Crucifixion, Smooch-a-fixion

The whole service was different.  It was a reflective time, a worship experience for which many had rehearsed; hours had been spent in preparation.  Into the silence at the start, I played my wistful prelude, plunging through phrases, swelling and pulling back, commanding the keys to sing, to whisper, to shout!, to hide.  The choir sang of Jesus on a journey, purposefully inching toward the cross.  The bells played with stunning melancholy.  Captivating.

The sermon was given and communion was solemn.  We all were focused on the task set before Jesus.  Our last song was sung in minor key and the final passages of scripture droned on – verses we didn’t want to hear, but needed.  As they were read, two very quietly took from the altar the communion dishes, the Bible, the candles, the cloth.  Every decoration was symbolically stripped.  My heart was wrenched, my soul reminding me, “Jesus was innocent!  Pure!  But He did this for ME.  I needed His help and He did this for ME.”

The verses complete, all lights came down in the stillness.  Solely remaining was a plain wooden cross, barely seen.  A crown made with 2-inch spiked thorns had been twisted together; one very much like that which was pounded into Jesus’ head by the soldiers that mocked Him.  I could scarcely stand to look at it, knowing what it stood for. 

I watched as the acolyte brought it forward to place on the cross…and was angry!  At the Jews who used political unfairness to crucify my Lord?  Well, yes… and NO!  This white-robed teenage girl was carrying the crown and had a look of disgust on her face like, “I cannot believe I have to do this – this is SO STUPID!” 

Her whole body language made it obvious that she had been forced into this job, threatened with phone confiscation.  She virtually tossed it up to the nail with a loud, non-verbal, “What-EV-er!”

I’m telling you, I wanted to go over and take her by the shoulders and shake her!  “Don’t you realize what you’re doing??  You are symbolizing a man being tortured to death!  For YOU!  He didn’t deserve it!  But he loves you and volunteered to be beaten, bleed and suffocate to death for YOU!  Were you not listening this entire service?!”

If she had thrown it up there in anger, I would have understood it.  If she had cried while hanging it, I would have felt the same.  But apathetic??  “It’s Jesus, who cares?  Crucifixion-Smooch-a-fixion.  I heard it all last year."  WHAT??

Have we heard the story so many times it doesn’t affect us any more?  Maybe we’re so busy “being good” that it almost doesn’t matter?  I had gone to church for decades and loved it.  Loved the tradition, loved the history, loved the motions.  But it wasn’t until I screwed up my life royally that I realized, “You know what?  I’m not some great person, after all.  I am SUNK!  And I can’t figure my way out of this by myself!  I am One. Hot. MESS!”

Only then did I become grateful to the One whose death is remembered.  Because I realized I’m really not so terrific.  I have skeletons in the closet that I’d rather keep hidden.  And to be honest, don’t we all?  But it’s not until we are humble – or become humbled – that we realize how good He is and how far we are from the mark.  Only then do we appreciate the price of His mercy, His grace, this sacrifice. 

Praise Him!

~~~~~
Pondering Points
Revelation 3:14b-16  ^14b “‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. ¹⁵ “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.

Romans 5:6-8 ⁶For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.⁸But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.