The Cross: stupid or stupendous?

Here's my article for the April magazines:

The Stations of the Cross is an meditation on Jesus' journey from his trial to his burial, and some of the events involve him meeting various people including the women of Jerusalem, Simon of Cyrene and his mother, Mary. A production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Liverpool Empire that I saw many years ago, started with that journey and on the way Jesus met Judas, with a television news crew. Judas sang to Jesus “Why d'you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? / If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation. / Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication.” The irony, intentional or not, being that even though he chose “such a backward time” he's still being worshipped and followed today.

Judas also expresses some common questions about Jesus' death: “Every time I look at you I don't understand / Why you let the things you did get so out of hand. / … Did you mean to die like that? Was that a mistake?” The answer to that question is found in Matthew 16:21, which records that “Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”

But knowing that Jesus willingly went to his death without a fight and without going down in a 'blaze of glory' just raises more questions – it seems to be a foolish and weak way to die. Paul tells us “This so-called “foolish” plan of God is far wiser than the wisest plan of the wisest man, and God in his weakness—Christ dying on the cross—is far stronger than any man” (1 Corinthians 1:25 The Living Bible). However, this can only be seen if you understand why Jesus died.

The wisdom of the world is that if you're good enough you will go to heaven, and that Jesus came to teach us to be better. If this is true, then his death was foolish and weak as it achieved nothing except depriving the world of more years of his teaching and example. However the problem is not that we're not good enough for heaven but that we can never be good enough for heaven. Isaiah spoke about Jesus, about 700 years before he was born saying “We—every one of us—have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!” (Isaiah 53:6 The Living Bible). Jesus took the punishment that we deserve for our sins and in doing so defeated death itself. His death may look foolish and weak, but he knew it was the only solution to our estrangement from God.

The cross silences all of our human pretensions. If we think we are clever enough or good enough for God the cross will seem to be weak and foolish. However when we recognise we can never save ourselves by our own efforts, the cross becomes powerful and wise, for through it God rescues the people he loves.

P.S. Details of this year's Stations of the Cross service can be found here: https://en-gb.facebook.com/events/407736576626486/

Picture credits:
Top image by congerdesign from pixabay.com
Explanation of pictures: “We all saw what Jesus did both in Israel and in the city of Jerusalem.  Jesus was put to death on a cross. But three days later, God raised him to life and let him be seen. Not everyone saw him. He was seen only by us, who ate and drank with him after he was raised from death.” (Acts 10:39-41)
Bottom image by Ben Steed from heartlight.org

Christmas Songs: 'I believe in Father Christmas'

A couple of years ago during Advent we had a series on the four songs of the first Christmas.  This year we're going to look at four popular Christmas songs.  This week it's “I believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake.

This is an odd song to be a Christmas favourite because is really an anti-Christmas song.  The singer recalls he was told the dream of Christmas and then remembers his disappointment and disillusionment when he finds that Christmas is not what he was promised.  And perhaps this is why this song is so popular, because it mirrors our own experiences of Christmas.  Everywhere we look we seem images of the perfect Christmas: perfectly white snow, perfectly cooked food, perfectly behaved family, perfectly chosen presents, but the reality is usually not quite so perfect!  The post-Christmas blues are not just caused by exhaustion and over-indulgence, but also by a sense of sadness that yet again Christmas didn't live up to the dream we'd been sold.

The song ends on a very chilling note: “the Christmas we get we deserve”.  In some ways this is obvious; if we want the world to be a better place we have to try our hardest to make it better.  But it also taps into a modern idea of 'karma', i.e. that if you do something bad then something bad will happen to you.  We sometimes see on social media a sort of glee as people look forward to karma getting revenge on someone who's harmed them.  But we know this isn't the way the world works.  We know that bad things happen to 'good' people and that good things happen to 'bad' people.  One biblical writer puts it this way: “it made me jealous to see proud and evil people and to watch them prosper...all goes well for them, and they live in peace. What good did it do me to keep my thoughts pure and refuse to do wrong? I am sick all day, and I am punished each morning” (Psalm 73:3,12-14 CEV).

Ironically, the modern concept of karma neither reflects reality nor does it correspond to the traditional understanding of karma.  In Hindu philosophy all karma is bad, it is like a debt that we all have.  Life is about doing good things to work off that debt and if we have worked off more karma than we accrue, when we die we are reincarnated as a better form of life. (Conversely if we increase our karma by doing bad we are reincarnated as a lower form of life).  The aim is to work off all our karma until we reach a state of nirvana, or non-existence.

It is the 'Israelite' of Lake's song that instead of being a fairy story is actually the answer to this problem, but first we need to recognise that actually all of us are 'bad' people.  Jesus said “No-one is good, except God alone” (Mark 10:18).  The Bible agrees that our badness or sin is like a debt, but it acknowledges that we cannot pay this debt off ourselves because we will always sin.  It also tells us that “We die only once, and then we are judged.  So Christ died only once to take away the sins of many people. But when he comes again, it will not be to take away sin. He will come to save everyone who is waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27-28 CEV).  Sin and evil will be judged and punished when Jesus comes again, but those who ask God to forgive their sins and then seek to live his way will be saved.

And what is the biblical picture of salvation? “On this mountain the Lord All-Powerful will prepare for all nations a feast of the finest foods. Choice wines and the best meats will be served” (Isaiah 25:6 CEV).  “God’s home is now with his people. He will live with them, and they will be his own. Yes, God will make his home among his people. He will wipe all tears from their eyes, and there will be no more death, suffering, crying, or pain. These things of the past are gone forever” (Revelation 21:3-4 CEV).  Sounds like the perfect Christmas to me!