I Boast in The Cross

​I enjoy this time of year.  I find the days leading up to Easter to be very meaningful.  A time to think again about The Cross, and what it means to me.  If a friend were to ask you, "What does The Cross mean to you?", what would you say? In recent years, I come back to a simple image of The Cross equaling Love.  This seems foolish to those who don't know Jesus and what He did for us.  "The Cross makes you think of love?!" they might say.  The Bible speaks to this in 1 Corinthians 1:18, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."  This passage goes on to talk about how the Greeks looked for wisdom.  The Cross didn't make sense to them.  It wasn't logical.  It didn't make sense that God would send His son to be an atoning, substitutionary sacrifice for our sins.  Doesn't God have more important things to do than care about me.  I'm not an expert in Greek mythology, but as I understand the Greek gods, it's no wonder they didn't understand a God who loved them.  Their gods seemed to be consumed with themselves.  Humans seemed to be a nuisance to be endured or a resource to be exploited.  The gods the Greeks knew were prideful and arrogant and boasted in themselves.  That word "boast" is used in this passage (1 Corinthians 1:31), "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord."  This verse is a reference to Jeremiah 9:23-24, "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches.  but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight."  Our God doesn't delight in Himself.  He delights in kindness, justice and righteousness.  I'm not always kind, just or right.  God must not delight in me.  Isn't that the foolishness of The Cross?  God had no obligation to take any note of me.  But He did.  He has.  He made a way of salvation for me.  He took my unkindness, my injustice and my unright-ness on Himself on The Cross.  Why would an all-powerful God do that?  That sounds...foolish.  When you've experienced His grace, forgiveness and love made available through The Cross your eyes turn from yourself, and you start boasting about what a great God we have.  "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!" (2 Corinthians 9:15).