Christ's Magnetism - Will Willimon

“And when I am lifted up, I’ll draw all to myself.”

The Gospel of John loves irony. Jesus says to his disciples, “And when I’m lifted up,…” and of course we think to ourselves, “Finally, Jesus is going to step up, act like a Messiah, take charge, raise an army, run out the Romans, and set up a new Kingdom of David government.”

Of course we know that the deeper, ironic meaning of “lifted up.” He’ll be lifted up alright, but not on a high and mighty throne. Jesus will be hoisted up on a bloody cross, the lowest depth to which a human can be cast down.

And in this passage Jesus speaks of his cross, not as the instrument of torture that it is, but as a vast, cosmic magnet, God’s wondrous means of drawing all to God.

Here deep in the season of Lent, we look to the cross and see God somehow, someway using it to finally get what God wants. All the world – we sinners, rebels and deniers somehow being drawn toward God in spite of ourselves. See them all, the whole world, all of humanity, sometimes gradually, every now and then jerked and pulled toward a God who, in the cross of Christ, has turned toward us.

Therein is our hope.

Excerpt from Will All Be Saved?