There is not a single person who has built a race car who has not examined it from many different positions. We look at it from the right side; we look at it from the left. We crawl underneath it and look upward, and we get up on a ladder and examine it from the top. We stand at the front and look at the lines over which the air will flow, and we look from the rear to examine it as it accelerates away. And there is still another way we can examine our racecars. Most observers are on the outside looking inward, but the driver is on the inside and looking outward.

I would imagine that many of you have recently seen the film entitled The Passion of the Christ. It is the story of the final hours before Christ’s crucifixion. The film depicts the suffering of Christ prior to the culmination, which is His death on the cross. Today, I would like to take a look at that cross, from as many different angles as possible.

As I stated, Jesus was crucified on a cross. A second cross stood on the right side of Jesus, and a third cross on his left. On one side of Jesus, the man ridiculed Him and rejected Him. The man on the other side acknowledged that Jesus was innocent and accepted him as the Son of God. On which side are you?

The cross divides history and the cross divides humanity. This is illustrated by the arms of Jesus which were stretched out on the horizontal beam of the cross, symbolizing his reaching out to all humanity. The problem is not Jesus’ reaching out to us. The problem is with humanity, which divides itself into two groups – acceptance or rejection.

But the cross also had a vertical beam. There was a top side and a bottom side. The top side of the vertical beam pointed to God. The bottom side was rooted in the earth. The cross was a bridge between God and the world. If we are to have a perfect perspective of all of history, and of every event in our own lives, we need to see the link between God and history. We need to see the link between God and events in our own lives.

The cross also had a front side and a back side. The front side of the cross was facing the sunlight. To me, this sunlight represents God’s plan that Jesus would rise again. The back side of the cross represents the shadow of sin and death, which is eliminated by the sunlight of God’s plan.

There are yet two more sides of the cross we should examine. It is the outside and the inside. The outside of the cross is the part visible to the whole world. We see the huge spikes driven into Jesus’ hands and feet. The cross was designed to bring a lingering painful death to enemies of the Roman Empire. It was successful in doing that. But if we look closely, we can see the inside of the cross. If we listen carefully we can hear Jesus praying, “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.” The inside reflects the undying love of God and His forgiveness for each of us. It is this story of undying love and forgiveness that Jesus’ followers told to their world. Likewise, when we experience the love of God, we should want to share it with our world. Early Christians experienced painful sufferings because they told the story of God’s love. Peter said, “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (I Peter 20-21 NIV).

In summary, we might say that the cross is a mirror. Looking at the cross, we can see the reflection of rejection or the reflection of acceptance. It reflects hatred and violence or love and forgiveness. It reflects the light of the resurrection or the shadow of sin and death. We can also see the link between Earth and Heaven. The faces reflect the hate and violence of the soldiers pounding nails or the face of God, who died for us.

Look into the mirror. What do you see? On which side of the cross are you?

Elvon Kauffman
Northwest Regional Director