After a devastating typhoon battered Macao in 1825, John Bowring, the governor of Hong Kong, came to inspect the damage. He found buildings smashed, houses devastated and the territory in ruins. All that remained of the cathedral which bore the brunt of the storm was the facade, with the cross standing tall on its pinnacle.
Nothing is more central to all of Christianity than the Cross.
The Cross represents the best and the worst of humanity because you cannot look at the Cross without realizing that all of us have a collective responsibility for what happened, and all of us can find there redemption and forgiveness because of God’s sacrifice. No wonder, churches the world over are topped with crosses.
Some of you attend Good Friday services, but some of you are so busy that you hardly have time to reflect on what’s good about the day, other than that a weekend follows. May I encourage you to stop whatever you are doing and read the account of the Crucifixion in Luke 23 as though you were reading it for the first time. Read on as the hopes and dreams of Jesus’ disciples die when they place the bruised and broken body in a new tomb. Read the final chapter of Luke’s gospel as the light of dawn on Sunday morning shines into an empty tomb, proving that the body is not in a grave but that He is risen.
The story is so simple that it could never have been fabricated. The One who died came back to life, and forever changed the destinies of men and women. Christmas is wonderful–exciting and warm, but Easter is somber and meaningful. There is not an endless grind, a machine-like existence, but every person is endowed with the breath of God and can find forgiveness and the hope of tomorrow.
Our culture substitutes Santa Claus for the manger, tries to ignore the Cross, and substitutes the Easter bunny for the empty tomb. However, every graveyard and every obituary is a reminder that Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter morning give us life and hope beyond death.
John Bowring, the Governor of Hong Kong, saw the cross atop the one wall remaining of that battered cathedral, and was moved to write what is now a well-known hymn:
"In the Cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time."
May it ever be! - Resource Reading: 1 Corinthians 15