Have you heard this joke before about the boy failing math who was sent to Catholic school?
Just a funny little joke at first glance. I’ve read it before, but when it was forwarded to me recently for some reason I read through it again and it made me think.
This boy didn’t know anything about Jesus, but when he saw him nailed to the cross (the plus sign) he immediately got that serious business was going on (yes I know it’s a joke, but let’s get into the story a little).
The cross is serious business. The idea that we have a God who was willing to send his son to die, a God who was willing to endure the pain of the cross, all for us, that’s serious. I think of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who wrote a book called, “The Cost of Discipleship”. It’s a profound book for many reasons, but I’m always thinking back to his discussion of grace where he challenges us with the idea that grace is not cheap. Yes, grace is God’s gift to us, but it wasn’t cheap. Grace was in fact very costly. The cost had to be paid by Jesus. That meant suffering death, a horrible and painful death. That meant suffering the pain of hell, the consequences of all our sins.
So how do we live with these realities? We realize how serious God was – if God was willing to pay the cost, we should be willing to give him our time in thanks and praise as well as with our hearts and hands in mission.
