Title Why the Cross (John 18:33-38...
Contents
antinomy
A dragonfly was lying quietly on the grass and sleeping. A child sneaked up to me and swung the bed with all my might. The dragonfly spread its wings at the sound of the wind 'winging'. The dragonfly, who barely escaped death, said to the child. “If I didn’t have wings, I would have been caught by the young you.”
But at that very moment, the dragonfly twisted its entire body and was in pain. I ended up getting caught in a spider's web while talking to the child. Seeing the dragonfly fluttering its wings, the spider said. "If you didn't have wings, you wouldn't be caught in a spider's web like this. No matter how much you move, it's useless, because the more you move, the tighter it gets."
Even if you live to your heart's content with the power and environment to brag about and show off in the world, that pride can become a trap.
Sometimes we become more abundant because of our shortcomings. - Lee Cheol-hwan
I wonder if I asked the person with a disability who couldn't hear the way and said, 'That guy, that's a bad guy' with what he passed without saying a word.... Me, I have a problem with legs sitting on the bus with prosthetic legs. While standing next to a young man, he said, 'Young people these days, even adults don't know'.
We hear many Bible verses and sermons about the cross before Holy Week and Easter Sunday. In John 3:16, God spoke a wonderful word. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” What does it mean here that God gave His only begotten Son? It is true that it is difficult to understand the meaning of this one verse alone. However, we can clearly see the meaning of the word 'given' in John 18:28 and below, which we read today. This means that God decided to kill His only Son by dying on the cross.
It was God's determined will for Jesus to be crucified. As Peter said in Acts 2:23, Jesus died on the cross "according to the foreknowledge and foreordained will of God." The death of the cross was something God had known and decreed in advance for a long time, and it was an event that contained God's resolute will. This is the conclusion that God has made under the clear judgment that in order to save this world, he must kill his own son on the cross.
There are many other deaths, but why the death of the cross? Why did God choose the most cruel death on the cross? Nowhere else gives a clearer answer to this than Galatians 3:13. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree."
God's Providence on the Cross
Then, why did God allow Jesus to suffer the cursed death of the cross? Because he loves us so much. This is the answer. The God who created the world is never a bystander. He always rules everything. He is the One who carries out and completes all his will to the end. If God loves the world and has decided to save it, He never stops until He completes it.
If we look at Pilate's trial process in the text or the actions of the high priests and their crowds when they dragged Jesus to Pilate, we can read how God's providence was revealed through the cross. First, let's take a look at Caiaphas the high priest and his followers. They judged Jesus illegally at dawn. Then he charged Jesus and handed it over to Pilate, who was then governor of the Roman Empire and was in charge of policing in Judea. Why would they do that? Of course, it was to kill Jesus. However, this alone is not a satisfactory answer. Why did they have to take Jesus to Pilate? It was meant to be brutally murdered on the cross.
Why did they take Jesus to Pilate? They were not outraged by the stoning of Jesus. So, it was decided to rely on Roman law to have Jesus die on the cross, which was the cruelest death of his day. The chief priests and the crowd had a burning hatred toward Jesus that caused Jesus to die on the cross.
Henry Nouwen's expression
God's love that no one can stop
There are several graces that we need to sort out in light of this fact. The first is the grace that no one can stop God's infinite love. God loved the world so much and loved us so much that He decided to put His only Son, Jesus, to death on the cross. He decided to set us free from the curse by having his only Son, Jesus, be cursed on the cross. This is God's great love. Could this love be stopped by the high priests? Could their hatred resist that love? Could Pilate's authority and his cowardly character prevent God's love? I could never stop that love.
The actions of the high priests who tried to brutally kill Jesus brought a flood of God's love to the world. The more they acted wickedly, the more God's love abounded in the world. The more I shouted, "Crucify me," the more God's love grew. People hated Jesus so much that they wanted Him to be crucified, and yet God loved people so much that He wanted Him to be crucified, and so He did. God's love overcomes hate. Seeing that the world that hated Jesus was saved through the blood of the cross, God's love has triumphed.
Isn't there a famous saying in Romans 5:8? "God demonstrates his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In other words, "how much God loves us, he has proved utterly through his death on the cross." It's a story. Therefore, the death of the cross is the only source of seeing God's love. Every time we see Jesus and the cross, we discover how much God loved us. Ironically, what made us able to experience this great love abundantly was the fact that none other than the high priest who tried to brutally kill Jesus and the unjust judge Pilate who cowardly crucified him because he was trying to save Jesus because it couldn’t be done. It is truly an amazing providence of God.
the law of reversal
Second, it is God's grace that turns evil into good. Almighty God uses evil for good. Although this does not apply only to the work of saving us. The same applies to our personal lives. Are you suffering what seems like evil right now? Did you get sick after taking care of your health so hard? It's evil. Are you fired from a job you worked so hard and conscientiously about? Do you struggle to live righteously and have more painful days than a wicked person? All of these are evil. There are so many evils around us that we cannot comprehend.
Sometimes God allows us to do things that seem evil in order to accomplish His good and loving will. Do you know what the reason is? To turn evil into good. To bring forth good things out of evil. It is for all things to work together for good. Please believe this.
Jesus is the only savior
Third, it is the grace of convincing us that Jesus alone is the savior who can save us from the curse of the law. For 300 years after the first church was born on this earth, Christianity suffered severe persecution. How many martyrs shed blood. However, during those 300 years, Christianity continued to spread and endured terrible and severe persecution. Thus, the day came when the Roman emperor eventually surrendered to Christianity. Do you know how the early church saints endured that harsh time? It was because of the cross. They all boasted of their cross.
The way of the cross begins with self-denial, its course is self-deprecation, and its end is self-sacrifice. What will the result be? As the Lord said, “He who takes the sword shall perish by the sword.” The result is destroyed, but to the saints who follow the cross and live in his love, through self-denial, self-deprecation, and self-sacrifice, eternal life is brought. Also, true faith consists in looking to eternal life. “If we die with the Lord, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him.”
Henri Nouwen said, "The way of faith is to die from the past of others, and to die from the wrath within me." People begin with planning, achieve with effort, and perish with pride. Jesus went to the mountain alone to pray (John 6:15), avoiding the crowds that were trying to force him to be king (John 6:15). “One of the ailments the Spirit is prone to is the thought that one is doing very well” (Chesterton).