Week 4: The Cross, the Three Sleepers, and the Hill Difficulty — The Burden Falls and the Road Grows Hard

1."Just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders, and fell from off his back... till it came to the mouth of the sepulchre, where it fell in, and I saw it no more." Christian "stood still awhile to look and wonder" and then wept — and three Shining Ones came: one declared his sins forgiven, one stripped his rags and clothed him, one marked his forehead and gave him a sealed roll. Why does the sight of the cross — specifically — accomplish what the gate, the Interpreter's house, and the whole road so far could not?

2."Then Christian gave three leaps for joy." Bunyan doesn't sentimentalize this moment — he lets it be physically exuberant. Have you ever experienced an outbreak of joy at the assurance of forgiveness that surprised even you? What prompted it? What does Bunyan's depiction of this moment suggest about the emotional reality of the gospel?

3.Simple, Sloth, and Presumption are asleep in fetters by the side of the road — just past the cross. Christian wakes them and warns them. Simple says "I see no danger," Sloth says "Yet a little more sleep," and Presumption says "Every fat must stand upon its own bottom." Each is a recognizable posture of the human heart toward spiritual danger. Which of the three do you most recognize in yourself, and why?