The God Who Hung on the Cross

In her book The God Who Hung on the Cross, journalist Ellen Vaughn retells a gripping story of how the Gospel came to a small village in Cambodia. In September 1999 Pastor Tuy Seng (not his real name) traveled to Kampong Thom Province in northern Cambodia. Throughout that isolated area, most villagers had cast their lot with Buddhism or spiritism. Christianity was virtually unheard of.

But much to Seng's surprise, when he arrived in one small, rural village the people warmly embraced him and his message about Jesus. When he asked the villagers about their openness to the gospel, an old woman shuffled forward, bowed, and grasped Seng's hands as she said, "We have been waiting for you for twenty years." And then she told him the story of the mysterious God who had hung on the cross.

In the 1970s the Khmer Rouge, the brutal, Communist-led regime, took over Cambodia, destroying everything in its path. When the soldiers finally descended on this rural, northern village in 1979, they immediately rounded up the villagers and forced them to start digging their own graves. After the villagers had finished digging, they prepared themselves to die. Some screamed to Buddha, others screamed to demon spirits or to their ancestors.

One of the women started to cry for help based on a childhood memory—a story her mother told her about a God who had hung on a cross. The woman prayed to that unknown God on a cross. Surely, if this God had known suffering, he would have compassion on their plight.

Suddenly, her solitary cry became one great wail as the entire village started praying to the God who had suffered and hung on a cross. As they continued facing their own graves, the wailing slowly turned to a quiet crying. There was an eerie silence in the muggy jungle air. Slowly, as they dared to turn around and face their captors, they discovered that the soldiers were gone.
As the old woman finished telling this story, she told Pastor Seng that ever since that humid day from 20 years ago the villagers had been waiting, waiting for someone to come and share the rest of the story about the God who had hung on a cross.
 
This Sunday is Palm Sunday, signifying the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem which began the Holy or Passion week leading up to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Holy week has been celebrated for over two thousand years across the globe, arguably, as the most significant set of days in history. So, it is interesting that a couple of years ago Chuck Todd, of NBC News, stated, during Easter week and on national television, that Good Friday was actually a “Hokey” deal, and he saw nothing especially significant about it.

Responding to Todd’s take, my friend Bill Anderson wrote, “One supposes that before commenting about Jews one would need to know a bit about Torah, or if on Islam, something of the significance of Ramadan, and if on Christianity, perhaps a whiff of information about the significance of a day which memorializes the most important event since the creation of the cosmos. If Todd doesn’t know the importance of the day, he’s hopelessly ignorant, and if he does know, insufferably bigoted. Which is probably the case.” Should we be angry at Todd? Of course not, but we should be prayerful that he along with countless others would come to a knowledge of the truth about the cross, the tomb and the resurrection, and not miss the most powerful personal event of all time.

One way to celebrate this event is to join us for one of our two Good Friday Luncheons… No reservations are needed. The first will be at 10:30 AM and the second at 12:00 PM.

And remember, God is always trying to take us someplace new. I love being your Pastor!

He is Risen,
Pastor Ray