INTRODUCTION
As we approach another Passover season, the opportunity is presented
to us to again contemplate a little more soberly the sacrifice
of the Son of God. The commemoration of the Lord's Supper, which
initiates the entire period, especially affords us the occasion
to reflect upon Christ's last few hours on earth and upon His
sufferings on the cross.
When looking at the meaning of the crucifixion, we have over the
years in the churches of God gone through periods when the very
mention of the cross of Christ was equated with paganism, or where
the debated raged as to whether it was indeed a cross, a tree,
or a pole, to the present time where the traditional worldly symbolism
of the cross is beginning to be more wholeheartedly and erroneously
embraced.
Yet the Bible does use the metaphor of the cross to depict the
Gospel:
CHRIST CRUCIFIED
FREEDOM FROM THE CURSE OF SIN
Notice how the apostle Paul goes on to illustrate this:
DUTY AND SELF-DENIAL
So far as it is known, the expression "to take up one's cross"
is one of Jesus' own coining, meaning to take up the position
of a condemned criminal. A criminal bearing his cross to the place
of execution was no unfamiliar sight in Christ's day. No doubt
Christ's use of this turn of phrase reflected this common practice
under the Romans, where convicted felons were compelled to carry
the traverse beam of their crosses to the place of their execution,
but Christ was well aware that He, too, would be forced to do
just this (Jn 19:17). The imagery is a very powerful one-of suffering,
of indignity, of shame-and it meant a lot to Christ. His hearers
would also have been very familiar with the graphic imagery depicted
by the language. Yet how easily is this imagery-of Christians
being likened to condemned criminals-lost on us today? How well
does it sit with us? Do we take it to heart? Are we willing to
suffer and die for our Lord? Are we condemned by the world because
our Christianity distinguishes us from it, or are we friends with
the world?
Matthew's account of these words of Christ adds a little more:
Luke adds the word "daily" in his account of Christ's
instructions for His followers to bear their own cross: the self-denial,
the dedication, is to be complete and continued:
DEAD TO SIN
Paul also describes Christ as being our Peace, our peace with
God and so with each other, and he continues with this theme in
his letter to the Colossians:
SUFFERING AND ENDURANCE
Historically, crucifixion is the act of putting to death by nailing
or binding the victim to a cross, or sometimes, to a tree. The
cruelty of this punishment lay in the public shame involved and
in its slow torture. Victims usually took several days to die,
as a result of fatigue, cramped muscles, hunger, and thirst. Originally
practiced by the Phoenicians and Persians, crucifixion was later
used by the Romans on slaves and foreigners. Cicero called crucifixion
the most extreme form of punishment. It was not only used as a
form of execution, but also served as a public spectacle for deterrence
purposes. This extreme punishment was Rome's method of subjugation,
as Josephus' account of troubled Palestine repeatedly demonstrates.
For instance, when rebellion arose in Jerusalem after the death
of Herod the Great, the governor of Syria marched his legions
through Galilee to Jerusalem and ordered 2,000 rebels to the cross.
(Antiquities 17:295)
Crucifixion was also the instrument of death for our Lord and
Saviour.
1Co 1:17 (NIV) For Christ did not send me to baptize, but
to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest
the cross of Christ be emptied of its power (cf. Gal 6:12;
Phil 3:18).
So in Paul's preaching, the cross of Christ is a central theme.
It is equated with power.
In essence, the cross, picturing the sufferings and agony of the
crucified Christ, depicts the spiritual healing available to all
mankind:
Isa 53:4-6 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried
our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and
afflicted. 5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was
bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was
upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep
have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and
the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
The cross of Christ is therefore a powerful symbol carrying many
important spiritual lessons for us. It is this symbolism I would
like, at least in part, to consider today.
How important is this symbolism of the cross? Can we separate
the true biblical imagery from any false notions we may have inherited
from our previous religious experience?
1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a
stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness.
Christ crucified, or nailed to a cross, was a stumbling-block-a
trap, a snare-to the Jews who expected, not a crucified Messiah,
but a triumphant, political one with a world empire. Similarly,
Greek speculation could not accept a doctrine of salvation based
on the "foolishness" of the crucified Nazarene; after
all, only criminals were crucified, and it was unacceptable that
a criminal could be the Saviour of the world! Roman historians
like Tacitus and Suetonius looked upon the idea of a crucified
God with contempt. For these groups to accept such an image to
symbolise their Redeemer would mean the abandonment of all their
cherished concepts. Yet to know Christ is to indeed abandon our
own concepts and come to understand the symbolism of His cross:
1Co 2:2 For I determined not to know anything among you
[the context is Paul's comments about human wisdom] except
Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul is telling the Corinthians that he has decided to use the
message of the cross of Christ as his main emphasis, even to the
point of avoiding more scholarly arguments or fine points. The
perfect tense of the Greek-Christ crucified-indicates that Christ
cannot be separated from the cross. The effects of Christ's experience
on the cross are enduring and potent in their meaning for us.
Notice the language of the apostle Paul in his admonition and
rebuke of the Church in Galatia for their drift into error:
Gal 3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that
you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ
was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
The sense of the Greek for the words "clearly portrayed"
is 'placarded up, as on a public poster'. As he begins to correct
the Galatians who have lapsed into a gospel of error (Gal 1:6),
Paul recounts to them their initial experience of the true Gospel,
which is grounded upon this imagery of the crucified Christ, as
a focal point of reference; not, as we have seen happen in our
experience, to make an idolatrous concept out of the symbolism
of the cross of Christ, but because the correct symbolism carries
vitally-important spiritual lessons for the Christian.
1Co 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to
those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the
power of God.
The power of God is illustrated by the preaching of the cross
of Christ. How? What are we to learn from this imagery?
Dt 21:22-23 "If a man has committed a sin deserving
of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree,
23 his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall
surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which
the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who
is hanged is accursed of God."
Although the reference is not to crucifixion, which was not an
Israelite punishment, but rather to exhibiting a corpse after
execution, the hanging, or impaling, of the offender did symbolise
the judgement of God and His rejection of the evil-doer. The curse
was for the violation of the Law of God, not solely for this specific
offence.
The breaking of the Law of God brings a curse upon all: the death
penalty, for "the wages of sin is death" (Ro 6:23)
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are
under the curse [because of sin resulting from the violation
of the Law]; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who
does not continue in all things which are written in the book
of the law, to do them [-and everyone will fall short!]"
This is why there is no more curse in the New Jerusalem: because
there is no more sin-not because there is no more law!
Rev 22:3 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall
serve Him.
We might wonder why this practice, to demonstrate that the land
has been purged of evil, should defile it. Perhaps the sight was
a witness to the sin of which the wrong-doer was guilty. Nonetheless,
the apostle Paul made use of this Deuteronomic curse on the hanged
man-a curse, incidentally, much quoted by those Jews who rejected
Christ-to refer to Christ's crucifixion:
Gal 3:13 Christ has redeemed us [while we were slaves
to the world and to sin] from the curse of the law, having
become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone
who hangs on a tree").
Christ was not cursed by God. As was mentioned, the allusion was
to exposure of dead bodies on stakes or crosses (Jos 10:26-27).
The curse which we were all under Christ took upon Himself; it
therefore fell upon Him instead of on us. Christ became a curse
for us because He paid the death penalty demanded by the Law for
our sins. On the cross, He absorbed the curse which is upon all
mankind because of sin and which, like the penalty for murder
referred to, would otherwise also incur the penalty of death.
The capital punishment demanded by the Law of God has been executed,
but executed in the body of Jesus Christ. What we are therefore
freed, or redeemed, from is this penalty of death,
not the obligation to keep the Law, as falsely claimed by some.
Col 2:13-14 (NIV) When you were dead in your sins and
in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive
with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having cancelled
[or "blotted out"] the written code [the certificate
of indebtedness, our spiritual debt or note of guilt because of
our violation of the Law of God] with its regulations [decrees
or ordinances, no doubt also including the ritualistic law],
that was against us [for who can keep the law faultlessly?]
and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the
cross.
The picture here, in business terminology, is of the cancelling
of a legal debt, much like an X which crosses out or renders invalid
the written contents of a piece of paper. Our heavenly record
of sin and evil is wiped clean. The bond has been paid, and the
debt has thus been cancelled and removed. The cross of Christ
therefore also pictures our freedom from death, the curse of sin.
As Christ was sacrificed on the cross, so are we to be sacrifices
to God:
Ro 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, that you present [as in offering a sacrifice] your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your
reasonable service.
The self must be sacrificed, as Christ offered Himself-freely-as
a sacrifice for sin. This, too, is symbolised by the cross.
Mk 8:34-35 When He had called the people to Himself, with
His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to
come after Me, let him deny himself [say no to himself-what
can be harder to do?], and take up his cross ['at
once' is the sense of the Greek], and follow Me [Gk: keep
on following Me]. 35 For whoever desires to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's
will save it."
The follower of Christ, must, like a condemned man, also bear
his own cross, just as Christ did, and follow in His Master's
footsteps. The self must die, self-centredness must be abandoned.
This is our Christian duty. Do we view our discipleship in such
terms?
Mt 10:38-39 "And he who does not take his cross and
follow after Me is not worthy of Me [J.B. Phillips: "does
not deserve to be Mine"] 39 He who finds his life will
lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it."
This is the first time the word "cross" in Matthew's
Gospel. A disciple of Jesus Christ must be totally committed.
We each have our own cross to meet and our own cross
to bear.
Lk 9:23-24 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires
to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
daily, and follow Me. 24 For whoever desires to save his
life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will
save it."
These verses therefore provide us with the definition of what
it means to be "worthy" of Jesus Christ.
Lk 14:27 "And whoever does not bear his cross
and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
Christ's crucifixion and death is a dramatic depiction of the
Christian's baptism and death to sin through a new life:
Ro 6:1-12 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in
sin that grace may abound? 2 Certainly not! How shall we who
died to sin live any longer in it? 3 Or do you not know that
as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized
into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism
into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life. 5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of
His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified [willingly,
when we died to sin] with Him, that the body of sin [the
body marked by sin] might be done away with, that we should
no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed
from sin [from the power of sin and from death, the curse of
sin]. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall
also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised
from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over
Him. 10 For the death that He died [again, willingly],
He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives
to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves [strive to
live up to the ideal pictured here] to be dead indeed to sin,
but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 Therefore do not
let [a choice we have] sin [continue to] reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
Baptism as a picture of death and burial symbolizes our likeness
to Christ in his death. We are one in Christ through our death
to sin. We die with Christ to the power of sin over us and live
as a new creation. Are we refusing to allow sin to reign in our
lives? Are we renewed?
Ro 8:3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh.
On the cross, Jesus absorbed the worst that sin could do and drained
it of its power. Sin, the enemy-the sin of men, not of
Christ-was thereby condemned and overcome in the flesh of the
Son of God. Sin has now lost its control over the new man in Christ,
the new creation.
Do we, in a similar manner, also "condemn sin in the flesh",
by overcoming it?
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified [referring to the "old
man"-see Ro 6:6] with Christ; it is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself
for me.
For us, too, the sentence of death has been executed-but in the
body of Jesus Christ on the cross. If we live now, it can only
be through Christ, and our new lives can now be nothing but the
life of Christ in us. This identification with the physical body
of Christ is symbolic of the Church as the spiritual Body of Christ.
Paul often uses the idea of dying with Christ (Gal 5:24; 6:14;
Ro 6:8; Col 2:20) and also of being buried with Christ (Ro 6:4;
Col 2:12). We might want to consider this symbolism more deeply.
The crucifixion of Christ on the cross is re-enacted in our lives
when we crucify our fleshly desires, and we should be doing this
to ourselves daily.
Gal 5:24 And those who are Christ's have crucified the
flesh with its passions and desires [have put to death
its passions and disposition towards evil].
CRUCIFIED TO THE WORLD
The follower of Jesus Christ bears his own cross as one condemned
by the world.
Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should boast except in
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been
crucified [stands crucified] to me, and I to the world.
The antithesis of this is to be involved in an adulterous relationship
of having befriended the world:
Jas 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that
friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore
wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
Which are we: a friend of the world or a suffering servant of
Jesus Christ?
1Jn 2:15-17 Do not love the world or the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. 16 For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father
but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the
lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
RECONCILIATION, PEACE AND UNITY
The crucifixion is also a powerful symbol of reconciliation.
Eph 2:13-16 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were
far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For
He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken
down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished [made
null and void] in His flesh [through the crucifixion]
the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances,
so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making
peace, 16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one
body [the body of Christ on the cross as well as the Body of
believers, the Church: Eph 1:23] through the cross, thereby
putting to death the enmity.
Just as by Christ's death on the cross the barrier between Jews
and Gentiles, as well as the barrier between them both and God,
was taken away and both are able, in Christ, to become one, so
also is the cross of the Son of God symbolic of the unity of the
Body of the Church, of the removal of all barriers, of the end
to all hostilities. The "middle wall of separation"
or the "dividing wall of hostility (NIV)", alludes to
the balustrade which surrounded the Temple proper in Jerusalem,
the partition wall which divided the court of the Gentiles from
the court of Israel, with an inscription forbidding a Gentile
from going further barring the entrance of Gentiles (Acts 21:28).
Human commandments, regulations and decrees which separate us
from God and from one another, just as they separated Jews and
Gentiles, are abolished. And can we, given the culture of the
churches of God from which we have come, really grasp what this
means?
Col 1:20-22 and by Him to reconcile all things [all
things that are willing to be reconciled] to Himself, by Him,
whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace
through the blood of His cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy,
and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.
Christ's death on the cross symbolises the reconciliation, peace
and harmony now possible between God, man and creation. This reconciliation
was accomplished by means of Christ's death on the cross.
So are we reconciled to and at peace with God, and with one another,
especially as we enter into the coming early Holy Day season?
Let is return briefly to the picture of the Suffering Servant
of Isaiah 53:
Isa 53:3,7,10-11 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom
men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Psalm 22 offers a similar picture of the suffering of the Messiah.
It is fitting that we dwell upon this as the Passover again approaches.
This prophecy of the sufferings of Jesus Christ is brought
home to us by the imagery of the cross. The word "excruciate"
comes from the Latin for "from, or out of, the cross".
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see
his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will
prosper in his hand. 11 After the suffering of his soul, he will
see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous
servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Crucifixion was the most degrading of executions, and Christ's
humiliation was heightened as He suffered in agony on the cross.
Yet He despised the shame and submitted to the will of His Father.
Heb 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of
our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the
cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God.
We are called upon to bear the same reproach Christ bore for us
on the cross, to share in the sufferings of Christ (Php 3:10;
1Pe 4:13), and the cross is a powerful symbol of Christian suffering
and persecution. Taking up our cross as Christ instructs us to
do therefore also includes the readiness to suffer as He did,
including persecution if necessary. This was Paul's experience:
Php 2:8 (NIV) And being found in appearance as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a
cross!
Gal 5:11 And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision,
why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense [Gk: snare,
stumbling-block] of the cross [which brought persecution
his way] has ceased.
As Christ had His own shame to bear (Heb 12:2), so did His followers
bear reproach, and so do we as Christians today.
Heb 11:26 [speaking of Moses] esteeming the
reproach of Christ [the same reproach Christ bore for us
on the cross] greater riches than the treasures in Egypt;
for he looked to the reward.
We read earlier how Paul boasted in the cross of Christ (Gal 6:14).
He was not ashamed of the Gospel powered by the symbolism and
imagery of a crucified Messiah.
Ro 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,
for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes,
for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Are we ashamed to declare our faith, do we perhaps hide our Christianity
under a bushel, or forego opportunities that present themselves
to profess what we believe? What did Jesus Christ say?
Mk 8:38 "For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words
in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man
also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father
with the holy angels."
SYMBOL OF TRIUMPH
Mt 10:32-33 "Therefore whoever confesses Me before
men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
33 But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before
My Father who is in heaven."
As we saw in Gal 6:14, the apostle Paul boasted in the cross of
Christ. He gloried in the symbol of the cross as a sign of victory,
not shame, humiliation or defeat.
Rather than being something we feel we would prefer to keep concealed
in the background of our minds, the metaphor of the cross is,
and should so be for us, finally, a symbol of triumph, of victory,
of anticipating the fruits of conquest, just as it was for Christ:
Col 2:15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities,
he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the
cross.
On the cross was won complete victory over every opposing power
and authority.
Heb 13:13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the
camp, bearing His reproach.
Yes, as followers of the Son of God, let us go out to Christ "outside
the camp" and take our stand with him there on Golgotha,
bearing the reproach of the cross.