CHIP K of thebandwithnoname continues his unflinching look at that centrepoint of Christianity, the cross.

Chip Kendall

My friend Tom has just finished writing a book called Schizophrenic (sound oddly familiar?) in which he expounds on a very intriguing yet slightly controversial idea. When Jesus hung on the cross, he didn't just take our sin upon him - he became sin for us. Imagine just for a second the most perfectly powerful human being in the universe... turning evil. Every mass murderer, rapist, paedophile, Satan-worshipping pagan rolled into one man, suspended in agony above a Jewish highway. Even though it only lasted for a few brief hours, in a strange way it kinda makes you thankful he was pegged down to that cross, unable to run rampant, immobilized by the spikes in his wrists and feet. On that dark night, Jesus may have become the ultimate victim of insanity, but his sacrifice paid for our ultimate sanity. As you read the following, my prayer is that the cross will take on new meaning for you.

"Having the mental faculties in such condition as to be able to anticipate and judge the effect of one's actions." Pete sat back down in his seat, satisfied with the effect his answer had on both his professor and the rest of the psychology class. The question had been put to the entire group, "What does it mean to be sane?" Pete's text book reply had roused a short applause from his fellow students and a proud nod from Mr Sharpe - his new psychology professor. The next question came, "And insane?" Pete's heart sank as memories of his grandfather began to surface. Surely he was the personification of the word insane. The old man, a retired secret service agent for the US military, had actually given his life guarding a dusty old shoe box, claiming that it carried what he called "the solution". He'd never say what it was the solution to, but he constantly rambled on about how it would one day bring "life to the dying". After his mysterious death, Pete's family learned the true contents of his grandfather's cryptic shoebox. Hundreds of tiny yellow post-it notes covered with random scribbles of numbers and letters. The police had them scrutinized by everybody under the sun, but the results came up the same every time. Pete's crazy old grandfather had died protecting a bunch of foolish nonsense.

The sound of Mr Sharpe's voice brought Pete back into the classroom. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to the greatest breakthrough in modern psychology..." He went on to describe a new drug which was already being used in the US military to treat ex-POWs and other soldiers for psychological purposes. "I myself am a success story of this miracle 'solution'. And one of the biggest mysteries of this solution lies in its discovery. It was found in none other than a dusty old shoebox."

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21