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Via Dolorosa: The Way of the Cross, The Choice To Be Made

During this time of year I find myself re-watching a number of films: Gibson's The Passion, Wyler's Ben Hur (written by one of Indiana's own authors, Major Lew Wallace), Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told. What must it have been like to have been there, I silently ask myself during each viewing, back there during those days leading up to the trial and then that awful walk up to Calvary? What would I have been doing, thinking? Would I have understood what Jesus' disciples were saying about this resurrection: "He is risen!" What choice would I have made after seeing the Via Dolorosa that day so long ago and hearing about the death of the man called Jesus? Could it make sense to me to believe that forgiveness could come from someone taking my place and yet I would still have to die? Could it really mean that out of death could come a resurrection?

It has been said that the greatest of leaders are the ones who are willing to do first what they would ask others to do. And yet this one, this Jesus, has done more. He comes to us and lives a life that none of us has yet been able to live, a perfect, sinless life. And then he exposes himself to the consequences of all of our fallen humanity: the ugliness of our sin, everything we try so desperately to cover up about ourselves and in front of each other.

But Jesus conquers this for us and lets it be nailed through His body to a cross. In effect, he says from the cross: "I have done this for you first even though I did not need to for myself in order that you will know how much I love you. Now I will give you strength to face up to this truth about yourself so that you can no longer be as "dead" in your sins but be considered as really living!" To face our own sins as naked as He was on that cross, to face ourselves and acknowledge what we are in order to be forgiven is one thing. To accept a life that picks up its own cross after having been forgiven is quite another choice. Yet that is the path to what is the new life now: a transformation of our heart and of our spirit. It is the narrow road that few take to see what God has made new for us in the new life that is to come. But to get there, the opposite must come to pass: loss before gain, death before resurrection. The only analogy that seems to say it best is one that speaks of how we are fed and live now: the burial of a seed in the ground is the only way to produce what will sustain life. This is what Jesus first did for us through His death and Resurrection.

This is my choice. It is your choice. Read More...

posted by Melanie Reed @ 8:55 PM