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Were You There?

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At the heart of the city of London is Charing Cross. All distances across the city are measured from its central point. Locals refer to it simply as “the cross.” One day a child became lost in the bustling metropolis.  A city police officer (A “bobby,” as they are referred to in London) came to the child’s aid to try and help him return to his family. The bobby asked the child a variety of questions in an attempt to discover where the boy lived, to no avail. Finally, with tears streaming down the boy’s face, he said, “If you will take me to the cross I think I can find my way from there.” What an apt description of the Christian life. The cross is both the starting place of our new life in Christ, but also the place we must return to, time and again, to keep our bearings in life. – Stuart Strachan Jr.

Today marks the day of all days, called “Good Friday” by believers around the world. At approximately 7AM, Roman governor of Judea, Marcus Pontius Pilatus, sentenced Jesus to die by crucifixion. At approximately 8AM, the patibulum, or cross beam was affixed to Jesus’ shoulders through ropes, as a soldier tied a rope around His waist and led Him through the streets of Jerusalem for all to see what happens when someone defies the power of Rome. The cross beam would have weighed approximately 50-60 pounds. Around His neck was hung the titulus crucis, a sign to be nailed to the top of Jesus’ cross declaring His crime: “King of the Jews”, written in Latin, Greek and Hebrew. The site of Jesus’ sentencing is believed to have been the Antonia Fortress built by Herod the Great, and called the Praetorium by Pilate. From that site to Golgotha would have been approximately .5 miles. The weather at that time would have been hot, and dry while the road would have been unpaved, and bumpy studded with scores of crevices made by carts and beasts of burden. As one approached the outside walls of the city the road would have begun to slope upward leading to the hill of Golgotha, or Calvary (the Skull). Fluid accumulated around Jesus’ lungs, as His body was almost numb from severe exhaustion, severe mental and physical sufferings, the flogging, and the nerve-racking, and lancinating pains from the crown of thorns. Jesus fell more than once as He journeyed to the Hill, and the final fall led the accompanying soldier, the exactor mortis, to enlist Simon of Cyrene to carry His cross the rest of the way. Jesus’ robe was literally glued to His Body by the clotted blood which was ripped from His body before His crucifixion. Nailing His hands first to the cross beam, the median nerve (we know it as the “funny bone”) was pierced sending bolts of pain searing through Jesus’ arms. Several soldiers were enlisted to lift Him up to the stipes, or upright post, that was mortised at the top, allowing the soldiers to simply lift and drop the cross beam onto it. Next the soldiers affixed Jesus’ feet either to the sides or the face of the cross, and rather than placing a nail through both feet, archaeological and forensic experts, have surmised that both feet were nailed independently of one another. If the feet were nailed to the face of the cross the median nerve would have also been pierced sending shooting pain up through Jesus’ legs.

At the sixth hour, or noon, darkness covered the land. This lasted 3 hours. One teacher aptly said, If God the Father had to turn His back on His Son, no one else was going to be able to look at Him. Some would see this darkness as a sign of coming judgment. One ancient writer recorded: “When the sun is obscured, it is an evil sign to the nations….when the moon is obscured, it is an evil sign to Israel, because Israel reckons according to the moon, the nations of the world according to the sun.” It was into this darkness Jesus entered into the deepest depths of suffering, as body, soul, and spirit enter a separation between Heaven and earth, God and mankind. It was here Jesus was suspended making a way for us to leave this earth and ascend into His Presence.

At the highest point of His agony, and the filling full of all of histories sins, Jesus stretched forth and shouted in Aramaic, “Ho Mashalam!” Which is one word in the Greek: “Tetelestai!” Our English equivalent is a phrase, “IT IS FINISHED!” And as Scripture records, “He bowed His head and gave up His Spirit.” Those who owed so much that they never could repay – had their debt canceled by He Who owed nothing. He paid our debt through His sufferings, “cancelling the written code that was against us and that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the cross.” (Col. 2:14) This is the GIFT! You can’t pay for it, or earn it. You don’t deserve it, nor can you escape it. His cross, His death, His cry, echoes through the universe as a testimony that can never be reversed.

In relation to this event thousands, and tens of thousands, have identified with their suffering Messiah declaring, along with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me!” (Gal. 2:20). We are reminded of the old hymn which asks, “Were You There”? This African-American spiritual probably predated the Civil War, asking the obvious question, placing each person who hears the question on the witness stand. The slaves who authored this song could readily relate to the sufferings of Christ, and the brutality of slavery. In the book titled, “Stories Behind the Traditions of Easter,” the author states: “Maybe the fact that spirituals were the joint cries and shouts of Christians looking for the freedom that only God could bring gives the message of this song much more impact. None of us were there in body when Christ died, but all of us need to go there in spirit. To understand the gift of salvation, each sinner must realize that he or she is a slave to the world: only then does seeing Christ on the cross make the impact all the more real.”

A House Divided

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On an early June morning in 1862, two brothers from Scotland were fighting for their lives and adopted homeland on a South Carolina battlefield. They had come to America less than two decades prior, and each had come to love his new homeland. Shockingly, Alexander and James Campbell, were fighting on opposite sides of the Civil War conflict. The two brothers made the transatlantic crossing together from their native Scotland to make America their new home. Yet, while Alexander remained in New York, Joseph, became a stone mason in Charleston, South Carolina. When the fighting broke out between the states, Alexander joined New York’s 79th Highlander Infantry Regiment while James enlisted into the 1st South Carolina Battalion. Each knew the other had joined the enemy cause because they corresponded with one another throughout the war. Eventually, Alex and the 79th New York landed on James Island, South Carolina, just outside of Charleston. The Union Army was attempting to make South Carolina pay for its rebellion and the attack on Fort Sumter the previous year. During this skirmish Union troops captured a Confederate soldier who told Alexander that his brother was operating in the same area with the Federal Army. It wasn’t until after the battle of Secessionville that the brothers learned the horrifying truth. Alexander wrote: “I was astonished to hear from the prisoners that you was colour Bearer of the Regmt that assaulted the Battrey at this point the other day…. I was in the Brest work during the whole engagement doing my Best to Beat you but I hope that You and I will never again meet face to face Bitter enemies on the Battlefield. But if such should be the case You have but to discharge your deauty to Your caus for I can assure you I will strive to discharge my deauty to my country & my cause.” Though the brothers were never engaged in dramatic mortal combat at Secessionville, it was the closest they would ever come. Following the battle, the Union Army returned north, in which Alexander was wounded in the Battle of Chantilly, Virginia. Brother James was captured at the 1863 Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina and sent to a federal prison, where he sat out the rest of the war in squalid conditions. The two continued their correspondence throughout James’ incarceration as a rebel soldier.

Scripture states in Matthew 10:21-22 that Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child; and children will take a stand against their parents and will have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake, but he who perseveres and endures to the end will be saved [from spiritual disease and death in the world to come]. In this passage Jesus describes another battlefield in which He gives instructions to His 12 disciples preparing them for the adversity that they were about to encounter. What’s interesting though is that His discourse moves beyond the present and into the future as He prophesies Last Days events. Jesus prophetic vantage point saw that from the birthing of Adam and Eve’s children a battle had begun long ago between father, mother, and brothers culminating in a final, Last Days battle that revealed the true motive of their hatred. That motive begins to be unveiled in Genesis 4 as it records the birthing of twin brothers – Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel a shepherd. Physically they were twins but spiritually they were polar opposites. Cain sought to obey God half-heartedly, offering to God something that was to be “sacrificial” – but was anything but. Abel on the other hand brought to God his “first fruits” – his very best sacrifice – and it was pleasing to God. His brother Cain was none too happy with God’s disapproval being outdone by his younger, twin brother. As the animosity seethed inside of him it quickly evolved into premeditated murder. Who knows what drove Cain to silence the testimony of truth and righteousness reflected in his sibling. Was it that Cain couldn’t stand the sight of seeing what he did not want to be? Was it that when he saw his own face reflected in his brothers that he was reminded of his failure? We will never know. Suffice it to say Abel became history’s first martyr. But is there some deeper, spiritual significance that has been hidden for the saints of God to unearth its treasure? Absolutely. Presently we are engaged, consciously or unconsciously, in a spiritual civil war that is occurring right beneath our proverbial noses. As Solomon warns us throughout Proverbs, “Get wisdom and get understanding.” Yet Paul reveals the condition of man in Romans 3:10-12 “There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. 

They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.” We live in a day and time where the Body of Christ desperately needs shepherds who are prophetic. Shepherds who will point out: This is the way; walk you in it. Yet the blind are leading the blind not recognizing their own spiritual “dis-ease.” Something is desperately wrong in the Body of Christ, and has been for centuries. Only those seekers of truth will awaken to the warning blasts of the trumpet. Question is which side of the war to end spiritual slavery will we find ourselves on: Cain’s or Abel’s?