Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost (2010)

We Live Under the Shadow of the Cross Rev. Toby Byrd

Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

In today’s Epistle Reading St. Paul tells us, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (v. 14). In these few words St. Paul reminds us that everyday we live, we should live to the Lord, remembering the sacrifice He paid on Calvary’s cross for the forgiveness of our sin. Everyday should be a little Good Friday; a day lived in quite solitude in the loving memory of Jesus, a day of quiet dignity, living our lives to please God for what He did for us through His Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ. Oh that the whole world could live this way.

Sadly, an unbelieving and lifeless world is unmindful of our Lord’s meritorious work and the sacrifice He paid for the forgiveness of our sin. Thus, this morning, as every Sabbath, we ask that our heavenly Father would bless our worship, focusing our hearts and minds on the truth that as children of God, called to a living faith, we live everyday in the shadow of the cross of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Of all the Bible’s object lessons one stands out before all others, above all and greater than all – that is the Cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Since that day on Calvary, His Cross has been the greatest object in the history of the world. It is the earliest mark placed upon the brow of baptized children. This is God’s stamp to show that a baptized child is His child, His soldier, and His servant. It is also the last object held before the eyes of a dying Christian. It has been reported that there was a time when money was stamped with the figure of the cross. The hilt of a soldier’s sword was also stamped by the cross and many churches today are built in the shape of a cross. In the middle ages, thousands of people from various countries went to fight in Palestine, and all of them bore the mark or emblem of the cross. The sign of the cross was a token of their brotherhood in the family of Christ. So, too, today, the sign of the cross is the most conspicuous object in any city, town, or village. It is meant both as a sign of faith and a sign of honor for our Savior, Jesus Christ. However, in far too many communities today, those opposed to Christ work feverously to obliterate the sign of our Lord from the public square. Led by Satan, they claim a secular right over the rights of the faithful. Yet, we know, although they may work their fingers to the bone to suppress the Cross, they will never be able to suppress our faith in the atoning sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ nor defeat our willingness to live in the shadow of His Cross.

This opposition to the Cross is nothing new. Long before Golgotha, where God’s Son was nailed to a cross, thousands of crosses had been set up and used as an instrument of torture and death. However, there was no honor or glory in these crosses. The cross was the Romans usual means of execution for unwanted slaves and the worst thieves and criminals. It was considered a most disgraceful image used only for those who were not Roman. Roman citizens, sentenced to capital punishment were spared the cross; usually executed by the sword. Even among the Jews this instrument of death was considered disgraceful, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Gal. 3:13 ESV). The Cross then was an object of shame and ridicule, much like our instruments of capital punishment today.

There were three crosses on Mount Calvary the day our Lord was crucified, however, only one of them is honored and loved. The crosses on which the thieves were crucified were simply common, shameful things, but the Cross to which our Lord was nailed has been honored and loved all over the world every since that fateful day because it is the Cross of God’s only and beloved Son.

The Cross is the greatest of God’s object lessons, and He sets it before us throughout Holy Scripture. Long before the shadow of Calvary, in Paradise itself, there was the Tree of Life. Our access to that Tree was blocked when Adam fell into sin. However, the Tree of Life still exists; it is the Cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ. His Cross is the Tree that gives everlasting life to all believers. There are many other object lessons in Holy Scripture which also point us to the Cross of Christ; lessons such as Isaac carrying wood to Mount Moriah for his own sacrifice, symbolizing Christ carrying His Cross of wood to Calvary for His sacrifice. In the desert, God told Moses to make a bronze staff with a snake on it and when the people were bitten by a poisonous snake, they were to look to the bronze staff and they would be saved. This is a symbol of our Lord on the Cross, where when we sin we need only to look Him, His crucifixion and know that the work of our Lord upon the Cross saves us from death, eternal death. Again, Moses encouraged his army against Amalek with outstretched arms urging his people to victory. Whenever his arms would drop, the Israelites would be overcome by Amalek. This action by Moses points to our Lord’s outstretched arms upon the Cross which brought us victory over sin, death, and the devil. These object lessons are all the same; always pointing to Jesus. In each the shadow of the Cross is always looming. Once an emblem of shame, our Lord consecrated the Cross and made it holy.

Thus, everyday our Lord points us to His Cross as a symbol for our lives. Our Lord consecrated the Cross with His agony, suffering, and pain. Those outside the church, those who do not believe in Jesus look on pain as something terrible, something to be avoided. The Christian, on the other hand, looks on pain as a blessed cross, knowing that Jesus has taken the curse out of pain. The Christian realizes that Jesus is there in His suffering and this knowledge allows the Christian to continue bearing his cross in obedience to the Savior’s call; “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matt. 16:24 ESV). Nothing shapes our lives to such perfect form as does the Cross of sorrow. The Cross of sorrow is a blessing because it makes us pause and consider the suffering of our Savior when we are suffering. When everything is bright and shiny around us, we are like children playing; not a care in the world, we go through life thoughtless and careless. However, when the shadow of trouble falls upon us we stop and take time to think; remembering that this life is not everything, there is yet another life, one that surpasses this life in all respects; one whose peacefulness and happiness we can only imagine. The Cross of sorrow reminds us that life is more than play and good times; it is more than this world. True life is something far beyond the life we now live. True life is the life we’ll receive because a merciful and gracious God gave us the gift of faith to believe in His Son, Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He paid to deliver us from this life of death. Standing in the shadow of the Cross of sorrow shades us from the glitter and brightness of a world which would lead us to eternal death. Living in the Shadow of the Cross directs our thoughts heavenward and strengthens us to endure the trials and tribulations of this world.

Our heavenly Father called us to live a life of faith. Cleansed in the waters of Baptism, our Lord gave us a new life; one patterned after Him. Thus, the very pattern of our new life is the Cross and the power to live our new life is the Holy Spirit. Since we are new creations, born in Baptism, we look only to the glory of God and never to self-empowerment.

As new creations of God we are made alive by the Gospel and nourished by it, guided to serve the Lord in humble obedience. St. Paul reminds us of our former lives when he wrote to the saints at Ephesus and said, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:17-24 ESV). Our old self was a life led by self-centered desires; whenever trouble or adversity came knocking, we lashed out in anger or shrank in fear. However, today, called to be saints and members of the family of Christ, remembering the suffering of our Savior, we embrace our trials and turn to our Lord for aide. We stand in the shadow of His Cross seeking to receive strength from His suffering. Filled by His Spirit, strengthened by His resolve, we do not give way to Satan but rebuff his attempts at leading us away from Christ. Then, with St. Paul, we can say, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:1-5 ESV). What a marvelous truth that shows us how to live our lives in the shadow of the cross.

Living our lives in the shadow of the Cross leads us everyday to remember that our Lord Jesus bore the Cross to pay the debt for our sin. He bore the Cross so that we might be led back to God, and He bore the Cross to complete God’s plan for the salvation of the world. Furthermore, He asks each of us to bear our cross, to take it up and follow Him. We are compelled to do as He asks if we are to travel from Calvary to Paradise; from the Cross to the Crown; from shame to victory and from turmoil to peace. Living in the shadow of the Cross will lead you from the jaws of death to the safety of the gates of heaven. Living in the shadow of the Cross is living with Jesus; calling upon Him to comfort you in all trials and tribulations. Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.