Journey Through the Cross

Forty Days of Devotions on the Greatest Event of all Time.

Day 1: Beginnings

 

Why?

 

“My God! My God! Why have You forsaken Me?”

 

Screams, curses and cries echoed through the thick darkness that shrouded Mt. Calvary as Jesus Christ, Lamb of God, shouldered the twin burdens of the sin of mankind and the wrath of God.

All attention– all attention–, was riveted on that little hill as the very center point of all time and eternity, the very crux of all human existence was unfolding.

Angels stared in horror.

Satan laughed in ecstasy.

The souls of mankind hung in the balance.

And the Father scornfully turned His Holy back on His only Son.

So that it was there, in the pitch darkness of heart and mind, in the lostness of soul, and at the uttermost end of strength, the Son of God sent out a question that yet echoes to every recess of Heaven and hell, time and eternity.

“Why?”

Why, God, why?

Why the cross? Why the suffering? Why the sin? Why Satan, and sorrow, death and hell?

Why anything and everything? Why create any of this in the first place and then let it spiral seemingly out of control into total chaos and abject darkness?

Most of all, why send Your only Son from Heaven to the torture of crucifixion?

It is from here, at this pivotal point of history, when the Son of God hangs writhing in agony on a cruel tree driven into the skull of a godforsaken hill that we also fling our greatest question to God:

“ Why?”

And it is here on the bloody ground at the foot of God’s altar that we find the supreme answer.

It all started “In the beginning…”

 

Masterpiece

 

In the beginning, God ached.

 

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!    Deuteronomy 6:4

 

The desire to create burns white hot in the heart of the artist. The need to express himself and the vision that grips his imagination drives him more forcefully than the need for his necessary food. He must create, he must bring into material being the idea that has been conceived in his soul. He must bring forth the image inside him. He will not rest until he brings to life and light the vision in his heart.

So he gathers his material and tools, places his model before him, and brings to bear all his heart, all his mind, all his soul, and all his strength on this one vital task: to create his masterpiece.

Now a masterpiece is a piece of the master. It carries his mark, is infused with his nature, expresses his heart, and bears his image. Take away the artist and you have no art. Take away the essence of the master and you have no masterpiece.

So in a very real way, a masterpiece is in essence a self-portrait.

 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.    Genesis 1:1-2

 

The first creative act in our universe by the greatest Artist of all was to display a formless void, shrouded in darkness, and awash with the inky depths of murky seas.

Why was the earth created in such a state? When His Spirit brooded over the picture of emptiness before Him, what did He see?

Could it be that God at creation’s onset painted a Self-portrait? Could it be that like the earth His heart was empty and void, His Face dark with tears, and His Spirit stirred by a great need? Could it be that in the beginning God’s heart ached?

But what could the heart of Almighty God possibly need?

Certainly a creation that was void and empty, shrouded in darkness and awash in tears bore not the reflection of His infinite glory. Perhaps there was another creation that would stand as His crowning achievement. What would ultimately be His Masterpiece, the truest expression of His image?

 

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.   Genesis 1:26-27

 

With a mere utterance of a Word, God created the universe. Stars, planets, sun and moon, clouds, oceans, mountains, plants and animals, all were spoken into existence by the infinite power of the Word of God.

But on the sixth day, to bring about the culmination of all He had made, the Lord God held His peace.

 

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.    Genesis 2:7

 

As the Lord God began the task of creating mankind in His own image, He dug His hands deep into the soil of a newborn earth, and deeper still into His own heart. From what He found there He fashioned the perfect body of a perfect man. Then He breathed into its nostrils His own Breath, Intellect, Spirit, and Life, and the man became a living, breathing soul.

From the needful heart of the incomplete earth, that poor and pitiful substance of emptiness and void, He brought forth a creation that was an expression of His very Image.

Here then is His masterpiece, a piece of the Master. He created mankind to carry His mark, be infused with His nature, to be an expression of His heart, and to bear His image.

Like the Triune God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, mankind was created a triune being of body, soul, and spirit. Mankind was given intelligence and creativity, an appreciation for beauty and glory, a righteous nature, the ability to choose their own actions, power and dominion over their environment, and many other attributes that have their genesis in the Creator God.

And most importantly they were given a capacity for love.

Just like God.

 

 

Scripture references:

Deuteronomy 6:4

Genesis 1:1-5, 26-27

Genesis 2:7