By Dr. John E. Morgan
Pastor–Collinsville Baptist Church
Gloria and I were in Cairo. It was 1999, and we were two weeks into our first trip to the Holy Land, a trip that changed our lives forever. We were going to the pyramids. (Everybody’s bucket list).
But first we were going to church. Casey Mattox, a young man from our church, had just spent a year on staff at a church in Maadi about eight miles south of town. He had encouraged us to visit the church and had arranged for a friend to meet us there. The services at the church are in English as the congregation is made up of people from other countries and locals.
To get to the service, we rode the subway from our downtown Cairo hotel and then took a cab to the church. We were assured that any taxi driver would be able to get us to the church. We enjoyed the subway ride with cars crammed to capacity by people enjoying their day off.
We got off at Maadi and grabbed a cab. But our driver spoke almost no English and our Arabic was nonexistent. I said, “Take us to the church.” A look of total incomprehension. “The church.” Nothing.
I thought a moment. Then I put my left index finger across my right index finger making a cross. The driver’s eyes lit up. “Ah, kanisa” he said. “Kirche”. “Yes”, I said, “Church”. He understood that the church is the place of the cross. He quickly pulled away and ten minutes later let us off at the building with a cross.
I have written elsewhere about all that service meant to us. For now, I just want to remember that moment of comprehension between us and the taxi driver. The cross. Ah, these people are Christians.
We Christians are making our annual journey toward Good Friday, the day of the cross. Christians are a people of the cross. We wear crosses around our necks. Gold ones, silver ones, wood ones. We have them in our homes and churches.
It is a strange thing to use as a symbol of faith. It was, after all, used by the Romans as an instrument of torture and death. It was used for the lowest of criminals. To have someone die on the cross was a matter of shame for the family.
But Christians are a people of the cross. And the world recognizes it. In China, the government has forcibly removed hundreds of crosses from church buildings. The leaders fear the power of the cross. In February, a Christian pastor and his wife were sentenced to over ten years in prison because they publicly opposed the removal of the cross from their church. Jail for saying “leave our church and our cross alone”.
The people of the cross are being persecuted around the world. That is true today in ISIS controlled territory, in India, in Nigeria, in too many countries to list here.
Christians understand the power of the cross. A symbol of torture and execution. We sing, “the old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame… so despised by the world, has a wondrous attraction for me”. Jesus changed the shame of the cross into an instrument of victory over death. If He could do that for the cross, think we He can do for you. We Christians know that He has taken us, as bad and imperfect as we are, and changed our lives. We are a people of the cross. Because the cross changed each of us.
We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God. I Cor. 1:24-25 Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12:2
