The Cross of Christ

The Cross is the pinnacle moment in all of history.  On it, Jesus, the declared Son of God, took on all the sin of mankind and, though being in very nature God, became accursed in His death.  Though having lived a perfect, sinless life, He was tried unjustly and horrifically murdered as a criminal.  He died hanging naked from a crucifix that was pounded into a hill alongside the crossroads just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.  Above His head was posted a sign that read, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."

This moment, when Jesus breathed His last utterance of forgiveness upon His executioners and yielded His Spirit to Lord as the coil of mortality writhed its extinguishing gasp, the King and Lord of all Creation performed the single greatest act of love in the whole of history.  Although executed a criminal, He was buried as nobility in a fresh grave.  A hewn boulder was rolled before the grave's opening and a Roman guard was placed over the tomb.  Yet on the third day, the whole guard was stricken by the sight of a divine being and the tomb was found open and empty, replaced with the  declaration, "He is not here, He is Risen!"

Christianity rests upon the Cross, not as a rosary symbol or a tattoo to commemorate the loss of a family member but as a sobering reminder of the great work that was accomplished upon it by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Because of the events of the Cross, we may now enter into a right and restored relationship with the Holy Lord of the Universe.  This is the Gospel, the Good News: we do not need to pay the price for our sin because it has been paid for already by Christ.  He swelled our sin within His own body as He was nailed to the Cross on Golgotha.  This is Good News.

The power of the Cross should not be undervalued but should also never be separated from the person whose broken body was strewn across its beams.  The Cross represents Jesus.  Not only does it represent Jesus, but it is also a reminder of our sin, which He overcame and atoned for upon it.  The sinful depravity of humanity made the Cross a necessity, for by it a Holy God was able to meet His holy requirements; man was and is utterly unable to meet the perfect requirements of God's holy and righteous justice.  Therefore, Jesus, God incarnate, needed to step in as a proxy on our behalf and to suffer the due penalty for all man's sin.

It is also important to remember that the Cross was and is a symbol of immense shame.  Only the worst criminals were doomed to publicly bear their guilt upon a cross.  The severity of crucifixion should prompt humility and awe, if not outright provocation.  Splayed across the crucifix was the perfect, spotless lamb who, by His atoning and sacrificial death, conquered sin.

Every year, Christians around the world spend time, ranging from a single Easter Day to an entire Lenten season, remembering the broken body and shed blood of Christ.  The purpose of this discourse was to remind us what we our remembering during this season and, hopefully, to spur us on to remembering Christ's Passion throughout our year.  Mark 15-16, Matthew 27-28, Luke 23-24, John 19-20 are the Scripture points of reference and are worth examination with an eye to what His death and resurrection means to believers.  Praise God for all He accomplished upon the Cross, setting us free from the curse of sin and death!