Nail It to the Cross

I'm very active in my church choir. I love that we do a mixture of modern and some more contemporary southern songs, as well. Last night, our choir director (my dad) decided he wanted us to perform a song called Nail it to the Cross.

I love the message to this song, which conveys that if you're suffering, if you're hurting, if you're worried, then nail it to the cross and let Jesus' blood take care of it.

I remember years ago when I struggled with something in my own life I held this very image in my mind. I felt like I took a hammer in my hand and banged it onto the cross, as I asked Jesus to take my worry from me. The relief I felt was nothing short of miraculous.

There are many who don't like this image, because they believe it conveys some sort of irreverent connection in crucifying Jesus once more. I beg to differ. Some of my favorite verses comes from Hebrews 2:

"But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory

and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God

he might taste death for everyone.

In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God,

for whom through everything exists, should make the author of

their salvation perfect through suffering. ....

Since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity

so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death--that is the

devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

Hebrews 2:9-10 & 14

Jesus tasted death for everyone so that we may delivered from death and the fear of death. His action on the cross was meant to deliver us from every type of bondage.

Another one of my favorite verses is from Isaiah 53:4-6:

        "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrow,

yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him,

and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

Words such as sorrow, punishment, wounds, stricken, smitten, and afflicted, indicate much more than Jesus dying on the cross for sin. He died on the cross to undo what sin stole from us. On the cross, He not only bore our sin, but our sorrows, our emotional pain and hurt, our worries, and our ups and downs in life.

Ever since the fall, we've lost paradise. Life brings hard times on us. People hurt us, or we hurt ourselves. We all carry emotional pain. Jesus longs to take it from us. He wants us to experience a life free of the pain sin inflicts on us. He wants us to realize that He already bore that sorrow on the cross.

The call to nail it to the cross is not a call to re-crucify Jesus. Instead, it is a call to surrender and realize we don't have to carry our burden any more. Someone else has done it for us. So, nail it the cross, because Jesus willingly took it from you when He chose to die for us.