Becoming too familiar with the cross

I have the honor of teaching at our Good Friday services which we call our “Passion Experience.”  We call it an experience because it is not about sitting and listening as much as participating in an experience.

One of the things I wrestle with is how to make this fresh.  I have taught at these particular services at Suncrest for 4 years now and in various other forms taught on the cross.  The reason this is so crucial to me is because of this little fact I’ve learned:

Familiarity breeds complacency.

When I was in Israel I saw this so clearly.  People lived literally next door to Biblical places and their proximity produced apathy.

I think this is exactly what happens with the cross.  We become numb to the cross.

We wear it as jewelry.

People have manipulated it in a clothing line called Affliction Gear.

We see them everywhere and never take a second glance.

We have grown complacent to the cross.  As I study the cross I realize that it is so easy to ignore the reality of the brutality of the cross…it is so easy to overlook what Jesus went through for you and me.  That is why I love the setting we are creating for our Passion Experiences.  If only for a couple nights we come face to face with Jesus on the Cross and when we do, we won’t walk away unchanged.