A Lenten Meditation

Only the dead can be resurrected.

Only Jesus can resurrect the dead.

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me,and where I am, my servant will also be. My father will honor the one who serves me..." (John 12:24-26)

Dietrich Bonfhoeffer wrote in his book The Cost of Discipleship, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." This isn't a popular view for human beings, muchless Americans, muchless American Protestant evangelicals. We don't want to suffer. If we have to have them, we want our crosses empty and clean. We want to serve Christ yet follow our own selfish desires, and we want to follow those selfish desires rather than see them crucified. But if we want to have Christ's mind and heart, they inevitably must be crucified; indeed, they will be crucified. We can expect it.

He was a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering (Isaiah 53:3)

So the only we can we can serve Christ (and not some other pretender) is to follow Him. And the only way to follow him is to be where He is. So we can't skip the part of the story where He goes to the cross. (Pretenders can, but we can't).

But look, its not an ordinary person on the rood--it is the Son of God!

So don't just have hope. Have hope in Jesus.
Don't just have peace. Have peace in Jesus.
Don't just have faith. Have faith in Jesus.

Its a paradox: turn your face to the cross, and you'll find life; and the life you will lead will be cruciform, like His.

In Him was life, and that light was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4-5)