Your cross is too small

Ok, sorry, I need to get this off my chest.

Listen, you, quit nagging me. You keep telling me to preach The Cross, and that would be great, except when you say that what you really mean is that I should preach your own, quite limited understanding of it.

You see, the problem is this:  your cross is too small.

If you look at the world and see only nameless souls that need to repent, your cross is too small.

If you see people trapped in destructive patterns of behaviour, and think that if they’d only try harder they’d be free, your cross is too small.

If you think it is human activity that impresses the perfectly holy God, your cross is too small.

If you think the life, teaching, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus can be summed up into a message that says “Come to Jesus or burn in hell”, your cross is too small.

If you look at social exclusion, and think all would be well if only they would repent, but otherwise it’s none of your business, your cross is too small.

If you look at enmity between people groups who are divided by ethnicity, age, access to resources, class, colour or creed and have no idea that the Gospel of Jesus speaks to this directly, your cross is too small.

If your preaching tells women or children that they are second class citizens in the kingdom of God, your cross is too small.

If you consider the broken relationships in your life, and the lives of those around you and merely look forward to the day that you’re in heaven and all will be well, your cross is too small.

If you see spiritual oppression and darkness and wish there was more the church could do, your cross is too small.

If you think freedom and increasing holiness are mere wishful thinking, your cross is too small.

If you think you have to live with that curse, your cross is too small.

If death seems like the end, your cross is too small.

If serving the kingdom, and placing your time and resources at God’s disposal seems like too much bother, your cross is too small.

If you think it’s great to be a servant of God, but there’s no way you could be His child, your cross is too small.

If you think that that societal change and individual repentance are mutually exclusive, or even competing agendas, your cross is too small.

If you think you have no choice but to live with that anxiety, that habit, that awful secret, then your cross is too small.

And if you think that other believers in Jesus who hold a view different from your own narrow one are somehow weaker, less intelligent, less godly or are spiritually poorer than you, your cross is way way too small.

Thanks for listening.