What if the cross never happened?

I love to teach adult Sunday School. I usually use the scripture and background scripture for my lessons as my devotion and quiet time. I was teaching this past Sunday and in preparation for it, the Lord stopped me in my tracks with a question. I keep a prayer journal and I was expressing to Him that I didn't enjoy teaching on the cross. It's painful for me. I then wrote in my journal, "but I'm so thankful for how I benefit from the cross. Where would I be without the cross?" I first thought, "Well, I wouldn't be at Marietta First Baptist. Maybe I would be worshipping at a synagogue." I then thought, "Well, no. I wouldn't be at a synagogue, because I'm not a Jew. I'm not one of God's chosen people." It hit me that I probably wouldn't be in the United States, because our country was founded by those who promoted the gospel of Jesus Christ. Would there be settlers coming over from England? I kept going farther and farther back into Western Civ (thanks Mr. Gaines!) and I realized that everything hinged on the cross. Nothing would be as it is today, without Jesus. I spent a great deal of time studying the "time between the testaments" to see where God's remnant was when Jesus came on the scene. They were being "absorbed" into a Hellenistic culture with the Ptolemnists, the Seleucids, and then the Romans. They were losing their identity and their focus. During the radical influence of the Seleucids and the Greek culture (i.e. mythology), a statue of Zeus was erected in God's temple in Jerusalem. Get this...an elderly villager, named Mattathias, and his 5 sons...revolted. They said, "ENOUGH"!! They started a 24 year war and won Judah's Independence. As the last of the 5 sons died...the Jews lost their drive once again. The Romans came in and slaughtered the priests as they were working the in the temple and they entered the Holy of Holies. It was time for Jesus...

I wonder. Is history repeating itself again? Are we being absorbed into another culture? Are we losing pieces of ourselves? Is it time to say, "ENOUGH!!!"?

Another couple of thoughts from this weeks lesson...

On Saturday, I was teaching my lesson to half the customers that came in the shop. One of my customers started asking questions about our church. Jamie and I both were encouraging him to come. He told us that he was too big a hypocrite to show up at church. He was trying to joke about it, but it was obvious that was truly how he felt. It occurred to me that when the thief asked Jesus to remember him when He came into His kingdom, that Jesus didn't question him about what he'd done to get on that cross. He didn't ask him about his crimes. He didn't care. He saw a repentant heart and took him to Glory with Him. My other thought was this: The greatest thing that could have ever happened to the thief was happening simultaneously with the worst thing that could ever happen to him. Isn't that just how it is sometimes?