While working in my shop on a woodworking project, I put on an old CD of the songs of Jim Croce. A wonderful trip down memory lane was enjoyed as I sanded and glued stuff together. "Leroy Brown", "Alabama Rain", the dangers of messing with the wife of jealous man, and the heartbreak of the loss of a wife and a best friend at the same time were great to hear again.
But then there was one of his songs that always seem so deeply theological that I wonder what the story is behind it in Croce's life. I am not sure that it was played and heard as much when Croce was alive, and I am not sure people would call it one of his favorites. The song is the "Dear John" message to a young woman who was expecting a whole lot more from her boy friend than the singer could give. It is called "Lover's Cross." "I never was much of a martyr and a regular guy would not do, I can't hang upon no Lover's Cross for you." Then he hopes that she will be able to find somebody who can fit the bill for her, but "he will have to be some kind of super Guy, or maybe a super God."
My mind races towards Good Friday. Is the song suggesting that there is a limit to our human love and that Paul is probably right that there are not many places where one person will die for another person? That what happened on Good Friday had to have in it something more than just a human love for humanity. That a regular guy would not do, but that there was something present in the Cross that was a "super God." Jim Croce's song acknowledges that for some of us we do not have the love or the endurance or the ability to make those kinds of sacrifices. On the Lover's Cross on Good Friday there something more than just an innocent man who got caught in a bad place.
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