A Lesson from the Cross

These emblems not only remind us; they teach us. Hebrews 12:2 recommends “looking to Jesus the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarded the shame, and sat down on the right hand of God’s throne.” The glory beyond the agony became an aid to enduring it.

Christ has engendered trust in him (author) and carried trust to its highest demonstration in the way he died (perfecter). The loaf and cup connect us with that kind of person, and then with his way of getting through limitations and stress and rejection and pain. Such things are not our final condition; they are along the way to the final condition. The future empowers us in the present; the eternal strengthens us through the temporary.