Shrinking the Cross

“Shrink it.” Not something you hear too often. You definitely don’t want to hear it in regards to laundry. You might, however, hear it from a villain in a children's television show or in the movie Honey, I Shrunk the Kids. No, we typically want things bigger and better. We have phrases like “larger than life” or “everything is bigger in Texas.” Even Disney, in the movie WALL·E, names the spaceship company “Buy n Large.” So, yes, we like things bigger—except when that something is the cross.

The book The Gospel-Centered Life by Robert Thune is a resource we use in our discipleship here at Heartland. In this resource, there is a chart that gives a visual of the maturation process a Christian goes through, called the Cross Chart. Simply put, after a person has placed their faith in Christ, that person should begin to grow in awareness of the holiness of God, as well as grow in awareness of their personal sin—like two paths getting further and further apart. The beauty of this chart is that as the pathways continue to diverge, the cross of Christ grows and bridges the gap between them at every point. This reveals the immense mercy, grace, and beauty of the cross!

In reality, however, we often do not mature in this direct manner. Rather, unlike our worldly tendency to make everything bigger and better—typically for our own comfort or control—we tend to shrink the cross. We do this in two ways. First, we shrink the cross when we pretend that our sin is not so bad.

We pretend by looking at individuals whom we believe have worse sin than we do. It is the attitude of, “At least I don’t do that.” We acknowledge that we have a problem, but make our problems seem lesser, more acceptable, than those of another. The other thing we do is try to perform.

Performing is when we think that we have to do something in order to validate our right standing before God. In other words, we think that if we just live a good life and follow all the rules, we should get into heaven. The other side of performing is the tendency to think that there is no way that faith in the gospel of Christ alone is enough to get us to heaven: “There must be more I have to do.”

As we reflect this Holy Week on our Savior, Jesus Christ’s journey to the cross and His glorious resurrection, I urge you to stop and consider what I have explained above. Because we all do it. I do it, other pastors do it, and even some of the greatest saints of all time have done it. When we engage in either of these tendencies—pretending or performing—we shrink the cross and diminish the sacrifice of our Lord.

Look at Luke’s Gospel as you walk with Jesus through Holy Week and the experiences and encounters He had with His people—His disciples, His enemies, and those who were strangers to Him—and you will see a grace, a love, and a mercy that you would never want diminished.

You will see people chanting His majesty, disciples betraying Him, enemies abusing Him, and strangers discovering the beauty of His act. But you will also see Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully man and fully God, humbly submitting to the will of the Father, taking on the burden of God’s wrath as our sins nail Him to the tree. In John’s Gospel, you will find those glorious words: “It is finished” (John 19:30).

To wrap this all up: you don’t need to pretend your sin isn’t that bad—remember the thief on the cross—and you don’t need to perform anything for your salvation. “It is finished.” Place your faith and trust in the work of Christ. Allow the cross to grow more and more as you experience God’s holiness and understand your sinfulness. Embrace Christ’s mercy, love, hope, and redemption, found only at the foot of the cross. Then go and follow Him.

For His glory,

Austin Strange