Fascination abounds in Christianity with a few specific hours on a Friday several thousand years ago. Our lens zooms in on a place just outside of Jerusalem, with intense focus on the God-man Jesus Christ’s act of obedience to the Father. We cannot help but hear the words uttered from the cursed tree, “It is finished,” and not burn with this awesome sense of wonder at the victory of God over death and Satan, and the completion of His plan to bring humanity back into relationship with Him. As long as we live we will continue to marvel at the weight of that day. Yet this is not the place for final contemplation, but merely a part of the story of the victory of God. Too often we get stuck on the sacrifice of the Son, and do not look ahead three days to and empty tomb.
We do not worship a savior still on a tree. We worship a savior who could not be contained by the Earth.
The obedience of Jesus at the cross brought about the means of justification for all men. Humanity and God were brought back into communion with one another. What words could ever express the magnitude of that newly created reality so long ago on a hill so far away? Should we not stand in amazement and give thanks at the work of the Son of God? Certainly! And marvel indeed at the great love of the One who worked for us in our great need. But there is more to wonder at still.
At the end of that faraway day, those who followed the One they called the Christ returned to their homes with a rather different awe — disbelief in what just occurred rather than amazement at the man who founded their hope. The hope of a coming kingdom. While the Cross reveals our justification through the work of Christ, the resurrection reveals the coming reality of the hope of the saints through the ages.
The cross is not the end of the story. It does not have the final word. The author of Hebrews details the faith of the Old Testament saints, and their intent gaze toward a heavenly city — one that wasn’t realized in their lifetime. A city looked for by Abraham and Moses and David. A city looked for by Peter, Barnabas and Mary. A city looked for by Augustine, Calvin and Luther. The one that we also still long to see. It serves us well to wonder at the cross, but we dare not forget to walk toward the kingdom that is coming. We set our eyes on that heavenly kingdom, on the hope accomplished on the third day. In the Resurrection of Christ, we see our hope — a literal embodied hope.
And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.
Romans 8:23-25