Easter, Jesus, and the Cross-My Costly Salvation

I was driving through "town" yesterday (using that loosely, as in-through one of the metro suburbs) when I passed a church with an "Easter display" right out front, right on the road. On first glance, that was all I thought about it. But then I looked again, and I was struck by the inappropriateness of it. Or maybe it was just wrong. Or something...

What was it? It was a plywood type cutout, in color, of Jesus carrying his cross. So, you ask, what could be wrong with that? Nothing on the surface. Perfectly applicable for Easter week. Except for the details.

Jesus...this was (as my friend WT often refers to him) the Anglo-Saxon Jesus. A clean, white, pale complected, blue-eyed Jesus. He was wearing a fresh, clean, nicely pressed white tunic with the obligatory blue cloak. His hair was nicely brushed and hanging in pretty waves down his back and over his shoulders.

He was kneeling down on one knee. I am sure this is to indicate the weight of the cross. But he looked so serene, as if he were actually kneeling to look at something that had caught his attention on the ground. His face was relaxed, not at all disturbed or concerned. His hands were folded gently on the cross. And on his head, adorning his neatly brushed hair was a crown of....something. It looked like a crown of ivy, or maybe a daisy chain.

It struck me, in the few seconds it took me to notice all this, that THIS is part of the problem with the church today. Not a church, not a particular local body, but the Church at large. Christians have cleaned Jesus up, made him something they can be comfortable with. And in the process, they have lost who He is and have failed to relay that reality to others.

People, I hate to break this to you, but the walk to Golgotha, carrying that cross, was UGLY. Jesus was dirty and bleeding. His flesh was torn. He was bruised and in pain. He was almost naked. ("Gasp!" said all the nice church ladies.) His hair hung dirty and sweaty and blood soaked. That crown was a crown of thorns, digging into his scalp. The cross was unbearably heavy. He was weak and tired and half-dead.

The Church doesn't like that image, because it isn't comfortable with the fact that our salvation cost something. It cost Jesus his life. It was expensive. And it costs us something. That is the problem, I think. Something that doesn't cost much is easy to dismiss. It's easy to put aside, disregard, put away when it isn't convenient. On the other hand, something that is costly requires something of us. It requires our attention. It required our devotion. It COSTS us something.

My salvation was costly. It was extravagant. It requires my complete devotion and all that I am. Jesus gave His life for me. My salvation requires that I give my life to Him.

Sequence

I spent the weekend with my family. Yes, my immediate family of Kearsdad, Kat, and Banana as well as our extended Solid Ground family. It was Winter Retreat weekend, and our whole family got to participate for the first time. This was Banana's first Student Retreat, and her first trip with the whole student ministry AS a student and not as a tag-a-long! What a blessing to watch my girls learn and worship and play with their friends and church family.

An added blessing was that I got to be small group leader to Kat and her group of bffs. These were mostly girls that I have watched grow up together. How precious it was to listen to them share their hearts and grow in God's love. We ended out small group time together by allowing some of them to share their testimonies with each other. INCREDIBLE!

Our Bible Study title was Sequence, and it was a study of the blueprint for the Christian walk as described by Jesus: "Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me." How do you teach 14 year old girls to deny themselves? How do you teach adults to deny ourselves? We are by nature selfish people. The good news is that if we know Christ, we have a NEW nature and through Christ we have the power to do what it takes to deny ourselves. Jesus left his will in the Garden of Gethsemane when he said, "Not my will, but yours be done." While salvation is free, discipleship has a cost. The call to personal holiness is going to mean sacrifice on our part.

The issue of holiness was an interesting part of our discussion. It seems most people, teenagers included think that holiness means being perfect. That, I think, is why so many people think that holiness is impossible to attain. But God would not call us to do something impossible. "Be holy because I am holy." Holiness isn't perfection, it is "other-ness". God is holy, that is, he is totally different and separate from anyone else. He calls us to be different, separate. The more we look like Christ, the more we act and think and walk like Christ, the more we become different from the world. If we are real disciples, others will see it in our lives and in our different-ness. If we aren't different enough to be noticed, then I daresay we are not living in holiness and are not attaining discipleship.

The next step in the sequence is taking up our cross. If you think teaching the idea of denying self is hard, try explaining what it means to take up a cross! One way I tried to approach this was by explaining that denying self is "not doing what you want to do", and taking up your cross is "doing what God wants you to do". Our cross is our identification with Christ. But as Americans, we have little understanding of real suffering. One would think teenagers who have never encountered anything harder than having to wait until they are 13 for a cell phone, or having to wait until their birthday for a new iPod, have no idea how to understand real suffering. But they are dealing with real issues. They attend school and interact with kids who have no Christian context at all. They deal with parents who fight, friends who see nothing wrong with alcohol or sex. They feel the pressure to fit in. They are inundated with images of the world on tv and in the movies and in their video games. To live for Christ in that environment is hard. But understanding the extreme suffering of Christ on our behalf makes our difficulties seem petty. On Saturday night, the kids came face to face with that idea as they participated in an interactive worship service that included a clip of The Passion of the Christ.

Finally, we talked about following Christ. Denying self and taking up a cross is hard stuff. But following Jesus brings real joy and peace. Not that it is easy. The path we follow is rocky and narrow. But life in Christ is full to overflowing. It is fun. It is beautiful. One of the things I pointed out to the girls is that Jesus wants to use them and their talents and abilities to glorify Himself. Following Jesus isn't something for adults only. I want teenagers to understand that Jesus wants to use them now, as they are, with their skills and talents, for His Kingdom.

Following Christ is the third step in the sequence. But it is not the last. As we move along the path of following Jesus, we will find ourselves-over and over-having to deny self and take up the cross. So the pattern is...Deny Yourself, Take Up Your Cross, Follow Jesus, Repeat.

Ballet Class

Last week was parent observation at Ballet. This was the first time Kearsdad and I have been able to sit in one of Banana's classes. We have watched through the window many days, but sitting in class gives you a much better idea of what is going on. As has been the case all year, we continue to be so glad we moved her to BMag. The training, both physical and spiritual, and the relationships are incredible.

Banana has entered a new world of ballet. She got her first pair of pointe shoes a couple of weeks ago. Learning to walk, stand, and stretch in pointe shoes is a whole new experience. And they haven't even thought about actually dancing in them! :) She has a long way to go before she's off and leaping in them, but she is enjoying learning. Who knew dancers used Duct Tape on their toes?? Thank goodness for brightly colored pretty Duct Tape!

Snow? Yes!

In February, of all times! For the last several years my girls, Kat in particular, has so badly wanted it to snow. All year long she would ask, "Do you think it will snow this year?" Well, last fall she declared that THIS would be the winter we saw snow. And she was right! Who knew?

We saw some snow in December. On the Friday night after our first Christmas Worship program, we walked out of church to see that it was snowing! What fun! We went to Junebug's mama's house and played in the snow for a while....yeah, in the dark. Who cared?

In January, we saw flurries a couple of times, and even had a little accumulation one day, but not much to speak of.

Then last week the forecasters started saying it was coming. I'll admit, it was a little hard to have too much faith in the forecast. After all, this is Mississippi! On Thursday we made the decision to postpone our student winter retreat because it looked like it was going to happen. Late that night, snow started falling. Still, I was skeptical...

But on Friday morning we woke up to this:


It was beautiful! I am so thankful for that day...but not just because it was pretty, or because we had a great family day, although those are both great things. I was thankful for the joy, for the childlike excitement that filled my house that morning. With two teenage girls, I don't get to see it that often anymore. For just a few hours, I had two little girls, oblivious to everything but the joy and fun around them. It's a memory I think I'll treasure for a long time.

Welcome to 2010!

I have become more and more aware this year of how many things I have to be thankful for. I have never been into the "New Year Resolution" routine, but I do remember last January 1 thinking that the one thing I wanted out of 2009 was to end the year closer to Jesus than when I started. I also set goals for myself as a mom, and one of those goals was to concentrate on helping my girls build their relationship with Christ as well. I think that my outlook on this past year has a lot to do with those goals.

You see, when you keep your focus on Jesus, your perspective changes. I really am more aware than ever that I am incredibly blessed. I have an awesome Savior. I am married to the world's most wonderful husband. I have precious daughters. We are blessed with some incredible friendships. We are part of the most wonderful church family in the world. I could go on and on...

And so, I look forward to 2010 and all it holds for us. I wish the same for you!