? I think not.

The early church understood well the sacrifice and suffering that the cross represented. Maybe we do too. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe it’s this gospel of suffering and sacrifice that we want nothing to do with and for that alone we have removed the cross. We want our blessings and nothing more. We don’t want to suffer. We wrongly think and have been taught that Jesus suffered so that we don’t have to. To that I say, yes and no. He suffered so that we don’t have to suffer in hell, the penalty for our sins, but he also promised that we would suffer as His followers. If He suffered, so will we. If He was rejected, so will we be. This “bless me” gospel is not Christianity! It is unbridled selfishness and egotistical. So, please tell me, “Where is the cross?”

It saddens me every time that I enter into a church and see it decorated with colorful banners declaring their “vision”; their vision that ends up being nothing more than disguised idolatry. 

“Are you in the vision?” ask some...what worthless chatter. It’s just another golden calf waiting to be ground into dust. It makes one want to scream, “It’s not for this that Jesus died!” Jesus didn’t die for any vision other than the one that has to do with reaching the lost in this world.

You can say whatever you want about “your vision”, but as soon as you start spending more time talking about “your vision” than the cross, you have an idol in your midst and that it is what we are seeing in the churches today; a lot of golden calves. It’s something so common that hardly anybody even notices anymore. We have thoroughly confused human visions and strategies with the gospel. But, the two are not the same. Again I ask you, “Where is the cross?” 

We need more sermons about the cross, other than Easter week, communion Sunday, or at the end of the service right before the “invitation”. It’s the cross that transforms. It’s the message of the cross that saves. We have to bring the cross back to our churches!

Leaving the church for a moment, let’s take a look at out own personal lives and the result therein of having taken the cross out of our churches and pulpits. Allow me to ask you, “How many times this week have you stopped your busy life in order to meditate on the cross? How many times this week have you thanked Jesus for having died there? 

My friend, it’s sad when we own up to the truth in our own lives. For many of us, the cross and what it represents is nothing more than a one time decision made to “give our lives to Jesus”. And beyond that, we have basically forgotten what it’s all about. I’m not trying to be facetious, rather, very serious. We live our normal lives chasing after temporal comforts and pleasures and essentially forgetting the most important thing: Christ and His cross. It shouldn’t be this way. It can’t be this way. 

So, why should we remember the cross?

The cross reminds us of Jesus death.

The cross reminds us that we are forgiven.

The cross reminds us that we are not our own and that we were bought at a very high price.

The cross reminds us that we were set free from the power of sin.

The cross reminds us that He loves us.

The cross reminds us of our reason for living; to win souls.

The cross reminds us of who we are and how we should act.

The cross reminds us that He is invincible and is coming back.

We need to keep the cross constantly before us. We need to see and remember it daily. We need to bring the cross back into our lives. Without the cross, there is no holiness. Without the cross, there is no reason for life. Without the cross, there is no relationship with God. 

The cross is a whole lot more than just some ancient symbol. It is the price that Christ paid in order to save us and something that we cannot risk losing. The cross represents our salvation, our pardon, our freedom, the cure, a new life. We can’t just throw it away for fear that someone may idolize it. I find it ridiculous how some evangelicals won’t wear a cross around their neck, yet wear a Star of David, although they are not Jewish, as though it holds some magical power. I have nothing against the Star of David being that my savior was Jewish, but, let’s check back into the sane world for a minute and realize that the Star of David will save no one. Nobody died on a star. What we really need to do is admit that the Star of David is nothing more than a fashion trend in the Christian word that doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with the Christian life. But the cross is everything that we are. 

A lot of people don’t wear a cross for fear of being thought to be Catholic. Let’s grow up a little here. If a Catholic identifies with the cross like I should, great. What’s the problem? Say what you want, but I know a few “Catholics” that are whole lot more “Christian” than a lot of “Evangelicals”. We need to remind ourselves that it’s not a church that is going to save anyone, not a vision, but Jesus Christ who died on a cross. And this cross we need to always be putting before us. It’s our salvation and commission.

“Take up your cross and follow me.”

We need to bring back the cross.

Pr Jeff Fromholz