At The Cross: The Cross Matthew 27:32-44 / John 3:16-17 (Wednesday Lenten Reflection)


Why do folks offer hugs?  They are an act of affection, an act of welcome, an act of love, an act of support, an act of encouragement, and a means of drawing one close.
What is the first thing we have to do to offer a hug?  We have to open up our arms.  We cannot offer a hug with our arms crossed in front of our chest.  We cannot offer a hug with our hands planted firmly in our pockets.  We cannot offer a hug with our hands and arms rigidly by our sides.  We have to open up and reach out.
In the act of opening up our arms to offer a hug, we make ourselves vulnerable.  Physically we are vulnerable because we have exposed our chest, our abdomen, our sides.  We are easy targets for an attack at this point.  Emotionally we are vulnerable because the person we are offering to embrace can reject the embrace or refuse to return it—rejecting our support, our encouragement, our love, and our care.
We often talk about God as All-Powerful, All-Knowing, All-Everything…and He is.  And yet, our God is a vulnerable God.  God is vulnerable not because that is part of His nature, but because God chooses to be.  Because God chooses to love, God chooses to be vulnerable.  He chooses to allow us to accept or reject that love…and as we come to the close of our journey through the gifts found at the cross, the cross itself reveals just how vulnerable God is willing to make Himself to show us His love.
Now I am not trying to equate Christ’s outstretched arms on the cross as nothing more than God wanting to give us a hug…because that would be to trivialize the significance of what we find at the cross.
The cross is where God’s justice and mercy meet.  Think of the vertical beam of the cross as God’s holy demand for justice…God’s expectation of us to choose him and live in accordance to His Will and the expectation that a penalty must be paid when we choose not to…and the penalty, the wages, for sin, for rejecting God is death[i].  God’s justice demands death for sin.  Yet the cross is not made up of just the vertical beam, there is a horizontal beam as well…the horizontal beam can remind us of God’s mercy…for while God’s justice demands death, God’s mercy offers life.  God’s desire is that all might come into a relationship with him…in fact 2nd Peter reminds us that God’s does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance.[ii]  It is where that justice and mercy meet on the cross that God says, “I will pay the penalty for your sin…I will die in your place…that you might live with me forever.”
It is at the cross that we find God’s love…God’s love of you, God’s love of me, and God’s love of so many more.  How many more?  Try the entire world.  John reminds us that Jesus came because God “so loved the world.”  Want to understand how powerful that is?  It is easy for us to sit here and look around the table and think, “yeah, I can see how God loves each of us.”  But that is not what it says.  It says, “for God so loved the world.”  I have heard pastor’s challenge members of their congregations to take John 3:16 and personalize it.  They want each person to say, “For God so loved Lee, that he sent His only begotten Son….”  I want to challenge you to personalize it as well…but I want us to understand just how great God’s love is when expressed on that cross where justice and mercy come together...an understanding that has the potential to transform us by the renewing of our minds, as Paul says.[iii]  I want you to think of the person you would consider now to be your worst enemy.  Don’t have an enemy?  Simply think of the person you have the hardest time getting along with.  Still a struggle?  Think of a national or international enemy—maybe Assad or Jong-un.  Now personalize John 3:16-17 this way: “For God so loved _______ (the person you have in your mind) that he gave his only Son, so that if _________ believes in him, ________ may not perish but have eternal life.  Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn _________, but in order that ________ might be saved through him.”  Take a moment…repeat it to yourself again…let it sink in… That’s how great and powerful the love of God is where justice and mercy meet…it is called grace…amazing grace…grace greater than all our sin…
And it is this unfathomable grace that reveals God’s vulnerability…for grace is a gift freely given to all…the salvation that comes from Christ is a free gift that God offers to the entire world…He loves the entire creation that much.  And yet, despite the great price God paid for the gift, God refuses to force us to accept His mercy…to accept his love.  As we shared with the two thieves, God has offered us free will…He allows us to choose.
His arms opened wide on that cross, God reveals His love for the world…His desire to draw all in the world close and embrace everyone…His support and encouragement for all…His welcome for each member of His creation…
And with God’s love out there, we are free to walk into that embrace and receive it…or turn and walk away…and God’s love is so great, He will not even condemn us for walking away…According to the Gospel of John, God doesn’t condemn anyone to hell…the rejection of God’s love, mercy, and grace is self-condemnation[iv] and those who choose to walk away from God’s embrace, choose to walk away from the only source of life.
My brothers and sisters, may we cherish the gifts that God has left us at the cross…including the cross itself.  May we allow those gifts to transform us from Jesus’ willingness to bear our spit to Golgotha to the acceptance of the grace He offers us by dying in our place with His arms stretched wide.
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.


1)      Have you ever considered that God chooses to make Himself vulnerable?
a.      What does that mean to you?
2)      How does it transform our thinking to place our “enemies” name in John 3:16 and 17?
3)      What has touched you the most in this Lenten journey exploring the gifts at the cross?


[i] Romans 6:23
[ii] 2nd Peter 3:9
[iii] Romans 12:2
[iv] John 3:18

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