“And it was the third hour when they crucified him. ²⁶ And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” ²⁷ And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. ²⁹ And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,³⁰ save yourself, and come down from the cross!” ³¹ So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. ³² Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.” Mark 15:25-32

As Jesus hangs on the cross, the people cry out to him “…come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” Coming down from the cross may have been quite a sight, and may have brought some to faith, but Jesus refused to give signs or commanded people not to tell anyone, because he did not want people to believe in him only for the miracle cures, the other healings, or great miracles. His resurrection gives a more compelling reason to believe, yet many still choose not to believe because it requires something that is more difficult to grasp – this thing called faith. What is faith? We can have faith, lose faith, think faith is elusive. Faith is not tangible, and it can be rather fleeting. We do not need to see to believe, for we will never be able to gather enough tangible evidence to convince people that Christ was the Messiah and that the resurrection actually happened.  All that we need to do is to show them the church – its existence is enough to bolster our faith and should be proof enough. If there was nothing to this cross and the resurrection, then churches of Christ would have died off centuries ago—just like Christ. But it has not died—and has continued to live in the faith of Christ for two thousand years.

Pastor Dave