If you were going to look for God, where would you look?[1] The Halls of academia? The desert abode of an ascetic? The phat pad of the rich and famous? The back lots of Hollywood? We all spend some time looking for answers in some of these places. Some people go to church to look for God… some churches point to Him. Some point to themselves, a political cause, or religion practices as a means of finding God. Where would you go to look for Him?
Would you go to the electric chair to find God? The gallows? No one looks there. The electric chair is not only a means of death, but a means of public judgment. When a society decides that a person is no longer fit to live they condemn him to execution. Such condemnation brings not only death, but shame, contempt and distain. That is exactly the last place one goes to look for God. But there he is. God is seen most clearly on the cross, the first century A.D. equivalent to the electric chair. God is not seen most clearly in hymns, sermons, books, Bible studies, or liturgy, though these things may or may not point to him.
Why is God found at an execution? Because he was willing to do whatever was necessary to bring us back to him. Our lives were so offensive to God, no matter how good or bad we think we are, that he had to pay with his own life to reconcile us to our creator. And there, he revealed just how committed to justice he is. He revealed just how far his love will reach. He revealed himself most clearly exactly on the cross of Jesus.
Do you have a void that needs to be filled? I do. If I look to my Christian behavior to fill it, God will turn away from me. If I look to material things to fill it, they will burn in the judgment of God, if they last even that long. If I look to my friends or family to fill it, they will let me down. If I look to my career to fill it, I will fail myself. If I look to the countless religions that depend on my efforts to fill it, I will only reveal my inadequacies.
But if I look to the cross of Jesus, I will find God. If I hope against hope, hoping that God will forgive my sins when I place my hope in Jesus, then I will not only be forgiven of my messy life, but find the One that my heart was made for.
Looking to the cross means only trusting in what Jesus has done in my stead for a means to being reconciled to God. Its praying and saying, “Even though I am a mess, please accept me God because Jesus died in my place.”
Look for God, but only look at the place where he should not be found.
No comments:
Post a Comment