The Embodied Gratitude of the Cross

I had somewhere to go. There were few efficient options to get where I was going. The parking lot was crammed with the Chick-fil-A lunch rush. I had my waffle fries in hand. Exiting the drive-thru, I anticipated a turn into the parking lot to get to my designated route except there a car sat still the wrong way with the driver attempting to get into the Chick-fil-A line. My efficient route out of the parking lot stood patently void. I was inexcusably frustrated that I couldn’t go the way that was rightfully mine to go. I’ve theorized for a time that the attitude and actions a person commits while driving speaks to their actual theology (belief of who God is and what he is doing) and theopraxis (outworking of who God is and what he is doing in the world). And in this circumstance, it did. You know those moments when you are inexcusably frustrated at a small, insignificant obstacle? My circumstance exposed a heart desire within me that is not in harmony with the Life-giving Father: selfishness and ingratitude for the situations that change my plans. 

Do you see it? Selfish. Ungrateful. Control. These attitudes all surged in a nanosecond, swallowing and redirecting my emotions from the cross to the self. And without discernment, I chose the self. The driver in the other car? Remained unaffected not knowing the surge of emotion overtaking my soul. Yet for me a stark reminder that while I profess Jesus as King and have right standing with the Father in Jesus by the Spirit’s power, I am feeble and rebellious toward my King. 

Don’t mishear me. The Father created emotions for our good. Emotions are a gift from God. Emotions should be expressed. Anger, frustration, sadness, etc. all have their place in the righteous life. My emotions in this moment were a signpost of the reign of sin within me. Whether the driver was in the right or the wrong, my sin reigned without excuse. Beneath my frustration lurked not merely a sense for justice but of selfishness, ungratefulness, and control.

In that seemingly trivial, fleeting moment, my response to the situation reflected neither my gratitude toward the Father nor his compassion and mercy toward me in Christ. My response was utterly about me: my desire to do what I wanted and my desire for control. You wouldn’t necessarily think that such a fleeting moment would reveal so much about the heart, but these moments reveal our heart desires. These moments are opportunities for the Spirit of Christ to disciple us, transforming us to be like King Jesus. How we respond in the most trivial moments bear witness to our willingness to live under the reign of Christ and in his kingdom and to our actual theology and theopraxis, because there is no area of creation or the human embodied that must not submit to the will of the Father and be transformed by the reign of Jesus.

The gospel is the restorative balm to a broken creation and a wicked human heart. Nothing is to be left undone. And nothing will be left undone. Jesus has redeemed. Jesus changes everything. No moment in time, no attitude in the heart, no action in history is beyond Christ’s rule. This includes those small seemingly insignificant moments, thoughts, and actions throughout your day that are under Christ’s rule. 

The reign of Jesus in a person’s life produces gratitude. Remember, Zacchaeus response to Jesus’s self-invitation to Zacchaeus’s home (Luke 19:1-10)? He received Jesus joyfully. For cynics like myself, seeing and tasting the gratitude of the cross isn't something easily recognized or experienced. Sadly, the rootedness of the gospel did not have this effect on my life very early in my walk with Jesus. I did not wrestle with my emotions in light of the reign of Jesus. My early faith formation was heavily moral and intellectual. My cynicism came at the cost of not most fully comprehending my gratitude of the cross in every thought, action, and attitude. I took for granted the life-giving, peace-encompassing nature of Jesus’ mission to rescue me from my wretchedness. But Christ's goodness overwhelms, and his Spirit changes the heart in darkness's midst.

While Jesus does not leave us in our mire, we do still live in a broken, evil world which has influenced our core identity, our habits, and our emotions. Our personhood still feels the effects of and unfortunately participates in sin, though we have been made righteous before the Father in Christ. The good news is that the Spirit of Christ has changed our identity and is changing our personhood to be like Jesus from one degree of glory to another. And this is where gratitude in the insignificant moments, thoughts, and actions becomes extraordinarily beautiful: we see the life-giving work of the Spirit in our lives and by extension experience presence of the kingdom of Christ in our midst. Yes, that kingdom which we eagerly await which is of the wholly good, holy, beautiful, and just Father of all creation, the very One who by his Spirit raised our kingly brother, Jesus, from the dead and gave him all power and dominion. 

Gratitude is an immediate response to the work of Jesus, like we see in the story of Zacchaeus, but gratitude is also a cultivated response to the work of the Spirit in our life. It’s an on-going response to the work of the gospel that is fostered through seeing and tasting the goodness of the Father in every attitude, every action, and every moment of our life precisely because Christ is at-work in every moment. 

Frustrating moments and sinful moments happen, although they are not to be excused. What I do when these moments, attitudes, and actions happen matter: repentance. Repentance is the answer. Pressing into Christ’s forgiveness and seeking to change our heart response by the Spirit’s power. I can pursue repentance by acknowledging the lies I believe or the sins I commit, confessing them to the Father, and seeking wisdom and accountability from others who love Jesus.

The apostle Paul says “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). This is the embodied gratitude of the cross. When our gratitude for Jesus shapes us, it shapes our response to the world around us, even in all of its malevolence, because Christ brought life to us in the midst of darkness. As we surrender our trivial moments, attitudes, and actions to the reign of Christ, the Spirit brings life to us and to others. And every action, every attitude, and every moment visibly demonstrate what you and I actually believe about who God is and what God is doing in our midst.