C-Text - Christian Blog.

Monday, March 30, 2009. Sometimes people say: “Jesus is ok, I like this guy. But I do not know what this talk about the cross means.” The bible tells the life story of Jesus. It starts with his birth, speaks about the time when he startet his ministry and then reports many words, speeches and events. But most parts of the New Testament are about the death of Jesus and about the resurrection. Why is this so important? How can one get access to these stories today?

Death is always something frightening. Death scares us - we do not want to die and we do not want to be bothered with such things. Today we have banned death into hospitals, it is not something which would be a real part of our experiences. On the other hand we have a strongly developing scene of action movies, where violent death is a part of basically every story. We are attracted by death, we want the thrill, but we do not know exactly how to deal with it and it is good if we can switch the film off and keep death out of our life!

The bible puts a death right into the middle of its stories. Jesus death is a sign and crucial event for many of its stories. To some extent one can say that Jesus is heading towards his death, as a culminating point for his life. His death is linked to his message and purpose. Jesus at the cross has become a symbol of justice, mercy, forgiveness and love. We need to explore this further, these general remarks can just be a beginning. We need to explore the cross and its deep meaning for our life! [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

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