April 2022 PSBC Connections

From Pastor Marty Price

Several months ago in my reading I came across the following sentiment: “I don’t like the cross as a symbol of Jesus.  It is a tool of torture, a place of death. When I think of it I can almost smell the sweat of soldiers and the blood of the victim. I can imagine the gasping of breath and hear the muttered moans of the dying.  I much prefer a lamb as the representation of Jesus.  Clean white wool, loving and friendly, even playful.  Why didn’t we choose a lamb instead of the cross?!”

I thought about that recently as I was teaching a class of children about the worship that God instructed the Priests to lead in the book of Leviticus.  I jokingly told Suzanne that I would need a stuffed lamb, a knife, and some ketchup (she was not amused). While I think the kids would have been fine, I decided that we would color some pictures instead. But – we did talk about the sacrifice of animals as God’s way to tell them that one day there would be a final sacrifice, the lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world.

It is important, particularly as we celebrate Easter, that we do not forget the glory of the cross.  In the Old Testament the priests were to kill the lambs that were brought, such as in Leviticus 4:33 “… and lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering.” The result of the offering was that “the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven (Lev. 4:35b).”

While a lamb may be a more palatable image than a cross, there is beauty in the cross.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones, a Pastor and Theologian, once said, “You will never know God as Father except by Jesus Christ, and in particular, by his death upon the cross…Look there, gaze, meditate, survey the wondrous cross. And then you will see something of him.” Reflecting on the purpose and meaning of the cross brings clarity to the immeasurable love of God. The cross by itself is not beautiful.  The sacrifice of God’s perfect Lamb is beautiful because it reveals the heart of God. “For our sake he [God] made him [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I pray that you will remember the beauty of the cross.  In the words of Isaac Watts:

 “See from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

 Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.

             The beauty of the cross is found in Jesus. He deserves all the praise, worship, and honor that we can give. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12)!”