The Cross and the Switchblade
A tribute to the late David Wilkerson

I was a young teenager that enjoyed all the thrills and spills of life; school was out for the summer and the BMX track, football match between the gate posts and daily walk to the shops for a 10p mix beckoned. Summer holidays were loaded with fun but there was another word always looming in the background - boredom.
Every summer parents will at some stage hear the kids complain “Mum I am bored”. Thankfully there were a few local churches that took the initiative to run summer programmes for bored teenagers and churchy kids. From memory these where often billed as coffee bars which seemed strange as neither myself nor my mates would ever drink coffee. I certainly don’t recall us all planning a big night at Davy’s house were we would all sit around and drink coffee from plastic cups! Weird as the name was, they did provide an alternative venue to the street corner, laneways and school steps were we often hung out with friends.
It was at one of these evenings that Sunday’s movie night was advertised. A friend invited me to come along and the obvious temptation of free coffee was too much to turn down.
Inside the hall rows of wobbly plastic seats sat in front of a large TV set with a wired remote control. Below the TV in a welded metal box sat the Mecca of technology – a front-loading VHS video recorder; this was the equivalent of having a white ipad2 today! After the usual delay in getting the signal on the TV the movie started. Now I am told that this movie has been watch by over 50 million people worldwide and I think all them watched this particular VHS cassette copy of the show. If the box was worn and tattered you should have seen the movie quality. Until I visited New York 10 years later I thought the city was in a constant fuzz of snow both indoors and out!
The Movie was The Cross and the Switchblade. Once I got beyond the snow and distraction of the chatter from some unruly boys in the back row, I settled into watch a story that captivated me.
For those of you who have never read the book or watched the movie let me share with you a brief overview:
Set in the ghettos of New York, this is the true story of Nicky Cruz a member and leader of the Mau-Mau street gang and a preacher by the name of David Wilkerson. David is a small town preacher who is compelled to go and reach out to the gangs of New York. It was while he was preaching in a neighborhood that Cruz encountered him. The preacher told Cruz that Jesus loved him and would never stop loving him. A shocked Cruz responded by slapping Wilkerson and threatening to kill him. Wilkerson looked Cruz in the face and told him that he could cut Wilkerson into a thousand pieces, but every piece would still say Jesus loves him. Wilkerson said that no one can kill love, and God is love. That afternoon the preacher showed up at the Mau Mau's headquarters to repeat his message, and was again slapped by Cruz. Wilkerson just smiled, and then prayed for Nicky.
Two weeks later, Wilkerson had an evangelistic meeting in the neighborhood. When Cruz heard about it, he decided to go and teach the preacher a "lesson" and, with some of the members of his gang, he headed for the boxing arena where the rally was being held, on a bus sent specially by Wilkerson. According to Cruz, when he arrived at the arena, he felt guilty about the things that he had done and started to pray. Wilkerson preached, and then asked the Mau Maus to take up a collection. Nicky sprang to his feet and led a group of the gang through the crowd insisting on people giving money. Going backstage, he saw an exit, a means of escape but struck by the fact that someone had actually trusted him, he gave the money to Wilkerson on stage. Later, Wilkerson gave an altar call, and many gang members responded. Wilkerson prayed with Cruz, and Cruz asked God to forgive him.
The following day Cruz and some of the gang members who were converted went to the police and turned in all of their handguns and knives, shocking the police officers in the station. They said that if they had seen the group approaching, they probably would have shot them down.
As I watched the movie it left three very strong impressions upon me:
• That drug abuse is altogether ugly. The images of young boys and girls craving for needle injected drugs and their willingness to steal and kill for the next fix gave me a glimpse of a world I never knew existed and never intended to become a victim of.
• That people can be incredibly cruel. Being a Belfast kid, I grew up knowing all about the ugliness of bombs and bullets but this movie brought evil right up close. It wasn’t a news report or the sound of an explosion; this was a in-your-face hate, the stabbing of innocent people and cruelty, that made me shiver. I never wanted to be a part of that… to sign up for a gang of any sort was to enter a dark world that was very difficult to escape from. Maybe we didn’t have the Mau Maus but we had plenty of other options available.
• The love of Jesus shown by Pastor David Wilkerson. The love he showed for those boys, the willingness to put his own life on the line for the good of others, the risks he took for love and his conviction that Jesus could make a difference to the lives of these young people. David Wilkerson was committed to bringing the message of Christ to the brutal and terrifying ghettos of New York not just in words but in deeds. Perhaps for the very first time I saw evangelism in action in a way that made sense. The church I was sitting in, all the coffee bar projects and youth clubs I visited were not primarily there to keep me from boredom or to try the latest blend of Maxwell house; people were giving of their time to show me Jesus and his love.

The ministry of David Wilkerson exploded over time into a thriving Church at Times Square New York and an international outreach programme called Teen Challenge reaching hundreds of thousands of boys and girls, pulling them from a life of crime, alcohol and drug abuse. David travelled the world encouraging church leaders and touched the hearts of millions of people.
He will be remembered for a dynamic ministry spanning 60 years in which he constantly gave himself to reaching the widows and orphans, the addict and the angry youth that he might win them to Christ.
Davy showed me evangelism. He showed me scarifies that must be made, that Christ and his love can make a difference, that prayer works and that hard work pays off. Davy showed me that evangelism isn’t so much something for the platform but for the streets; he demonstrated that perfect love casts out fear and that the bible is not to be hidden behind our methods.
One event in the story of The Cross and the Switchblade sums up Davy’s life perhaps more than any other…
Nicky Cruz was so incensed with Wilkerson’s message, that Jesus loved him, that he twice beat Wilkerson up. On the second occasion, Cruz described how Wilkerson, whilst lying bloodied on the floor with broken glasses, said to Cruz, ‘you can cut me up into little pieces if you like but every piece will tell you that Jesus loves you and he always will’.
May each of us be stirred to action today: to tell the world of Jesus and his love.

David Wilkerson went to be with Jesus on 27th April 2011.