Today's Reading: John 12:20-33
Daily Lectionary: 2 Chronicles 33:1-25; Colossians 1:24-2:7
Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. (John 12:24)
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. We take the cross for granted, as if it's not an awful symbol of death. What if the main symbol of Christianity were an electric chair or hangman's noose, or a guillotine, or a lethal injection needle? Would that be weird? The cross is exactly that: a means of execution—and a painful and awful execution at that! It's a symbol of death.
Perhaps the reason we cherish the cross as the symbol of the Christian faith is that no matter how awful, evil, painful, and terrible that death of Jesus was on that Cross, its purpose and what it accomplished was to save us from our sins, to rescue us from eternal judgment and to give us everlasting life. In other words, what was an instrument of torture and death, God Himself turned into the symbol of salvation and life.
A cross seems like a bad thing, but Jesus turns it into Good News. Jesus, obeying His Father, submitted Himself to the shame and agony of that Roman Cross in order to save you. That's not a call to feel sorry for Jesus or guilty He had to do that for you. It's simply the confession of faith that by His death, Jesus saves you.
That Cross shows up in our lives as Christians. It's traced upon you in Holy Baptism. It's put before your eyes when your pastor absolves you. It's again set before you when being dismissed from the meal of salvation at the Lord's altar. Even our churches are often built to make the Cross and what Jesus did upon it the center of our life and worship. Not only do we have many crosses in church, but the font, altar, pulpit and lectern, the main parts of the sanctuary, are often arranged so that they form the shape of a cross. The cross is the symbol of our salvation for it was upon the Cross that Jesus died to bring forgiveness and life to you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Faithful cross, true sign of triumph, Be for all the noblest tree; None in foliage, none in blossom, None in fruit thine equal be; Symbol of the world's redemption, For the weight that hung on thee! ("Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle: LSB 454, st. 4)
Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor René Castillero