This is a guest post by Brian Davis, Visit Brian’s band site here.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the prince of glory died
My richest gain I count but loss
And pour contempt on all my pride.
That was the song I was taught as a child
The hymn on Sunday morning sung by the faithful…young and old
We would sing, we would learn, we would leave
Eat, sleep, repeat.
Until the young were old and the old were gone and we walked through life walking further from the wonder the violence the terror the glory of a cross where our Savior, the prince of glory the Prince of Peace died at the hands of violent men who demanded blood, blood that should have been mine, yours.
But we still survey the wondrous cross in a song, in a service, in a ceremony.
Where we remember the death of God in flesh and we dress in black and take the somber tone all the while looking past the cross to the empty tomb.
We skip days, we lose time because, deep down, we don’t want to consider death good especially not the death of a good man.
The cross more than a couple pieces of wood. Rather, a divine mystery, a point in history
Where the world was changed an instrument of torture where criminals were hanged But what was his crime?
This criminal king was nailed to a tree, two pieces of timber, some nails
a crown of thorns.
A cross that should have been on my back.
Nails that should have pierced my hands and feet. A crown of pain resting on my brow. A spear that should have pierced my side.
The cross, The mystery, The pain, Reduced now to a symbol, an icon, a piece of jewelry, a trinket a logo on a t-shirt, a bumper sticker on our cars.
“My richest gain” now branded with His pain.
I once heard it said
that the two most recognizable logos on planet earth are the Cross and Coca-Cola.
We see one and we know where to find refreshment We see the other and what do we see?
We see one and we drink in the sugary sweetness.
We see that can and we see polar bears at Christmas and the world united in singing because “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” is a much easier sell than “I’d like to give the world a cross.”
But that’s what our savior did death on a cross for the sins of the whole world. And we market it like a bottle of soda “What the world wants is the real thing” and we can sell it to you for $19.95 and hang it around a gold chain for you to hang around your neck… and forget that what Jesus offered us was the real thing.
Real blood. Real love.
Real pain. Real death.
Real LIFE.
It’s so much easier to drink a can of cola than to drink in the mystery of blood washing you clean of pain motivated by love of death bringing real life. And what of this mystery? Our world wants answers and wants them now immediate gratification for being born, for showing up. Simply because I exist, I deserve to know the answers. I demand to know the truth Unless it’s too painful Unless it involves death Unless it’s unsatisfying.
Then, I’ll seek another answer an answer that’s solvable, an answer that feels good
an answer that I can put my fingerprints on and exclaim, “I figured it out!” The bible tells me that “The cross is foolishness to those who are perishing But to those who are being saved It is the power of God.” For some who believe in the power of the cross they feel the right, the need perhaps, to cry “FOOLS” at a world that does not understand it’s power But do we really get it? Have we heard that one sermon that uncovered why Jesus HAD to die what it is about His blood that makes us clean.
How His death could have purchased my life? You see, when I survey the wondrous cross I should pour contempt on all my pride. But, it’s my pride that leads me to finding the answers. It’s my pride that tells me I’ve got it figured out it’s my pride that says, “Skip the pain of Friday.
Let’s just celebrate on Sunday!” it’s my pride that wants the bow on top of the present. Perhaps it’s even my pride that leads me to think that God died for the sins of the world but my sin couldn’t have been that bad.
When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count but loss and pour contempt on all my pride. When you look to the wondrous cross what will you choose to see?
Will you see jewelry? Will you see a logo tantamount to a can of soda? Will you see the answers? Or will you take the time to bask in the mystery of pain, love, agony, grace, violence, mercy all mingled together like the blood and water that flowed from his side like the fragility and majesty contained in the very body of Christ.
Don’t be too quick to skip ahead to Sunday.
Survey the wondrous cross and remember.
Visit Brian Davis’s band site here and follow him on Twitter here.
