It's a symbol of love, of forgiveness, of salvation.
It's a reminder of violence, of blood, of death.
It's a trinket dangling from a rear-view mirror, an ornament to dress up an outfit.
It's a centerpiece in a house of worship.
It's a gift. It's an offense.
It's a reminder, in the words of Tim Keller, that we are "more wretched than we ever imagined, and more loved than we ever dared hope."There are all sorts of religious words that swirl around the cross: sin, guilt, atonement, sacrifice, salvation... I suspect that those words weren't quite as foreign in the Biblical context. From what I can tell, for most of human history people have believed in a deity (or multiple deities) of some sort, people have believed that they need to try to please that deity (or deities), and people have known that they tend to fall short. So the language surrounding Jesus on the cross made sense, whether or not you believed it was true. The Jews, for instance, knew that sacrifices were offered as a recognition of sin before God. When Jesus offered forgiveness to people, the question wasn't, "What do I need to be forgiven for?" but rather, "Who are you to forgive sins?" Only God can do that.
In other words, the Biblical writers assume that we human beings are sinful and we know it. Furthermore, they assume that we long to be forgiven for our sins, and so they tell us the good news: Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of sin.
To modern ears, though, these words are at best a curiosity and at worst an offense. Are we really "sinners" who need God's forgiveness? (And, the question for next week: how do we receive God's forgiveness through the cross?)
Are we sinners who need God's forgiveness?
The first thing that comes to mind for me when I read the word "sin" is a list of moral offenses against other people: murder, adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, general meanness, and so forth. But the Bible insists that our sin begins as an offense against God, that sin originates when we decide to turn away from God's way of living. When we decide to live life independent of God's authority–even if we decide to live a "good, moral life" independent of God's authority–we become "sinners." (There's much more to say about Sin on a cosmic and systemic level, but that's for another day.) Some of us rebel by breaking the rules and ignoring the one who gave them. Some of us rebel by keeping all the rules and ignoring the one who gave them. In both cases, instead of living in relationship with God, we decide to put ourselves in God's place. And when we do so, not only do we offend God, but we end up hurting ourselves and others as well.
