Staying on the Cross

Matthew 4:6:  Satan said: and said to Him, 'If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down...."

Matthew 27:40: those that passed by said:  If You are the Son of God come down from the cross.

Matthew 27:42:  the chief priests, scribes and Pharisees said:   If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. 

I wonder if Christ's crucifixion experience may have been more intense on the emotional and spiritual level than on the physical?  I wonder if all the taunting to come down from the cross and prove Himself, was Satan's effort to get Him to abandon the mission of the cross.  These words were more than taunts.  Every power of Heaven knew what was at stake.  Both good and bad powers knew that Jesus had to endure the cross in order to be the Son of Man and our Savior. 

Have you ever endured a situation that was crazy making?  You know that what you are doing/saying is the correct thing.  Everyone around you, however, is shaking their heads and saying something to the effect that it seems to them that there is another way.  Christ was in the middle of a hellish "crazy making" scheme.  So much was at stake.  We all know what if feels like to be taunted and pushed to prove our point or position.  Prove who we are. 

I remember one time in a work situation when Overton and I worked in the same office (we had not been married long).  Something happened that I allowed to upset me.  An outside salesman was talking to me, and he realized how upset I was.   He said, "Now, girl, remember who you are."  He meant that I was Mrs. Overton Lea.  I was representing him, and that was no small matter in that company.  I will be forever thankful to him for those words of wisdom. 

When self rises up we want to come down from our crosses.   Christ endured the accusations that He was from the devil and maybe even the prince of devils.  That which was His strength, staying on the cross, was counted as His weakness.  Staying on the cross was not seen to be the position of power.  It never is.   

Matthew 10:24-25:  A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  It is enough for a disciple that he be like his teacher, and a servant like his master.   If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call those of his household. 

John 17:15: I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.  

Matthew 10:38:  And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

 
We each have a cross.  And like the Master we will be tempted to put it down or come down when we are being crucified.  All of man's ways are anti-cross.  We do not like to be uncomfortable.  We do not like to be different.  We do not like to be accused.  We do not like to be taunted.  Man's ways are not God's ways.  God's path is via the Garden of Gethsemane and crucifixion.  His proof is in the resurrection.  You cannot have resurrection without Gethsemane and the cross.  When we are resurrected (emotionally and spiritually) there is now nothing left to prove.  You walk in the peace of knowing yourself from the point of reference of something that really cannot be explained.  Overcoming happens by staying on the cross.  Your identity and God's depends on it.