July 29, 2008
Nailed to the Cross
During last Sunday’s communion meditation the speaker reminded us that years ago our previous church presented the dramatic Passion Play. “At every rehearsal when it came time to nail Christ to the cross, tears would come to our eyes.” Simply hearing the speaker re-tell the event, I found myself swallowing to control the lump rising in my throat. I’ve heard hundreds of communion meditations over the years, but none has ever touched me so emotionally. I just can’t imagine actors/believers having to practice nailing Jesus to the cross over and over and over again.
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Gail;
-----I try not to be the emotional type, but certain stories can get my empathies all stirred up. When I was younger, just reading the accounts of the passion week in the Gospels would upset me. Even the railing and deceit done against Jesus by the leaders during His ministry would get me going. His simple and appropriate, mouth shutting answers to their strategically calculated questions, and the whippings He gave the money changers in the Temple are about the only comic relief one gets in the story of His perfect life within this mess of a world.
-----In the Dan Reeves/John Elway years, I learned that with Elway on the field, the game was never over until the final gun. When the Cleveland Browns, ahead 20-13 in the 1986 AFC Championship game, handed Elway his lunch at his own two yard line with 632 seconds left to eat it, I was not entirely filled with suspense. I had seen Elway eat sizable portions of trouble in other games. An inner confidence built on memories prevented my suspense from running too deep.
-----Now, outside of Mel Gibson’s “Passion”, I don’t get very teary over Jesus’ crucifixion either. I’ve crossed a lot of ideas since I was younger, and I have shaped many additional perceptions regarding this life, Jesus, and the real life to which He will take us. I look at all the things that occurred in relation to the cross, the defeat of death, the validation of all He taught, the antithesis of Satan’s initial sin, etc., and I can’t help bringing to His passion the same emotional structure I bring to my memories of The Drive. And yes, my beloved contemporary brethren, it makes me want to celebrate in the many moments sprinkled amongst all the moments it drives me to my knees in reverent worship.
Love,
Steve Corey
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