April 8 Lenten Devotional "The Cross of Christ"

OPENING PRAYER. . .Loving God, Creator of all that is, here I am--today in this place that you have given me, with all the senses you have given me. Help me to use them to experience you on a deeper level. May I experience you all around me, open me to know more of your ways and know that your goodness surrounds me. Thank you for this time to be with you and to just listen. Amen

LISTEN. . .Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.”  This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?”  But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.  I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”   “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied.   “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”   They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.  So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.   The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.”  Even as he spoke, many believed in him. (John 8:21-3-)

CONSIDER. . .Jesus is trying to convince the religious leaders that he is sent from God. He is telling them that they will die in their sins if unless they believe in him. There is a connection here between the bronze snake lifted up in Numbers and the way He will soon be lifted up on the cross. God used the hated symbol of Roman oppression--the cross--and turned it into the means of healing and salvation.

SO WHAT. . .Look at the cross in a new way. . .as God's people looked at the snake in the desert.

• Face your sin and look for healing.
• Gaze at the cross and remember the sins of injustice, cruelty and violence in our world.
• But. . . have faith in God's mercy.
• You are invited to come to the cross of Christ and see not only your sins, but Jesus, who comes to set you free from those sins.  

PRAYER. . . Suffering Christ, strengthen my belief in your redeeming work on the cross. Please help me to turn from the evil in the world and to stop rationalizing my own sinful behavior and look at YOU and be FREE. Amen.