On A Hill Too Far Away

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, The emblem of suff'ring and shame; And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain. -George Bernard
Two thousand years ago on a hill called Calvary our Savior willingly died on a rough wooden cross. In his book, On a Hill Too Far Away, John Fischer presents the cross of Christ in all its trueness and begs the question, is the cross obsolete; is it simply a decoration on the wall of our churches or an ornament around our necks, or is it more?
John Fischer writes of a particular cross in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. It is 10 feet tall, made of rough, untreated wood and it is bolted to the floor inside the sanctuary right in front of the platform. This cross is no mere decoration, it is an obstruction. The pastor can't preach without acknowledging the cross and the congregation can't gather at the altar without accommodating the cross. It's big, it's ugly, it's rough and it's in the way.
But maybe that's the way it should be.
Have you ever heard someone complain about the cross they bear? Usually they are talking about a person; an obnoxious boss or an uncooperative spouse. After complaining a little about how awful their lives are, they roll their eyes, let out a sigh and exclaim, "I guess that is the cross I have to bear."
No, it isn't.
Christ didn't call us to pick up a person and follow him, he commanded us to pick up our cross and follow him. The cross is not a problem I bear, it is the place where I die. "Simply put," John Fischer says, "the cross does for us what it did for Christ. It kills us."
And if you haven't noticed, dying does not appear to be fun. In fact, it looks like it hurts. Especially if we are talking about death on a cross. And that is exactly what we are talking about.
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). We must bow at the old rugged cross to find life, we must cling to the old rugged cross to nourish our life, and we must pick up our own rugged cross to make our life's journey with Christ.