Jesus' View of the Cross

From Communion on September 9, 2009

Without vision the people perish.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.

A farmer, when plowing, finds an object on which to focus in order to plow a straight line.

When you drive, you do not look at the line beside the car, but instead on the horizon where you are headed.

Jesus, from the time He knew who He was, the Messiah, the Son of God, kept His eye on the goal for which He was destined – The Cross.

The first recorded event in the life of Jesus after His birth was when He went with His parents for the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles.  It may have been there talking with the Priests and Elders in the temple that He became fully aware of His mission.  His response, when questioned by His parents concerning His whereabouts, was “I must be about My Father’s business … The Cross”

At His baptism by John, Jesus began His three year march toward Golgotha.

The Cross - in the wilderness, being tempted by satan, each time Jesus refused to give in because His destiny was compelling Him, overshadowing Him every moment.  I cannot yield to the temptation because My destiny awaits.

The Cross – with each disciple He chose, He was looking at the cross.  When He spoke to the multitudes, fed the 5000, healed the sick, rebuked the pious, it was all motivated by His view of the cross.

Every action Jesus made, by His own confession, was in response to what Father was doing.  Every word spoken was in response to what He heard Father say.  All of it – every thought, every act, was with The Cross in plain view.

We are here to celebrate what Jesus did through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating at the right hand of Father.  The cup and the wafer symbolize that for us.  We do this to remember Him.

But more than that, we are here to remind ourselves of the call that is on our lives.  We are to live our lives with a constant view of our destiny, to become like Jesus; to do the things that He did – listen to Father and say what He says, and see Father and do what He does.

The Cross beckoned Jesus toward His appointment with it.  The Cross now empowers us and thrusts us forward to our appointment with Him.