A Cross Perspective

Isaiah 43:2a

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you…”

I know it’s already been 3 or 4 weeks since our latest school shooting but it has taken me a while to get some perspective on this.  As you know, I purposefully stay away from politics in this blog, and today’s devotional will be no exception.  It has just been hard these past weeks, at least for me, to get to the point where I can see this tragedy through eyes of faith. 

In the past weeks I have found myself considering this from all sorts of different perspectives.  First, there was that father in the meeting with the President – so understandably angry about his daughter’s death… angry because it seems that by this time we would have found a way to protect our kids in school.  I can only imagine what this is like for any of those parents whose children were killed or injured.  Just imagining this brings pain and tears.

Then there was a post on Facebook from by an American friend living in Germany.  She wrote about how thankful she is that she is not raising her children here… that she is thankful she doesn’t have to be afraid to send her kids to school.  That fact just made me at first.  It also got me thinking about my grandkids going to school in America.  School shouldn’t be a place of fear.  I always felt safe there.  It scared be to think that something like this could happen at the schools of my grandkids.  But then my eldest said to me, “Dad, don’t let fear control you.  It’s no use living that way.”  He was and is right.

So then how should we look at this tragedy and others like it – where human beings inflict great pain and suffering on each other.  What perspective does our faith bring?   That’s when my meditation took me to the cross.  What perspective does the cross give us on this?  The answer is quite simple.  The cross of Jesus teaches us that God reveals Himself by hiding Himself.  He reveals Himself by being present in places where we don’t expect to find… indeed in places where we might even think – “God shouldn’t be there… That’s not a proper place for God to be.”

Take the cross of Jesus.  The Cross is one of the reasons the Jewish people struggle with the Christian belief that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Old Testament is clear. “Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree.”  How, they ask, can the Messiah be this man who was crucified?   The Word of God is clear – such a person has been cursed by God.   Yes is our answer.  In His death Jesus was being cursed by God.  He was cursed for our sins… in our place.  That is precisely what it meant for Him to be the Messiah.  “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by Himself being cursed for us for it is written, ‘Cursed is every man who hangs upon a tree.’”

What does this have to do with the shooting in Florida, or any other tragedy?  The cross reminds us that Jesus came into this world to enter into our suffering, as our Savior.  He came to suffer beside us, to suffer with us, to suffer for us.  God reveals Himself and His love for us most clearly by hiding Himself in the suffering of His Son on the cross.  Therefore we can know even in the midst of the worst suffering that God is there, hiding Himself, making Himself known.  I think of Cory Ten Boom who saw God’s love most clearly while suffering in a concentration camp and then went around the world sharing the lesson she learned – “That no pit is so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”  I think of the coach who put himself between the shooters and his students – giving his life to save theirs.  Is that not a picture of Christ who, on the cross, put Himself between us and sin, death and Satan – giving His life to save ours.

Please know I am not saying that God wanted this tragedy.  He didn’t. He did not cause it.  But He does not leave us alone in this tragedy.  He who took flesh and blood to live among us and die for us.. even today comes into the midst our tragedies to make known to us His love… that He is with us.  While I still feel anger and sadness over this and other senseless tragedies, I find great comfort in this – The Lord still keeps His promise given in Isaiah 43 - When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…