For most of my life have heard ministers and lay believers say that we should lay our burdens at the foot of the Cross. Have you ever considered what this would mean in practical application? What if you had lived during Jesus' earthly ministry and, during the hours of His crucifixion, you had knelt at the foot of the Cross and prayed, unburdening your life?
If you had knelt there at 9 in the morning as they raised Jesus onto the cross you would have been visibly clean. At 3 p.m., as Jesus breathed His last and gave up His spirit, you would have looked a lot like the priests of the Temple in Jerusalem, who at that very moment were sacrificing the unblemished lambs for the Passover observance--stained, perhaps covered, in blood.
When Jesus shed His blood on the Cross, when the sweat and watery effusions poured from His body, anyone kneeling at the foot of the Cross would have been directly affected. They would have left the scene appearing radically different than when they came: they would have come, appearing clean and pure but full of sin, fear, anxiety, lacking purpose or direction; if they understood the meaning of the Cross, they would have left covered in blood and the debris of death, but cleansed from sin, rid of fear and anxiety, and aware of God's desire to be eternally in communion with them.
While kneeling they could have observed a landscape of paradoxes in human behavior: a thief, guilty as charged, mocking the innocent--another thief, guilty as charged, recognizing his guilt and repenting, asking for Jesus to remember him in His Kingdom; soldiers mocking Him and gambling over His clothes--a Centurion, the leader of the soldiers, understanding, as "it was finished", that he had just watched the Son of God crucified; religious leaders of the day, responsible for His crucifixion, standing by as they reveled in His death--the few who had not fled, Mary, His mother, and John and others, grieving in the face of the horror they were witnessing, and not fully understanding at that moment what was being done for all of mankind.
As a child, I did not grasp the meaning of "coming to the foot of the Cross." As a man, I have resembled the mocking thief, the gambling soldiers, the legalistic religious leaders; I have been Judas in betrayal, Peter in denial, Thomas in doubting, and the brothers James and John in wanting selfish position and power. I have been John the Baptist in having second thoughts about who Jesus is. I have been Martha in wanting "fairness" instead of worshiping Him as Lord, and even Mary, His mother, in wanting Him to do my bidding.
I have not spent enough time at the foot of the Cross, preferring to retain my external appearance and internal strife rather than being stained with His blood and washing my sin away. But the Cross is still there, bidding me come, offering the covering of blood that is always and eternally available to those to whom He has offered salvation and who will partake of it.
The great struggle of life, of my life, is submitting to the meaning of the Cross, of accepting that to go to the foot of the Cross means humility, means disregard for external appearances, means asking the Son of Man to remove from me what I cannot remove from myself.
Thank you, God, for your inestimable gift in Jesus. Help us all to go the the foot of the Cross often and in humility, and to not fear the stain of His blood, but to understand all that His blood has offered to us. Amen.
