The Cross is not Enough

I was recently asked to write a short article for a low key weekly publication. As a result of the assignment, I found myself perusing some of the writing I did in my days as a student. I stumbled upon a short graduation speech that I gave several years ago. While I'm no longer the same person that wrote that graduation speech, I decided to use the speech as a spring board for the assigned article.


In Elie Wiesel’s book “Night” his account of his experiences in the concentration camps, he describes the death by hanging of a young boy.
The SS seemed more disturbed than usual. To hang a young boy in front of thousands of spectators was no light matter. The head of the camp read the verdict. All eyes were on the child. He was lividly pale, biting his lips. The gallows threw its shadow over him.
“The three victims mounted onto the chairs. The three necks were placed within the nooses. Long live liberty! Cried the two adults. But the child was silent. At a sign from the head of the camp, the three chairs tipped over.
Where is God? Where is He?’ someone behind me asked.
Then the march past began. The two adults were no longer alive. Their tongues hung swollen, blue-tinged. But the third rope was still moving: being so light, the child was still alive….for more than half an hour he stayed there struggling between life and death. And we had to look him full in the face. When I passed in front of him, his tongue was still red, his eyes were not yet glazed.
Behind me I heard the same man asking, Where is God now?
And I heard a voice within me answer him: Where is God? Here He is….He is hanging here, on this gallows….
For many of us, Christ is still hanging on those gallows. Folks, we are fallen, sinful people. Christ came to save us through His death on the cross…. But Christ’s death on the cross IS NOT ENOUGH! …….. If Christ is not alive and working on the face of the earth today, we are HOPEFULLY living in vain. If the body of Christ is not alive and moving on the face of the earth, this class has just wasted two precious years of “life.”
This is what Christian education is all about…..This is what the last two years of World History, Principles of Science, World Literature, Foundations of Education, Choir, Systematic Theology, and Old Testament Survey have been all about. Education is about becoming…….becoming the Body of Christ.
I want to call us independent, individual, freedom valuing, Americans back to the Body of Christ. Yes, the church is not perfect….but we were once given perfection and we murdered Him.
We can no longer demand perfection; our hope now lies in the living body of Christ, the church, composed of imperfect people.
Many have criticized the church heavily, including myself, and we say that is what education produces. I want to say, “we MUST critique the church, but only in the context of commitment. The church must be critiqued from the inside; criticisms outside of commitment are nothing but prideful scorn and mockery. We need people who are able to continually evaluate how well we are representing the Body of Christ on earth!
So….I call us back to valuing the church…..I call us back to becoming the Body of Christ, alive and powerful on the face of the earth…. I call us back from the dead to LIVING!