Hurry up, company is coming!

"Ever since his temptation by Satan, Jesus had been offered glory without a cross, but it was a false promise. That's why Jesus rebuked Peter's attempt to dissuade him from the cross by saying, "Get behind me, Satan. You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man" (Matt. 16:23)."

"Paul regularly picks up on this theme. Familiar to suffering himself, Paul was always joyful not because of his circumstances but because of the gospel's promise that after we suffer for a little while we will share in Christ's resurrection glory."

Michael Horton. Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church (pp. 95-96). Kindle Edition.

This whole Christianity thing would be so much better if it weren't for that bloody cross. At least that is what many think. It's like when you know company is coming over and you don't have much time to clean, so things start getting stuffed in places that they don't belong so we give the appearance of being neater than we really are.

We shouldn't have to clean up Christ to make him look better. If the God of the universe was willing to be naked on a cross, battered and bruised, then I think he can handle it if people know about that today.

Jesus said our burden is light. That is because he did all the hard stuff. He went to Calvary and endured God's wrath so that we wouldn't have to. If you take away the cross, then all that is left is us trying to be better so that we can earn God's favor. Are we really ready to take on the wrath of God ourselves? I'll take the cross instead.