I’m reading John Stott’s book, “The Cross of Christ”, which is amazing so far, and this weekend I read a passage that has been resonating in my heart and mind. I am convinced that it’s not so much the brand new things that I learn that really move me, but it’s hearing the things I’ve known for a long time in a fresh way and with fresh ears that really has the greatest impact on me. This passage dug deep and set up shop in my soul:

…we ourselves are also guilty. If we were in their [Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, Jews] place, we would have done what they did. Indeed, we have done it. For whenever we turn away from Christ, we “are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace” (Heb 6:6). We too sacrifice Jesus to our greed like Judas, to our envy like the priests, to our ambition like Pilate. “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” the old negro spiritual asks. And we must answer, “Yes, we were there.” Not as spectators only, but as participants, plotting, sceming, betraying, bargaining and handing him over to be crucified. We may try to wash our hands of responsibility like Pilate. But our attempt will be as futile as his. For there is blood on our hands. Before we can begin to see th ecross as something done for us (leading us to faith and worship), we have to see it as something done by us (leading to repentance). Indeed, “only the man who is prepared to own his share in the guilt of the cross,” wrote Canon Peter Green, “may claim his share in its grace.”