“… The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day.” (Luke 9:22)
In large measure the genius of the gospel is the necessity of the cross. Death must be embraced, welcomed, moved toward with the confident expectation that a better, more glorious life awaits on the other side. Resentment towards all those Satan would use to darken our existence must be relinquished. They don’t know what they do, but Father knows how to use it for good and glory in the life of His beloved.
How long does it take for even the Lord’s saints to recognize and accept their own unique cross? The cross cannot be embraced where there is anger or self-pity. It cannot be endured when it is seen only as an evil thing of injustice. The cross profits us little if it is only an abstract, theological concept. We fully apprehend the benefit of Christ’s cross only as we take up our own.
The cross is not an end; it is the means to God and His glory. Christ’s suffering brought us to God; our suffering brings God to us in the fullest measure. The cross is where the glory of God in one Man was revealed. But God did not intend for such glory to solely be seen upon His Son. Christ suffered to bring many sons to glory.
Will we like Paul count all things loss to gain Christ? Do we want to know Him by being made conformable to His death? Such conformity goes far beyond the physical pain of a dark afternoon. The cross was the culmination of a life of despising and rejection. From the beginning, Jesus was not given His due – in His own home; from His own brothers; in His own town; finally, from His own people. In His suffering and death He was repudiated by men, even those closest to Him. Judas betrays. Peter disassociates. The rest distance themselves. He hangs on the cross as an object of scorn and ridicule, not primarily from the Romans, who we can say were, “Just doing their job,” but from His brethren, His kinsmen, Israel according to the flesh. He is Joseph – unknown, unrecognized, unappreciated, by those who ought to be the closest to Him. Is this not the essence of the cross? To be despised and rejected by our own, especially those nearest and dearest to us?
Will we truly apprehend Christ? Then we must have a cross. Where we find it, we must embrace it; saying: “Yes, I am not loved, as I would be loved; I am not honored, as I should be honored – but, I accept the situation, with patience, as the means Father would use to perfect the image of His Son in me.”
Don’t expect to find your cross on some far off mission field. The cross is more commonly and most exquisitely experienced close to home. Count it all joy though, because glory is also close at hand.