The Crucified God

“In the beginning the Word was there. The Word was with God, and the Word was deity” (John 1:1-2). Not only was the Word with God; the Word was with us. Put that together with the fact that the Word that was with us was crucified: crucified deity! Who ever heard of such a thing: that deity would be with us, and we would crucify him for it!?

Let our minds soak up the implications of a “crucified God!” He honored us with his concern for us (to engender love), his presence among us (to foster faith), and his promises to us (to create hope).

In turn we feel moved to respond in kind to such love delivered from so high to us in such lowly estate. Otherwise, we would “be crucifying him again and holding him up to public shame” (Hebrews 10:6).

Communing around this table keeps alive our realization that the Word is invisibly with us in this observance—“till I observe it again with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29). Like a figure of speech, these emblems bring the invisible into the visible—the presence of crucified deity.