Sticks and Stone, Part 3

For good reason, the cross of Jesus is the most recognized religious symbol in the history of the world. So how do we make sure this familiar symbol of our faith doesn’t become too familiar? How should the cross continually shape and reshape our lives?

Graves to Gardens
Elevation Worship

Reckless Love
Passion

Behold the Lamb
Passion

Love Like This
The Belonging Co

Luke 19:28
“With these words, Jesus went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.”

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Luke 19:11
While the people were listening to this, Jesus went on to tell them a parable. They were, after all getting close to Jerusalem, and they thought that the Kingdom of God was going to appear at once.”

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Luke 19:29-40
“As they came close, as near as Bethany and Bethphage, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples on ahead. Go into the village over there, he said, and as you arrive you’ll find a colt tied up, one that nobody has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone says to you, “Why are you untying it?” you should say, “Because the Master needs it.”

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Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

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RT France
“There is a subtle tension within Zechariah’s description of this messianic king: he is victorious and yet meek, and his triumph is received rather than won. He rides a donkey rather than a war horse, and his kingdom will be one of peace rather than of coercion.”

“When Jesus chose this oracle to enact as he approached the city, he was thus claiming to be the Messiah, but not the sort of Messiah much popular patriotism might have hoped for.”

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Luke 19:44
“…because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

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Mark 10:35-40
And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.”

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Mark 15:22-27
“They took Jesus to the place called Golgotha, which in translation means Skull Place. They gave him a mixture of wine and myrrh, but he didn’t drink it. So they crucified him; they “parted his clothing between them, casting lots” to see who would get what. It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. The inscription, giving the charge, read: “The king of the Jews.” They also crucified two bandits alongside him…The inscription, giving the charge, read: “The king of the Jews.” They also crucified two bandits alongside him, one on his right and one on his left.”

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What does it mean to be people who live in the light of that kind of victory?

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Philippians 2:3-11
“Never act out of selfish ambition or vanity; instead, regard everybody else as your superior. Look after each other’s best interests, not your own.

“This is how you should think among yourselves–with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus.”

“Who though in God’s form, did not regard his equality with God as something he ought to exploit. Instead, he emptied himself, and received the form of a slave, being born in the likeness of humans, and then having human appearance, he humbled himself, and became obedient even to death, Yes, even to death of the cross. And so God has greatly exalted him, and to him in his favor has given the name which is over all names: That now at the name of Jesus every knee within heaven shall bow–on earth, too, and under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that Jesus, Messiah, is Lord, to the glory of God, the Father.”

One author sums this passage up perfectly, quote: “When Jesus came in the form of a servant, he was not disguising who God is. He was revealing who God is.”

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Luke 9:23
“If any of you want to come after me, you must say no to yourselves, and pick up your cross every day, and follow me.”

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Tom Holland, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
“To be a Christian is to believe that God became a man and suffered a death as terrible as any mortal has ever suffered. This is why the cross, that ancient implement of torture, remains what it has always been: The fitting symbol of the Christian revolution…”

“It is the audacity of it–the audacity of finding in a twisted and defeated corpse the glory of the creator of the universe–that serves to explain, more surely than anything else, the sheer strangeness of Christianity, and of the civilization to which it gave birth.”