Relevance of the Cross and Resurrection of the Cross for the New Generations

I'm posting after an extremely long hiatus. I've been wanting to share this essay for donkey's years but have just procrastinated.
I'm sharing a piece I wrote on the Relevance of the cross. This essay was written for the Abundant Life ministries essay competition in 2015 and won the 2nd prize and was published in their bulletin.
The essay is a reflection of my faith, belief, conviction and personal journey with Christ.
As someone who has endorsed the Free and Open Source and copyleft movements from my undergraduate days, I freely give permission to any group or individual to use my essay or parts of the essay for academic purposes, for nurturing people in Christ and any research
No part of my essay shall be published or used for monetary gain without my express permission.

One of the biggest questions in front of the Christian Church the world over is, “How do we fill up our Churches? Where have all the young people gone, why are they not in Church?” After asking these questions we wonder if Christ is really relevant to these kids, What does the Cross mean to them and does the Resurrection of Christ mean anything to them. I know that these questions bother me as a senior member of a youth group of the parish and I have heard preachers both lay and clergy who are immersed in the youth ministry, also ask these questions

The Resurrection of Christ is the very foundation of Christian faith. The Apostle Paul in his First letter to the Corinthians deals with this, If Christ did not rise from the dead, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14 “then our preaching is empty and your faith is in vain”. St. Paul goes ahead and says in 1 Corinthians 15:19 “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” If Christ didn’t rise from the dead then we might as well as lock up our churches and I might as well as stop writing this essay because there is no point, but since Christ has risen from the dead and is very much alive, here and now as Paul clearly writes in 1 Corinthians 15: 5 – 6, “and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.”

The Resurrection of Christ is meaningless to speak about without talking about the Cross.The entire experience of Christ at the Cross on Calvary, the pain and suffering that Christ Jesus had to go through for our sakes, that he who had done no wrong had to bear our sins on the cross and pay the price and take up the punishment meant for sinners like you and me in our stead. It is a very humbling realization that God chose to send His only Son with whom He had a perfect relationship with even before the creation of the universe, before the current space-time continuum existed to sacrifice Himself for a wretched being like me who doesn’t even fulfill the purpose of his existence i.e. to have a relationship with God. I personally believe that this realization and understanding and its internalization and acceptance is the key to understanding the Relevance of the Cross and the Resurrection. This internalization is age-irrelevant, for some lucky people it happens when they are young and they dedicate their lives in His service, for some it happens on their deathbed. Some of us despite being born in great and ancient Christian families that go back centuries never realize this and internalize it because they have taken for granted the salvation bringing truth that they have been hearing since their childhood and sometimes a new convert of a few weeks manages to grasp this divine and life altering truth and internalize it. I have come to realize that the only thing that matters in realizing the relevance of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ is the sincerity with which the person seeks the Lord and not the century or the cradle the person was born into. As Christ Himself said in Matthew 7:7, "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and the door shall be opened to you." I have come across both young people who have searched for the eternal truth that Christ offers and have accepted it and made it the foundation on which they have built their lives and yet another set of young people who have been mulishly obstinate and refused to accept or are indifferent to this eternal truth and try to explain it away using science as a crutch or are too busy chasing after the world to notice their need for Christ , but this is not a new observation or an original one. The great 17th century French Mathematician, Physicist, Philosopher and Theologian Blaise Pascal had the latter set in mind when he said, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus."

The entire journey to understand the relevance of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ starts with the acceptance of the fact that we are sinners and have fallen short of the standards set by a Holy and Just God and are unworthy to be in the presence of God, leave alone having a relationship with Him as Adam and Eve had which is the purpose of our creation and existence because of our sinful nature. The realization that God who in His mercy, sent His only begotten Son Jesus, whom He loved very dearly to pay the price for our sins that we should have fallen upon us and the won victory over sin and death who justifies us before His Father as the only means that the broken relationship between us and God can be restored after we accept our sinful nature. These truths are going to be relevant to humanity no matter in which century they are born in or what culture they were born into.

To those of us who believe that the only way we can attain salvation is through the death and resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Cross and the subsequent Resurrection of the Lord on the 3rd day and the knowledge that we worship a living God is of paramount importance and gives us the strength to face the uncertainties of what lies ahead. This has been beautifully put to tune by the famous songwriter and musician couple, Bill and Gloria Gaither in the chorus of their song Because He Lives. In the words of the song,

“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,

Because He lives, all fear is gone;

Because I know He holds the future,

And life is worth the living,

Just because He lives!”

The Church will change and evolve as the Society in which the Church is based in evolves and the methods of consuming God’s Holy Word will change and the songs they sing will change but the truth of the Cross and its message of a love and sacrifice so great and the Resurrection of our Lord and His victory over sin and death will continue to be the foundation on which the Church continues to grow and on which the various people will be evangelized. As the Church moves on from century to century, from where it is today as many people call Church 2.0 to Church 3.0, Church 4.0 and Church whatever.0 the Cross and Resurrection will still stand out and inspire people with their message, convict and motivate people to do things for the Lord and to move beyond their comfort zone.

Finally to conclude, I would like to say that the Cross and the Resurrection and the message behind them will be relevant in the next century and even in the next millennium and even unto the day that Christ comes again in glory to rule the world in righteousness and truth. The Cross and Resurrection will be a central and key tenet of Christianity unto the end of the ages, something so vital that Christianity without it will be meaningless, something that will bear much scrutiny but will stand up to it and prove itself true to critical examination and will inspire many in the coming times to declare Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

Written & Submitted by: Jebin Cherian