If we trace humanity back as far as history reaches we end up in a place called Eden. Unimaginable paradise, time is endless, relationships work, God is present and easy to believe in. The creation rests in the divine presence of the Creator.

In less than a heartbeat everything changed. Paradise crashed. Thousands of years and countless civilizations would pass and harden into history before we were even born, but still we have mirrored this same moment time after time in our own lives. Humankind closed its heart and said, "To be as powerful as our Maker! God surely doesn't want to deny me this." The whole fabric of our existence began to unravel. We made that foolish attempt to step out of the boundaries marked "human" and into the vastness labeled "God". Such a leap could only lead to one thing…death. And so having leapt, we became terminally ill. Our days were numbered and our fleeting moments took on new burdens and sorrows.

Generations later I live in an inner city neighborhood that is infamous for its poor schools, fourteen-year-old mothers, absent dads and troubled youth. We exist in the continual aftershocks of Eden. And we compound them. I have children who go to bed hungry because their mother's use food stamps to buy alcohol. We are surrounded by a suffering that was born ages ago when we stepped over the line, and lately, fueled by our own refusal to recognize ourselves and others as created by God.

Over the years we've positioned our hearts and intellect so far from the solution that I am left wondering as to what the message of the cross really is. Some think the cross is simply a symbol of Christ being human, feeling our struggles. Understanding what it was to be a man. I've been told that Christ knows all our pain because he died on the cross and was beaten. But it's an argument I just can't buy. Truly he understands pain, but a cruel beating and a murder don't mean he understands our pain. His earthly struggles align him with the human condition but they do nothing to intimately connect him to our hearts. It just seems a bit of a mockery to compare the crucifixion with something as close to home as generations of addiction or even a shame more worldwide - the continual ache of the any number of mass killings, all in the name of religion, purity or power. To say Christ understands domestic violence because on one evening he was beaten seems hollow. If this is all the cross represents than it is truly no more powerful than the things that bind us. No doubt, a crucifixion is horrific. But it was suffering that spanned a couple of days. Then it was over. Poverty is measured in months and years. So are hunger pains. Sexual abuse can cover over a decade of a young girl's life. AIDS can linger mercilessly and despair often steals entire lifetimes and cages them in joyless existence. Surely the message of the cross is more than this.

Being killed for a crime you didn't commit is truly unjust but it is wildly different than being born and raised in a crack house. Christ died in a jumble of prejudice but did that hurt as much as the pain of my six-year-old neighbor whose father's dead body was dragged through the street after a gang fight and dumped in another part of town? Does it feel the same as the abandonment this boy feels since his mother has been in jail for the last 18 months, doing time for drugs? The cross must be more than heavenly sympathy. That would be far too passive to penetrate the heart of our need.

The fact that Jesus died as an innocent man is noble but really not that remarkable. Millions have been hung, ravaged, stripped, beaten and often in the name of nothing. Innocent men and women die every day. What makes the crucifixion amazing is not the cross Christ carried but the burden that he chose. And here is where we must understand what truly took place on that remarkable night. Because to say that the cross is extraordinary is to say it's unique. Its reality, coupled with the miracle of the resurrection is the cornerstone of our faith. But why? It wasn't that Jesus was beat and spit upon. It wasn't even that he hung in disgrace. It was that he took our sins upon himself. His life wasn't taken, he gave it up. Never forget that he is God and God cannot be killed. But God can choose to die. He offered up his innocence and covered himself with the reeking dregs of humanity. He gave up his life as a ransom for many. That's what made it horrific. He didn't just feel pain…he felt our pain. He chose to carry the shame of every man, woman and child who would come to know him. And it's this indescribable horror that forever connects Christ to the ache in our hearts. This…is the message of the cross, not that he died, but that he died for us.

Jesus can understand a rape because over the years countless sex offenders have laid their unspeakable crimes and violations on the heart of God. The guilt of thousands upon thousands has weighed on his shoulders. The shame I feel for all my poor choices, the burden of knowing how much I've hurt other people…he knows that very same weight and it shames him even more. He took our sins and let them cover his innocence. But if he took our sins, know for certain that he felt each and every result of that gross burden. If Christ bore the sins of the cruel, inconscienceable regime of Hitler did he not also bear the ache of thousands upon thousands of Jews sacrificed in the name of purity? If he shed his blood for a father who beats his children does that same blood not cover the wounds of those little boys and girls? If at the gates of Eden cancer and AIDS crept in through crack left by humanity lifting it's head in arrogance, does not Jesus feel every drop of chemotherapy and each painful side effect from a cocktail of drugs? Yes. He knows every ounce of our suffering. Not because he had suffering of his own but because he chose to bear our sufferings. For when he died for the sins of many, all the ache and demise caused by the wrongdoing came along in the bargain. Christ understands our sin, not because he was a sinner, but because he carried our sins. He understands our pain for the exact same reason.

There is something in the cross that speaks so clearly to our humanity. The cross is the remedy for our sin and the same cross is the balm for our ache. Sin, suffering and injustice all paraded into Eden, our heritage. Death began a reign that lasted through generations of wounded people. But Christ reached back in time and stood at the gates of Eden. He opened wide his heart and let that destruction tramp right through his 33 years of humanity and an eternity of being God. All before each disease, sorrow and gross sin clawed its death drenched finger into our souls.

He paid the price that I cannot even comprehend. We share in his sufferings because, in fact, he shared in ours. In the moments of his death he felt each ache and lived each anxiety. Be assured that he daily bears our fears, failures and the very burden that troubles our hearts. He knows what it is to be raped, to be six and lose both your parents, he did feel those beatings at the hands of drunk fathers and he suffers the hunger pains that keep little girls up at night.

The cross is our hope, not only for redemption, but for restoration. I cringe to think that the modern mind has "freed" itself and shed old theological truths. The cross is considered archaic. But I ask you, what's outdated about injustice, death, suffering, scandal and sin? This is, after all, what the cross is about. Only a fool reasons away hope. We cannot wash ourselves in the graces of the Good News of the Gospel until we open our eyes to our own unworthiness. Let us not become so spiritually lukewarm that we forget that our wrong choices, actions and thoughts have separated us from God. And without God our lives are brief and meaningless. Eden guaranteed it, but Christ broke the curse. Death was the end of our stories, but it is the beginning of God's. It truly is a miracle of power that he rose, because he died countless deaths. But how can we rise with him until we claim one of those deaths as our own?

Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to Thy cross I cling
Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for Grace
Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me Savior or I die.

Christ is the holder of our hearts, the keeper of our hope, the restorer of our souls, the redeemer of our lives, he is forgiveness for our failings and healing for our ache.

And this…is the message of the cross.