A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE CROSSAs we view the cross, we see in the person of Christ possibilities. We see promise. We see the light of His glory as we stand before the cross and view the reality of our eternity among the angels and saints.
We see on the horizontal plank His outstretched hands. “Come unto me,” He gently implores. “Any who will may come.” Thus, we name this plank Hope: I hope my husband will be saved. A friend hopes her child will be healed. My children hope they will be able to stay in a Christian school.
In contrast, a plank crosses the center of Hope’s plank and calls itself Faith. Faith is anchored deep into the earth for it is mankind who is called upon to have this faith. Yet it pushes upward and looks upward toward heavenly possibilities. Because of it we say, “I believe my husband can be saved, my child may be healed, my children will probably continue at their school.”
But there exists the back of the cross. A place to explore other possibilities: My husband may not choose to accept Christ as his Lord; my child may not be healed during this lifetime; we may have to remove the girls and put them in another school. We do not like these possibilities – but we must acknowledge that they are there. When we journey to the back of the cross, we must remember to take with us our back-pack marked Romans 8:28 and know that though these things seem grievous to us, God is allowing what we will ultimately see is for our best.
In this dark shadow of the cross we see the murkiness of the world – child abuse, abortion, rape, starvation, demons, false religions, horror, prostitution, insanity. We must move swiftly back to the front of the cross.
But having made this trip, we again see the Christ of possibilities and with it perhaps we can notice more. We see upon His face the suffering, the anguish and the awful price that He chose to pay for us. It is here for us to choose: do we want nearness to Christ deeply enough to long to embrace his sufferings? Do we, like Paul, seek to fellowship in those sufferings? Or do we only want the “fun” part of Christ: the hallelujahs, the blessings, the riches?
Let us not forget that just as we know disappointments, just as things don’t always go the way we want, God, too, knows disappointment. And things don’t even always go His way either. What disappointment in our lives can match His longing for all to come to repentance, His desiring for not even one to perish? Yet the many will follow the broad path that leads to destruction and the few will find the narrow path to eternal life.
Our heartaches are small compared to the eternal destruction of souls that God created to glorify Himself. He gives us choices to determine the outcome. He gives us possibilities to stand before the cross, the view it at all angles and to embrace the suffering along with the Savior.