After viewing the movie, The Passion of Christ, several years ago, I realized how little I really knew about what Jesus went through as he endured the cross. Several years ago someone wrote a song entitled, Who am I? The words of the chorus helped me realize how great He was and how insignificant I am.
Who am I that a king would bleed and die for?
Who am I that he would pray not my will thine for?
The answer I may never know, why he ever loved me so,
That to an old rugged cross He’d go, for who am I?
The pressures and problems of modern living are driving many people to a restless search for meaning and purpose in life. Americans are inundated with self-help books and how-to-do-it manuals. They see life as a series of problems to which exact and prompt answers can be found. Often, Christians transfer this mentality over into their spiritual life, and they view the Bible as a how-to-do-it book. That may be true to a point. At the same time, the Bible is a revelation of God in history in order to save his people, and this revelation reaches its highest form in the person and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, culminating with his passion.
As we observe the turmoil throughout the world today, as well as the threat of terrorism in our country, coupled with character assassinations and demonizing anyone who doesn’t have the same viewpoint, we cannot allow ourselves to become overtaken by the thought of what may happen to us in the future of our nation.
Help us to remember as David said in Psalms 139:14 (ESV), “I praise the Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” The Apostle Paul warned the Philippian believer, “For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:18-20 ESV). The enemies of the cross surround us every day. As Paul warns, do not be overtaken by what everyone else is doing or believing, just live what you know, the level God has allowed you to attain.
I believe one of the greatest needs of the church today is having a people who are willing to completely commit their lives to God, as well as to the body of believers. James tells us in his epistle that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Just do the best you can and live what you know. As Christians we have a great advantage through the Scriptures that God gave us, showing us how to live, love and be, as we keep His words near to our hearts.
How can we help? George MacLeod, an 18th century Christian wrote: I simply argue that the cross be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am recovering the claim that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew, and in Latin and Greek…at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where he died, and that is what he died about! And that is where churchmen ought to be, and what churchmen should be about.
David said, “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4 ESV). Who am I? What is my calling? We can answer these questions as we seek after God and meditate on his word day and night.
Pastor Jake Stirnemann