Next time you go for a drive, count how many intersections you have to navigate. It makes a difference which way you turn at each one, take a wrong turn and your GPS voice will immediately tell you to turn around, ignore the voice and it might take you some time to get back on route, take several wrong turns and you might end up totally lost.
Life is replete with intersections. Every election is an intersection, and it makes a difference which way we turn. Every decision, great or small, is an intersection and will determine how we spend your lives and where we end up. Every temptation is an intersection, deliberately designed for us to take a wrong turn. Every opportunity is an intersection trying to help us live better lives.
Some intersections are confusing. Just for fun google the Arc de Triomphe (12 turn-offs) or the Swindon (5 in 1) roundabouts; talk about confusing and overwhelming, you could be circling for a good long time before figuring out how to navigate through them. Just like real life, aren’t they, so many directions and decisions, so many other cars on the road complicating things, so many possibilities, so many lanes, so many wrong turns.
The most important intersection in all human history, and in each one of our lives personally, is the Cross of Christ. Strange, isn’t it, that the very symbol associated with Jesus Christ is a cross, an intersection, horizontal/vertical intersection.
It is heaven and earth intersecting.
It is the God and man intersection. Not as a theoretical or theological construct, but real God, in real flesh, in real time, among real people, with a real name – Jesus Christ.
It is where sin (yours and mine) crucified the righteousness of God.
Eternal life and death crossed paths on Jesus’ cross.
The rejection of God and redemption of God crossed at Calvary/Golgatha (the place Jesus was crucified).
Politics and God’s eternal purposes and plans ran into each other at the cross of Jesus.
Evil and hate battled love mercy and grace at the cross.
The powers of man, sin and death, the devil, and of God intersected on the cross of Jesus.
At the cross, the justice of God and the injustice of man collided.
Innocence and guilt crossed paths at the crucifixion of Christ.
On the cross, the laws of man clashed with the law of God.
Violence met forgiveness on Calvary.
Absolute, eternal Truth ran into mankind’s lies and truth-twisting.
Eternal salvation intersected the justice and wrath of God at the cross of Jesus.
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For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 (NLT2)
He (Christ) personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. 1 Peter 2:24-25 (NLT2, parenthesis mine)
Some intersections we only come to once in life, some we cross daily, some we wish we could go back to and take a different turn, some we run through without noticing how important they are, some we only come to from time to time, and eventually we will cross the very last one. But of all the intersections we come to the cross of Jesus is the most important one, what we decide there will not only shape our earthly existence, but also our eternal destiny.
In reading this little pastor’s note God in his kindness and grace has brought you (again) to the intersection of the cross Of Jesus Christ, so you can turn to Jesus before you run out of intersections. So, how will you leave this intersection? Will you leave it having turned to Christ, or will you be leaving Christ behind?
To God be all glory. Love you, Pastor Hans