Episode Overview: Living under the Shadow of the Cross

In this reflective episode of Things Unseen, Sinclair B. Ferguson guides listeners through the "big moments" of Jesus’ earthly life—those significant turning points, crises, and pivotal events that shaped His mission. Ferguson delves into the humanity of Christ, emphasizing how His life was lived continually under the looming shadow of the cross, and what this means for believers as they seek to understand both the profound significance of Christ's suffering and the pattern it sets for Christian living.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Importance of Life’s Defining Moments

• Personal Reflection to Christ’s Experience

  • Ferguson begins by inviting listeners to consider the major moments of their own lives—turning points, crises, or significant accomplishments.

    "Some moments and events in your life... seem to loom especially large. Some of them are crisis points or turning points or moments of special accomplishment, maybe, or sometimes moments of loss and pain." (00:38)

• Parallels with Jesus’ Humanity

  • Just as we have pivotal moments, Christ—fully human—experienced them as well.

    "Our Lord Jesus must have had similar memories too. Certainly he had big moments in his life..." (01:28)

The Humanity and Divinity of Christ

• Ferguson references the historic Chalcedonian Definition (451 A.D.) to underscore that Christ is both truly God and truly man:

  • "...the Son of God is acknowledged in two natures, unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably... Jesus had a human mind and a human will, a human memory, human sensations." (02:08)

• Christ remembered, felt, and experienced as we do—yet without sin.

Life under the Shadow of the Cross

• The Ever-Present Reality of the Cross

  • One particular moment dominated Jesus’ life: His crucifixion.

    "It loomed so large in his thinking that he spoke about it regularly before he experienced it fully." (03:08)

  • Jesus’ entire life, not just His death, was lived for the cross.
  • Ferguson references Holman Hunt’s artwork The Shadow of Death, where Jesus, as a carpenter, casts a shadow resembling the cross:

    "The light falling on him casts on the wall the silhouette of a man stretched out as though hanging on a cross." (04:14)

  • Despite not personally caring for the art style, Ferguson finds the message powerful:

    "The message is certainly suggestive, isn't it? ... his whole life was lived in the shadow of the cross." (04:31)

• Continuous Burden-Bearing

  • At no point was Jesus free from His role as Savior.

    "...there was never a moment when he was relieved of being our burden bearer and Savior." (04:46)

Christ’s Messianic Self-Understanding

• Jesus, studying the Scriptures, recognized the passages about the suffering servant pointed to Himself:

  "We cannot begin to fathom what it must have been like for the Lord Jesus as a young man ... to meditate on the 22nd Psalm or on the servant songs of Isaiah, thinking to himself, these passages are speaking about me." (05:00)

• The greatest moments were ahead, yet He lived with full awareness of what was to come.

The Lasting Admiration and Worship of Christ

• For all eternity, believers will praise Jesus not solely for isolated events, but for a lifetime of obedience:

  "For all eternity we'll admire him for enduring all of those moments. And for all eternity we'll praise him for what John Calvin well described as the whole course of his obedience. So his whole life was a big moment." (05:32)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Human Experience and Memory

  "You can remember some of the details of those moments years later, even when earlier on in the day you couldn't remember where you'd put your car keys. There's just something about particular events that make them major chapter headings in the story of our lives." (00:58)
  Sinclair B. Ferguson

• On the Humanity of Christ

  “He did all this sinlessly, of course, and it's clear there were some events in his life that he realized were big moments. For him, crucial events.” (02:34)

• On Jesus’ Perpetual Suffering

  “...there was never a moment when he was relieved of being our burden bearer and Savior.” (04:46)

• On the Totality of Christ’s Obedience

  “For all eternity we'll admire him for enduring all of those moments. And for all eternity we'll praise him for what John Calvin well described as the whole course of his obedience. So his whole life was a big moment.” (05:32)

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 00:08 | Introduction: Reflecting on life’s big moments and setting the week’s theme | | 01:28 | Drawing parallels between our experiences and Christ’s earthly life | | 02:08 | Discussing the Chalcedonian Creed and Christ’s humanity | | 03:08 | The crucifixion as the central “big moment” in Jesus’ life | | 04:14 | Reflection on Holman Hunt’s painting and the lifelong shadow of the cross | | 04:46 | No relief from His calling as Savior, even prior to the cross | | 05:00 | Jesus’ comprehension of His fulfillment of Psalm 22 and Isaiah’s servant songs | | 05:32 | Concluding thoughts: The eternal significance of Jesus’ obedience |

Conclusion

Sinclair Ferguson lays a compelling foundation for understanding how the life of Christ—marked by both particular crisis moments and a continuous bearing of the cross—invites Christians to consider the weight of their own journeys in light of His. This episode encourages listeners to not only marvel at the cross as the pivotal historical event, but to adore the Savior for His whole obedient life, lived “under the shadow of the cross.”