A friend of mine posted a picture of "candy crosses" on his Facebook page and asked people what they thought of a crucifix made of chocolate. Oh, yeah, I had an opinion. You bet I did.
But I waited for the first Suzy Sunday School to post her "bright and happy" opinion before I tore her up.
She said something like, "I don't see anything wrong with it. It's just candy and it teaches our kids about Jesus. It's harmless."
I was dripping venom on my keyboard as I responded with something like this: "The Roman cross was a tool of torture that killed our Savior. And we make it into a chocolate confection? Is that really what we should do to celebrate Resurrection Sunday? Let me give you the modern crossover. How about we make little chocolate electric chairs filled with creamy filling? Or lethal injection kits with injectable raspberry goodness?"
Yeah, tactless. And a huge conversation ensued.
But it's three years later and I've changed my mind. I think we should keep candy crosses around.
On my way to church each Sunday, I've got about a 30 minute drive and I love to listen to the AM band on the radio. (Not to mention the junk that's on television each morning.)
The gospel is hardly being preached. Jesus is presented as someone who wants to make us prosper. It's a false gospel meant to make us well, meant to make us rich, meant to make us the happiest people on planet earth.
The gospel is our Savior crucified for our sins, in our place. We were once the enemy of God but we can now come to Him because of what Jesus did. He doesn't promise an easy life, but suffering if we follow Him.
So we need to keep the candy crosses around. Know why? Because our poor, pitiful modern church has created some pathetic versions of a confectionery, fake Jesus that need to be crucified on them.
Oh Wow Arthur - I'm sure glad I wasn't in that facebook thread that you refer to above - the poor lady, right? So glad that going through a little of life really softens us and makes us have a way different perspective on many issues. For me it's been a process of changing from someone pretty self righteous (I didn't even think I was) into someone much more broken and humble. And you're right - anything that reminds of of Jesus and what He did for us is good. I say - BRING IT ON!
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