The calendar says February 2024, but the sun was shining brightly one recent day. When you live in the northern part of the United States, you look for the light of the sun whenever you can get it.
And you seize the day.
Or, you at least seize the sunshine while the seizing is good and go for a walk. What a joy it was to be out walking again. Walking, praying, talking with God…and, on this day, listening to a sermon from Chuck Swindoll.
As I listened and walked, I repented. Hearing the details with which Pastor Swindoll described the sheer torture that Jesus went through, well, it was difficult to fathom. I remembered the movie, “The Passion of the Christ”. It did its best to portray the physical torture and humiliation that Christ endured.
Even then, however, hearing Swindoll describe it in minute detail made the movie tame in comparison.
Having read the Scriptures for myself many times over, seeing the movie’s interpretation, I was still shook as I heard it. The following words below were birthed out of that day’s walk.
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WWJD? What would Jesus do?
For years, people asked the question, what would Jesus do? The saying, or mantra, became so popular that you could see it on bumper stickers, coffee mugs, t-shirts and more. In today’s world you see it as a hashtag – #WWJD. Now, as the rancor has increased, brothers and sisters in Christ attack each other, or the moral failures of Christian leaders rise, we must ask ourselves another question instead.
If Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross before you right now, what would you do? If a bloody Christ was before you on the cross, in this very moment, would you still say, tweet or post the things that you have been saying to people? When you see the blood dripping, the crown of thorns in His head, or the nails in His hands and feet…
Would you still…..
Would you still criticize someone for what they believe? Would you still tear them down? Would you still mock them? Would you still call them demeaning names? Would you still talk about them on your podcast or blog in negative, angry tones?
Would you still hate them for being misguided or blind to the love of God? Would you still hate them for their skin color? Would you still hate them for their religion? Would you still hate them for the choices they made due to the pain they incurred by people in authority over them?
Would you still….
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Asking that question puts the onus on us instead of Jesus.
It is fine to ask what Jesus would do. But we, walking in this human, fleshly body, struggle with that.
We struggle with who Jesus is and what He did upon us earth. Oh sure, we read about it in the Bible. We watch movies (like “The Passion of the Christ”) or TV shows (like “The Chosen”) about the life of Jesus. But we fail at grasping the entire concept of His mission here on earth, and why He was tortured in the way that He was. He came to save. He came to serve. He came to love.
The cross….
What happens if we put ourselves in front of Jesus hanging on the cross?
While I would love to say that I would never complain or gripe about someone or something if I stood on the hill that day, the truth is, I would probably still do so. I sin. I screw up. I say things I shouldn’t say. I do things I shouldn’t do. I grumble about things or people.
Like Paul said, ‘I do what I don’t want to do, and don’t do what I should do.’
Selah.
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But wait, Sunny, you say. People who have talked and preached about the cross, they destroyed me. They hurt me. They abused me. They…they…they…
I hear you. I know that pain. I know what it’s like to be rejected, hurt and manipulated by church leadership. I too was nearly destroyed because of church leaders’ choices. I saw things that, if the cross was right there in front of them, I doubt that they would have made different choices.
Oh, but that cross. That beautiful, wonderful, life-giving cross.
When someone of faith hurts us or causes us pain, it can be so difficult to forgive them, let alone forget what they did. The pain is real. I would never seek to minimize your experience or mine. But when we take Jesus as our Savior, we take His name and His attributes as our own. “Father forgive them…” are the words of Jesus on that cross.
No one endured more pain, abuse and rejection than Jesus Christ. Every stripe He bore, every nail to His body, the piercing of his side, or where the crown of thorns was pushed deep into his head – Jesus took it all for what both they did to you and what you and I did, have done and will do.
That cross.
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We don’t worship the cross as some are wont to do. No, we do not worship any symbols or physical representations of it, but we cannot lose sight of what the cross means every single day. We must recognize each and every day, what that cross did for us. Not only that, but we must remember He did it for every single person around us.
Every. Person.
It is fitting then that God is reminding me right now of how I started this post. With my walk, our walk. It’s time to do an examination of our Christ-walk.
We, the body of Christ, have forgotten about Jesus Christ on the cross. We love to think about the tomb being rolled away and, He is not here! and He is risen! We want the victory, not the cost of it. We don’t want to think about a beaten and bloody Christ because it reminds us of our own sin.
Yet, we are reminded in Revelation 5:8-10 (ESV),
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
By His what? His blood.
When we remember the blood, we remember the cost. And when we remember the cost, it is no longer about what we want or think. It is about Him.
Would you still…
Selah
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Sunny Cadwallader 
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