The Cross Of Christ

THE CROSS OF CHRIST

You can look around NSCC and see many crosses. There are wooden crosses, metal crosses. Some are big, some are small. Some are plain, some are fancy. Cross necklaces are popular. It's interesting how many celebrities wear them. But for some of them, when you see what they're wearing or listen to their music or watch their shows or look into how they live you have to wonder what that cross necklace is really all about. Is it merely a fashion statement? Are they simply following a trend? The cross is not just a decoration or a piece of jewelry. The cross of Christ represents so much more than that.

1) A symbol of suffering and shame.

Heb. 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The joy set before Jesus was his victory over death in his resurrection and the joy of making the way for our salvation. But he first had to endure the shame and humiliation of crucifixion.

The following is taken from a Wikipedia article: "While a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation, by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible. Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth, writings by Seneca the Younger suggest that victims were crucified completely nude. When the criminal had to urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of passers-by.

Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful (hence the term excruciating, literally "out of crucifying"), gruesome, humiliating, and public, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. The goal of crucifixion wasn't just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonor their body. It was intended to also terrorize onlookers. Victims were left on display after death as warnings to dissuade people from committing the crimes punishable by it. Crucifixion was the most dishonorable death imaginable."

We can have nice, shiny, pretty crosses to wear or display, but we need to make sure we recognize the horrific pain and humiliating shame associated with what it was used for so we don't forget what Jesus went through for our benefit.

Phil. 2:8, "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!" The "honorable" way for Jesus to have died would've been the Jewish method-stoning. But he allowed himself to suffer Roman crucifixion.

Jesus endured the torture and died in the most humiliating way. Why? To show us how terrible our sin is and how great his love is for us.

2) Foolishness to some; powerful to others.

1st Cor. 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."

Why is the message of the cross foolish to some? Because they look at it through the lens of human reasoning. Paul said in vs. 17 that he doesn't preach the gospel with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

To those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, the gospel is powerful and effective. But to those who only look at it through the lens of worldly wisdom-the cross not only doesn't make sense-it's foolish. God coming to earth as a human? Nonsense. Jesus willingly taking on the torture and punishment of crucifixion for something he didn't do? Insane. God sending his Son to go through all this? Sacrilegious and unacceptable.

This rejection is something that deeply saddened Paul. Phil. 3:18, "For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ."

Part of the reason for his tears may have been in recognition of his own time spent as an enemy of Christ and his church. So now, after coming to see the message of the cross as the power of God, he now has deep sorrow for those who can't see it.

He goes on to explain why they're enemies of the cross in vs. 19, "Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."

Because they're spiritually blind they can't see that their rejection of the gospel has put them on the path of destruction. Their god is self. Their passion lies in living for their pleasures rather than devoting their lives to following Jesus. And they glorify that which is sinful and shameful. Their minds and hearts are on earthly things; earthly principles; earthly ways. They don't consider the mind of God, the way of God, the will of God.