Martinsville, Virginia ~ Pastor's Page
In the last two Christmas programs, our kids have sung a song with the title above. Now, in Adult Sunday School, we are using some thoughtful material called “Making Sense of the Cross.”
No doubt about it, the cross deserves to be the emblem and icon of our faith. Jesus died on a cross, a symbol of torture and oppression, and rose to life again. And, God’s act of raising him
from such a terrible death has completely changed the meaning this symbol once had.
After Jesus resurrection, his disciples had to rethink everything they had previously thought about who God was and how he acted. Jesus,the one who was surely God’s chosen messiah,whom his disciples had called the Son of God,had died. Wasn’t death, especially an accursed death hanging on a tree, a sign of failure and not
of God’s blessing? But, the resurrection turned all of this upside down. There was Jesus, alive and among them, showing them his side and sending them out to tell others that God was doing a new
thing.
The suffering of the cross, the impossible resurrection from the dead, and Jesus own teachings after his resurrection caused the disciples to go back to their scriptures and look again for the things that they had missed.
What did it mean that God used his unequalled power to surrender his messiah to death and raise him up again? They began to understand that God was doing what we could not---healing the broken relationship between us.
Prof. David Lose, who wrote the book we are using, said that every major Christian thinker, beginning with the apostle Paul, has spent considerable time pondering what God was doing in the cross. The answers they came up with are called theories of atonement, a word
constructed from “at one” and the suffix “-ment.” The
cross reunited God and human beings despite our sinfulness.
Various people have talked about atonement in different ways. For instance, what exactly did Jesus mean when he said “the Son of Man
came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”? (Mark 10:44) Who was holding us captive and why did a
ransom have to be paid?
In John’s gospel, Jesus speaks of his crucifixion and resurrection as being “lifted up” so that people may believe in him (John 3:13
and 12:32). What did he mean when he used this kind of poetic language?
In Romans 5:8-9, Paul wrote “But, God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Much more
surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved from the wrath of God.” What kind of God would sacrifice his son to save other people and why would God make such a demand?
For Martin Luther, understanding the God he saw in the death and resurrection of Jesus was the key for him to know God for his grace and love, rather than his power and his wrath at our sinfulness.
Join us in adult Sunday school as we take a deep and awe-inspiring look at the heart of God revealed in the cross. -Pr. Lynn Bechdolt
|
1527 Church Street Extension (across from Wilson Park)
Mailing Address: PO Box 5184, Martinsville, VA 24115
Voice: (276) 632-4677
(Fax on demand)
htlcmva@hotmail.com
