Lenten Devotional (18): The Wondrous Cross
Bad Eschatology and Bad Priests
Mark 15:21: Simon from Cyrene happened to be coming in from a farm, and they forced him to carry Jesus’ cross.
To live crucified lives is to live the life of Simon of Cyrene, who was compelled to bear the cross and later joined the mission of the Kingdom. Our calling sometimes comes in unexpected ways and times. It may come as you leave the parking lot of the church or wonder in the marketplace, but when the opportunity arises to serve the crucified Lord, we must be willing, even if compelled. We are to bow before the cross in order to bear it; we are to be prepared in season and out of season for the season of testing.
It is true that our hearts do not willingly submit to that blessed cross. Sometimes we are first compelled to bear it before we humbly desire its beauty and grace. Bearing the cross is no easy task. It is draining, tiring, and exhausting. Fathers and mothers, and friends know how hard it is to serve one another in the Name of Jesus when the cross comes at inconvenient times— when the future is uncertain. But it’s precisely at such times when this call makes the Lenten journey so compellingly engaging. We may not always want the cross, but no one has ever regretted a cruciform life.
Lent drains our dependence on self and calls us to look to Another for aid. As Watts so powerfully reminds us:
When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.
When the cross does come, will we assume that role as ambassador of the One who bore the cross for us in death?
Prayer: Merciful Father, I feel hopeless and helpless, and your cross seems always too hard and heavy to bear. But beneath your cross is the only refuge I have. Give me a willingness to follow after you and seek the joys of your blessed tree through your holy name, amen.
~~~~~~
Notations:
*If God is truly authoritative, then he invites men to enter into dialogue with him. And when the data is not favorable towards our cause, that’s precisely when we should trust him in that dialogue.
**We are nearing the publication of our fourth book by Kuyperian Press. This one will be an exposition of the Seven Deadly Sins edited by Rev. Jack Phelps. It will include essays from the late R.J. Rushdoony, never published before. Stay tuned!
***Douglas Wilson added his voice to the preterism controversy by stating ten reasons for why we cannot abandon the Second Coming of Jesus. He does a fine job dismantling the Full Preterist paradigm. He offers ten reasons to reject it, and among them, he points to my podcast episodes to argue for the ecclesiastical consequences of abandoning orthodoxy:
As Uri Brito pointed out in a couple of his podcasts (here and here), the implications of this issue are massive. It is not a matter of abandoning congregational polity for presbyterian polity, or deciding to baptize with heads upstream from now on.
As I noted in my own podcasts, the issue here is Orthodoxy. If you want it, you affirm the Apostle Paul’s theology of the resurrection in I Corinthians 15. If you deny it, you are of all people most to be pitied.
****In Mark 14, the high priest tears his garments in utter fury to condemn Jesus’ declaration as Messiah. The irony is that while the priest condemns Jesus for blasphemy, he himself is committing blasphemy by tearing his robe.; an act forbidden in the law (Lev. 21). For a priest to tear his robe is to lose his calling. Later, the veil would be torn from top to bottom. Israel’s vocation and priesthood is lost when they crucify the Lord of glory.
Hymn of the Day: When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
