Tonight in church we thought about the cross.

I tried a bit of interactive teaching rather than a straight forward sermon. I thought this would be more useful to the people there than just to hear my views on the significance of the cross.

So, after a brief introduction where I asked ‘When was the last time you took time to think what the cross is all about?’, I set 4 questions on the OHP:

and then gave people the chance to interact with each other and discuss ‘the cross’ in groups.

The whole service seemed to go well, with a real atmosphere of expectation and serious enquiry, with people coming up wth some really quite interesting stuff. Some of the points made I had thought too and would have preached about if I did the straight talk. There were lots of points, though, that had not occured to me, and so would not have been shared with those there. This is why I like interactive teaching so much.

I have tried to outline some of the thoughts of the congregation below:

We all agreed that the cross was the crux of our faith and that the main reason for Jesus coming to earth was to die on the cross. The cross shows God’s tremendous love for us. Jesus needed to die, but he could have chosen a more direct method. Crucifixion was a long drawn out and painful way to die. We also wondered when Jesus realised he was going to the cross. In one sense he is God so he always knew. That gave us thought of Jesus as a young boy … how on earth did he cope with that knowledge while he was growing up?

Without the cross we could not have a relationship with God. We would be cut off.

My good friend Chris shared something I had never thought of. She helped us to remember that during the crucifixion God was there watching. What must have been going through his head knowing he could stop it, but knowing he could not if we were to have the possibility of a relationship with him. We cannot begin to imagine the pain God felt as he looked on upon the agony of Jesus on the cross. I remembered when, as a GYFC team, we went to see The Passion of Christ that some of the team were in tears and had to leave the cinema. Did God look away, or did he force himself to watch? As a father who loves his children all I know is that is must have been agonising for God to even know that his son was in pain and suffering.

There were many other ideas, and I have these on a mind map which I put together before the service and have posted below. I’m guessing it will be too small to read,but at the mo I do not know how else to post it.

So, what does all of this about the cross mean to us. What are the implications?

I think the knowledge of the cross means that it should have a dramatic effect on my life as a Christian. In 1 Peter 2 verse 21 it says ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. The word used here for example is hupogrammos which refers to example in the sense of copying carefully, such as in old handwriting lessons at school.

We are to imitate the example of Jesus in living a selfless life, by putting the love of others before our own interests, by going the extra mile – not because it looks good, or because we feel we should; but because we want to out of our overwhelming love and gratitude towards God.

To go full circle … when was the last time you took time to think about the cross – reflecting on the meaning more often will surely start to transform our lives.