Without doubt the cross is the most revered symbol of Christianity. It has attracted both positive and negative sentiments across all cultures and societies. If one has to understand Christianity, he or she should understand the significance or the meaning of the cross. Whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you can never escape the subject of the cross. The cross is the core of the Christian faith. If you and I are to grow in the love of God, which is the first commandment, then we should come to the full knowledge of the cross.
History of Crucifixion
Crucifixion was probably invented by the Assyrians and Babylonians. In the 6th Century BC, the Persians adopted it. Alexander the Great moved it to the Eastern Mediterranean countries in the 4th Century BC and it was finally introduced to the Romans by the Phoenicians in the 3rd Century BC.
In the Roman regime, crucifixion was the capital punishment especially for non-Romans and was practiced until the time of Constantine when it was finally declared as an insult to Christianity hence abolished. (Click here to read a brief history of the church)
Death through the cross was a gruesome ordeal. It was reserved for the lowest of the low, who had no rights and had been sentenced to die due to their crimes. On the subject of crucifixion, Cicero, who was a Roman orator, statesman and writer, who lived 106-43 BC wrote “Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of Roman citizens, but even from his thoughts, his eyes and his ears1” According to St, Augustine, “The purpose of the cross was to inflict as much pain as possible while prolonging death2”
Crucifixion of Jesus Christ/Jesus on the Cross
The torture and death of Jesus on the cross was prophesied by the prophet Isaiah over 700 years before the birth of Jesus. Isaiah gives amazing details regarding the crucifixion of the Messiah in chapter 53 of his book. Isaiah 53 is regarded as the gospel of the Old Testament, for in it the reason for the death of Christ on the cross is plainly stated, which is, to liberate man from the yoke of sin.
To a Jew, death on the cross was a shame, because anyone who died by hanging on a tree was deemed cursed3. This is why it was a detestable thing for the Jews to imagine that their messiah could die a shameful death. Paul expounds the reason for the death of Jesus on the cross in his letter to the Galatians by stating that Christ’s death on the cross was so that he could redeem man from the curse of the law. For he, Jesus, was made a curse on our behalf4.
To the Greco-Roman population, death by the cross was deemed as foolishness. Anyone who died of such a death was considered worthless, a person with no dignity. This is why Paul states that the message of the cross to the Jews was a stumbling block and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are called, both, Jews and Gentiles, it is the power of God and the wisdom of God5.
Meaning of the Cross to humanity
It is through death on the cross that Jesus demonstrates his selfless love and humility to humanity; by choosing to suffer the humiliating death of a slave6. It is at the cross that the wounds of sin are healed7. Through the cross, emotional problems such as anxiety, anger, depression, stress, guilt or whatever problem it is, get healed. Forgiveness of sin is offered at the cross. It was at the cross that all that stood to condemn man was put to death. Shame and guilt was exchanged with triumph and victory. At the cross is where Christ reconciled man back to God8.
The cross being the central theme of God’s message to humanity, has and still is, undergoing opposition in many ways. Since it is through the cross that Christ triumphed over Satan, Satan detests the cross, and through that hatred, it is his main objective to diminish it.
Every cult or false teaching society tries to reduce Christ to a mere wise man in order to downplay the power of the cross and its implications to humanity. On this subject, C.S Lewis, who was a notable professor at Cambridge University, and who clearly understood who Christ is, and what he accomplished through his death on the cross, wrote “I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to9.
There is no middle ground in the issue regarding the cross. You will either scorn it, jest at it and walk away from it a dejected sinner or you can embrace it, bow before it in reverence adoration recognizing that it is only through the cross of Jesus that salvation has been offered to man.
Notes
1 Cicero, Pro Rabirios
2 St. Augustine, Tractate 36.4
3 Deuteronomy 21:23
4 Galatians 3:13
5 1 Corinthians 1:23-24
6 Philippians 2:5-8
7 1 Peter 2:24
8 Colossians 2:13-15
9 C.S Lewis, Mere Christianity, P 40-41
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