It’s been in the news this past week how archaeologists working at a 1,350-year-old church in Turkey excavated a stone chest they believe contains a piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
According to ancient legend, the cross of Jesus, known as “the true cross,” was broken into fragments and sent to various churches in Europe and the Middle East during ancient times. Some believe that a few of these holy fragments were placed in this special chest which recently has been unearthed.
Could this really be a piece of Jesus’ cross? Since the Bible doesn’t tell us what happened to the cross, we are left to speculation. The possibilities are interesting but not too exciting for me, since I have already discovered the true cross.
My discovery took place right here in Eastern North Carolina well over 25 years ago. My life was a mess and my heart was empty. I had already searched through many of the pleasures the world had to offer, but each one only left me more miserable than before.
The drugs, alcohol and the party life sent my life spiraling downward into addiction, despair and hopelessness. Yet deep within, I knew there was something else — or Someone else — I needed in my life. Then I discovered the ‘true cross.’
One cold February evening in 1987, my wife and I visited a church for its mid-week prayer meeting. Our marriage was in trouble and we were searching for help. It was during that service that we came to the altar, surrendering to God’s will for our lives, and looking in faith to Christ who had died for us but who also arose from the dead — God in human flesh, the Savior to the world.
As I looked up in faith to this man hanging on that cross, life entered into my dead soul. The emptiness was gone. The pain I had felt for years was comforted. The bitterness began to melt away. I was saved, delivered and set free. I discovered the cross, a symbol of death and execution to some, but for me it became a place of blessing, forgiveness and beginning again.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
What’s your perspective on the cross of Christ? For those who are saved, the cross is “the power of God.” For those who are perishing, it is foolishness.
Have you discovered the true cross of Christ?
The Rev. Mike Dixon is pastor of Sandy Bottom Baptist Church. Reach him at mdixon@suddenlink.net.