The Rugged, Wooden Cross

Grace, mercy and peace be with you, from God, our Father, who gave His only Son, and Jesus Christ, our innocent Savior, who was nailed to the tree for us.

Our Lenten series has been Promised Treasures. Tonight we’ll look at the treasure of the Rugged, Wooden Cross.

 

After having been stripped of its paraments last night, tonight we see the wood of the altar.

On Good Friday, at the place called Golgotha, three wooden crosses stood out in full display, instruments of torture, and \symbols of death.

How amazing that God would use that rugged, wooden cross, not adorned  with paraments, but stained with blood, God would use it as an instrument to win life and healing for the world.

In the middle of the Garden of Eden stood two great trees, the tree of life and the tree of good and evil. And in the garden were many other fruit trees.

Adam and Eve were free to feast upon them all but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But that was that forbidden fruit they desired. 

And so they disobeyed, and ate, and fell.

Adam and Eve used that wooden tree, the fruit of it, to bring death upon themselves, and on the world.

We would have done no better.

In fact, before long, people were doing so poorly, that their hearts were corrupted beyond repair… except for one, Noah… and his family.

From many trees, Noah built a great boat, and entered in with his family and with many creatures, and humanity was saved from being drowned off the face of the earth… saved by the wood of the ark that floated on the flood waters.

In the same way, God would save and redeem the world, making use of wood from a tree, not for an ark, but for a cross.

Probably a scrub tree, rough, maybe twisted, cut down to be a tool of torture, a tree of crucifixion, a cross.

No more horrible use for wood and lumber could be imagined. 

Nailed to the rough wood of the cross, was God’s holy Son. He would use wood to suffer upon and die for the sins of the world, to bring us salvation.

He was taken down from that cross stained with His blood, and laid to rest on cold stone, in a tomb.

But He had done it, what no one else could… He had made things right with God for us, offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice for sin, that our sin would be canceled… our guilt absolved and our salvation won.

Now we look to the cross and we see the world’s greatest love, perfect love, no higher love, no more life-changing love, no more healing love, the love that saves us, and makes us, truly and eternally alive.

What can we do to match this great love given to us? 

We can’t match it… but by the Holy Spirit, with His help and power, we can sincerely and gratefully respond to it.

The first response is to repent and believe. Don’t throw this amazing love away. 

Don’t dishonor God by disregarding His Son; don’t ignore His sacrifice, the greatest ever made, and it was made for you. Embrace that extraordinary, redeeming love, and believe!

Secondly, give Him thanks and praise, in your weekly worship, in your work and service in His Church, and in your daily life. 

With the Spirit’s help, with the insight of God’s Word, and the strength received in the Sacrament of His body and blood, in the renewal you’ve been given in Holy Baptism, live your life for Him, every day, in every way. 

Strive to obey His laws of holy love. Honor Him in all you are and all you do.

As we sang in our hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”… Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.

And third, don’t keep it secret. 

His love is too great for us to hide. It needs to burst out from within us, to gush from our hearts to our lips to the world like living water. We do that through our praise, but also by our witness. 

Tell about the tree, the wondrous, wooden cross, on which our Savior died, winning complete forgiveness and glorious eternal life, and offering it to all. 

Let all believe, and love, and praise, and worship, and rejoice, and gladly serve and honor Him, in time and in eternity.

And finally, by the cross, He has won for you the peace that passes understanding. 

May it guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus, our dear Lord and Savior forever. Amen.