Last night I just flaked out. I ended up catching the end of a movie on the TV called The Core. It was typical sci-fi summer blockbuster stuff, heavy on special effects, light on plot and acting. But it had an intriguing ending.
The plot, as far as I could make out, centred (literally) around the fact that the Earth's core had stopped rotating for some not particularly convincing reason. A military crew was put together to take a drilling machine to the centre of the Earth and restart it with nuclear bombs. Cue lots of effects and lots of people dying heroically and sacrificially.
The movie ends with the whole thing being hushed up. However, one brave hacker who is in the know decides to spread the news worldwide via the internet. The message was that when a person had died to save the world it would be inconceivable that the whole world shouldn't be told about it. Everyone had to know what had been done for them.
I sometimes hear (usually students) say unbelievably ignorant things like "why do Christians keep going on about the cross so much?" To borrow from the movie, it is inconceivable that a man should die for the sins of the whole world and rise again, and for Christians not to be obsessed about communicating the cross. The cross is all, the sacrifice totally sufficient for my deepest need of forgiveness and adoption. The cross is where the greatest glory of God is displayed with the greatest clarity in all creation and all eternity. In John's gospel Jesus says it is when he is lifted up he will draw all people to himself. In the cross is the salvation of the world. It is inconceivable that the world shouldn't be told about it.
The film didn't end, as so many do, with the world being saved. It ended with people bringing the story to light. With them boasting about the sacrificial achievement of others.
I am praying this morning that everyone who reads this post will have some opportunity today, wherever you are in the world, to boast in the cross of Christ.
But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14
Therefore, as it is written, "let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Cor 1:31