Friday, April 10, 2009

Good Friday

On this Good Friday, let me share these thoughts from Michael Lodahl's narrative theology, The Story of God:

It is, nonetheless, no small miracle of history that this terrible instrument of torture and death, the Roman cross, has become to Christians the most profound symbol of divine love that will not let us go. In the symbol of Calvary's tree, Christians have confessed that ultimate Reality is laid bare, that God is revealed as the One who bends down in suffering servanthood, who outpours the divine heart of love, and they have said in amazement, "For me - it is for me." Here is the great historical event in which, and by which, we confess with the beloved apostle, "God is love" (I John 4:8, 16).

We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us - and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. . . In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. (3:16; 4:10-11)

Finally, then, the Cross is not merely the historical manifestation of the love and mercy of God but also the central symbol in the Story of God. Further, it symbolizes the spirit and way of the Christian journey, of the Christian orientation toward others. To walk the way of the Cross is to walk in self-giving and other-receiving love, in humility, in servanthood, in vulnerability. It is to consider oneself "dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus," just as Jesus himself "died to sin, once for all," but now "lives to God" (Rom. 6:11, 10) - p. 164

Today, as we reflect on the Cross, that central symbol of God's Story, may it also be reflected in my journey and yours.