His Kingdom Come

It’s everywhere! The empires of this world are jostling for power through extreme violence, and the symbols of their authority seem to be missiles, planes, drones and bombs.

Last weekend, we remembered another time and another empire doing the same things, except a symbol of their power and domination was the cross. On that symbol, Jesus Christ chose to die, destroy its power, rose again, and ushered in a new Kingdom marked by a new way of living; the seeds of which grew to overwhelm that same empire. 

On Sunday, you may have noticed Alex Sandison trying to move the cross on stage. He explains why here: 

“As I was worshipping and singing, I was looking at the cross with the barbed wire crown of thorns, upright, proud and lit. I wanted to go and kneel down at the foot of it as an expression of worship. As I was considering the awkwardness of being on my knees in a church service while everyone else was singing, I found myself contemplating the tomb that Jesus’ body was placed in, broken by the cross.

"I had an impression of the open mouth of the cave, the stone that was there, rolled aside. What struck me was, on that first Easter Sunday morning, the cross was laid aside. It had served its purpose; the death of Jesus. The purpose of the cross was completed, not proud, but laid down in the dirt. In that moment in worship, I had an urge to lay the cross down, cast it aside.

“Because on that first Easter morning, Jesus was upright and sunlit, the tomb was empty and the stone was rolled away.”

We should grieve deeply and, yes, at times even be angry at what we are seeing, because it is all wrong. But as we take those feelings to our Father, we can also trust that the God of the universe will continue to overwhelm the power of today’s empires and continue the steady march toward “His Kingdom Come” – our hope.

Adam