Morning News and the Cross
I got up, walked to the bathroom, and took a quick survey of the news on social media. Epstein, drama about last year’s assassination attempt of Donald Trump, troubles continue between Israel and Gaza, rioters on the streets of Madrid. Why exactly do I look at this first thing in the morning?
Life is transient and precious, but the upheavals are breaking out all around the world remind me of the impulse toward violence that lies in wait, even in my own heart. Those who perpetrate these acts of violence and foment civil unrest do so because they believe they are in the right. Nations invade and gunmen assassinate because they are both firmly convinced they have the moral high ground. Fear and moral clarity convince them they must take action to keep it.
But Christians follow a leader who gave his life, willingly. He surrendered it so that others may live. Jesus Christ, more than any human before or since, had the moral high ground. Yet rather than imposing his vision of a heavenly kingdom through military or political force, he surrendered to those who opposed him. In so doing, he died in this world so those who trust and follow him may live in the next. But following him means rejecting our claim to moral superiority and trusting in his goodness as our claim to righteousness.
In the tumult so much is at stake that few want to follow Jesus in this way. Instead of trusting him as our only hope for peace, we trust in military dominance. A spiral of escalating resentment and violence follows as we descend into a hopeless cycle of retribution. Can the cross of Christ show us the way towards a more hopeful future?
Our sociopolitical context is so complex I am unable to make any confident assertions about the way forward, except this: that Jesus, when he was unjustly accused and beaten, did not retaliate. As he carried his cross up the long hill to Golgotha, took nails in his hands and hung for all to see, he did not open his mouth to make his case or to condemn anyone. The only human who has ever lived who had an absolute claim to the moral high ground did not use human strength to preserve what he valued. As he hung suspended between heaven and earth, his suffering and death opened a bridge between man and God, and our simple task is to love well enough to let others see it is always open for them.
Jesus gave his life for me, and if I am his follower, he asks me to do the same for others. As I shut off my phone, I breathe a prayer that I will be faithful, and that Christians will live for the eternal kingdom, not sacrifice it in return for short-lived temporal peace and prosperity.
