Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

Jesus’ cross has been for over 1800 years the best-known symbol of Christianity, and we should ask the Lord to keep us, in the words of Fanny Crosby, “near the cross.”

“As an instrument of death, the cross was detested by the Jews, so it became a stumbling block for them when considering Jesus. How could the Messiah be executed on a cross? After all, the Greek and Roman Empire executed thousands of criminals and captives in just this manner (Alexander the Great executed two thousand Tyrian captives in this way, after the fall of the city)” (“PleaseConvinceMe.com”).

Crucifixion was usually reserved for people convicted of treason, desertion, robbery, murder and such crimes. The Romans used it until Constantine’s rule, when it was abolished as an insult to Christianity, sources say.

“During the first two centuries of Christianity, the cross may have been rare in Christian iconography (symbolic representation), as it depicts a purposely painful and gruesome method of public execution. The Ichthys, or fish symbol, was used by early Christians” (“Wikipedia”).

Many people wear small religious-jewelry crosses, but if they want a “modern translation” of the cross, they might wear a tiny model of an electric chair. Electrocution was used first in 1890 to replace hanging. Between August 1890 and March 2010, a total of 4,442 people suffered death by electrocution in the U.S. “The chair” is being replaced by lethal injection.

Can you picture Jesus shackled and walking between two guards on his way to an electric chair? Can you imagine him lying on a prison bed, ready to take a lethal injection? If the Romans had been more “modern,” Jesus might have been executed in one of those ways. But he was dispatched on a cross, the Romans’ first-century way of dealing with the worst criminals.

Perhaps “the empty tomb” is a more pleasant symbol of Christianity, but the cross became the symbol the world connects with the Church. The cross reminds Christians of God’s act of love exhibited in Jesus Christ’s sacrifice at Calvary.

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he (Jesus) made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15).

The Bible informs us that man’s sin must be paid for.

“[In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins” (Hebrews 9:22, Amplified Bible).

Old Testament sacrifices “covered” sins but did not eradicate them, as I understand. Animal sacrifice pointed to the Lamb prepared before the foundation of our world.

John the Baptist, seeing Jesus coming to be baptized, said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).

Jesus predicted his own death.

He said, “And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw and attract all men [Gentiles as well as Jews] to Myself” (John 12:32, Amplified Bible).

Let us not forget the cross of Christ. The Apostle Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14, NIV).

Fanny Crosby (1820-1915), a blind-from-birth hymn-writer, wrote “Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross.” That song reminds us of the importance of Jesus’ cross. Here are the lyrics to that beloved song:

“Jesus, keep me near the cross / There a precious fountain / Free to all, a healing stream / Flows from Calvary’s mountain.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.

“Near the cross, a trembling soul / Love and mercy found me / There the bright and morning star / Sheds its beams around me.

“Near the cross! O Lamb of God / Bring its scenes before me / Help me walk from day to day / With its shadows o’er me.

“Near the cross I’ll watch and wait / Hoping, trusting ever / Till I reach the golden strand / Just beyond the river.

“(The Refrain) In the cross, in the cross / Be my glory ever / Till my raptured soul shall find / Rest beyond the river.”

Ram in a Bush

I‘ve always enjoyed hearing the story about Abraham and Isaac and a ram caught in a bush. That story, found in Genesis 22:1-18 (condensed from the NIV), goes like this:

God decided to test Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” Abraham replied.

God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love – Isaac – and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

(Abraham had an older son conceived by his wife’s handmaid, Hagar, but Isaac, born of Abraham’s wife, Sarah, was the “promised son.”)

The next morning, Abraham loaded his donkey and took with him two servants and Isaac. He cut wood for the burnt offering and set out. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

Abraham placed the wood for the burnt offering on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them walked, Isaac said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.”

They reached the place God had told him about, and Abraham built an altar and arranged the wood on it. He bound Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The LORD Will Provide.

Abraham thought Isaac would provide grandchildren for him – God told Abraham that he would become the “father of many nations” – but Isaac had no wife or children at that time. (Isaac was perhaps 25 years old when this story unfolded, according to ancient historian Josephus.) Did Abraham think he could kill Isaac and God would raise him “from the dead”?

God did not endorse human sacrifice, but he had set up a system of animal sacrifices to provide atonement for the sins of Old Testament believers. “Atonement” involves “satisfaction or reparation for a wrong or injury.”

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life” (Leviticus 17:11).

That principle is stated also in the New Testament: “…The law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

Adam Clarke in “The Holy Bible with A Commentary” says, “Abraham spoke prophetically, and referred to that Lamb of God which He (God) had provided for Himself, Who in the fullness of time would take away the sin of the world, and of Whom Isaac was a most expressive type.”

Jesus said Abraham hoped for “My day (Jesus’ incarnation); and he did see it and was delighted” (John 8:56).

Isaac also shared Abraham’s confidence in God’s provision, some say. “Was not his (Isaac’s) very existence the result of God keeping His word?” (a note from “The Amplified Bible”).

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians: “Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: ‘All nations will be blessed through you’” (Galatians 3:8).

The story of Abraham, Isaac and a ram caught in a bush foreshadows Calvary, where the Lord Himself provided His Own Lamb…just as Abraham said He would.

Peter wrote, “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake” (1 Peter 1:18-20).

Ashes and Resurrection

Resurrection Sunday is only a few weeks away. Are we are thinking much about it?

I work for a carpet manufacturing company in Aberdeen, N.C., and a few weeks ago, around noon, was headed across the company parking lot when I saw a Hispanic employee park her car and walk toward our company’s main building. I was 15 feet behind her, and when she turned and smiled before she entered the mill, I saw a charcoal-colored mark on her forehead. Someone had dipped a finger into ashes and drawn a small cross about an inch above the lady’s eyes.

“She’s been to an Ash Wednesday service,” I thought, assuming she had taken a morning off from work to attend church and celebrate the beginning of “Lent.”

Many Christians practiced Lent – the word “Lent” comes from an early English word for “spring” – prior to the reformation that made Martin Luther famous almost 500 years ago. Many Protestants abandoned the formal practice of Lent at that time. It is still largely celebrated among Catholics, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians and Anglicans.

The Lenten Season began this year on Wednesday, March 9, and ends on Saturday, April 23, the day before Resurrection Sunday, or Easter Sunday. The six Sundays among the 46 days of Lent are not counted; each Sunday represents a “mini-Easter,” celebrating Jesus’ victory over sin and death. In Western Christianity’s calendar, Lent and Easter are movable; Ash Wednesday can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus spent 40 days fasting and being tempted before he began his public ministry. Ash Wednesday marks the start of a 40-day period of prayer and fasting. It gets name from the practice of placing ashes on foreheads as a sign of mourning and repentance. This practice also signifies humans are “fallen” and will always deal with sin while living in mortal bodies.

Old Testament believers associated ashes with repentance. The prophet Daniel said, “And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes” (Daniel 9:3).

Ashes utilized on Ash Wednesday are often made from palms used during the previous year’s Palm Sunday. Palms are burned and the ashes mixed with olive oil.

After the lady with ashes on her forehead turned and smiled at me, I thought, “Hum-m-m, Easter will soon be here. I haven’t thought a lot about it this year.” I wondered if I had become too preoccupied with worrying about how the world seems to be, as the old folks used to say, “going to hell in a handbasket” and worrying about wars and rumors of wars and about President Obama and Libya and about gas and food prices and about earthquakes and tidal waves and politicians and about how I should have saved more money before I got old and about blah, blah, blah, blah, blah….

The Hispanic lady and her smile put me “under conviction.” I hadn’t lately thought about Christ as much as I had about “Christianity” and its place in the world. I’d recently grown lax about praying and reading the Bible and had read much about “defending the Faith” against false religions and about how to debate people who try to tear down the Bible. Years ago, I was a young high school art teacher sitting at a faculty lunch table when an older teacher, a Christian, said, “I feel I know enough about my faith to debate anybody.” I then felt “turned off” by his words and thought, “That’s a bit arrogant.” Had I become like that man?

The lady with ashes on her forehead caused me to feel I’d recently missed something. I recalled these words written to the pastor and church in Ephesus: “These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: ‘I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil…and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary. Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” (Revelation 2:1-4 New KJV).

Father, as Resurrection Sunday approaches, help us repent and turn our faces toward Jesus. Help us truly “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Philippians 3:10).