The Cross Where God Died!
Jesus, Son of God and Son of man — the Second of the Godhead was crucified. He was rejected by the people He came to save. His own people rejected him. They handed him over to the hated Roman colonial masters. He was crucified. Jesus died: The Son of God died, God died on the Cross!
The Cross — the Roman instrument of execution was a symbol of rejection and death. But Jesus turned it into the symbol of victory; It is the gate to life — life more abundant, life eternal.
Crucifixion as a method of capital punishment was invented by the Persians in 300 BC and perfected by the Romans in 100 BC. It is adjudged the most painful death ever invented by man. It is where the word “excruciating” came from. Crucifixion was reserved primarily for the most vicious of male criminals.
Physician, Dr. C. Truman Davis, writing in New Wine Magazine, brings into sharp focus the pains endured by Jesus in the last six hours of his crucifixion. He writes, “the victim was physiologically forced to move up and down the cross. The process is one in which respiration causing excruciating pain, mixed with the terror of asphyxiation.”
The last word of Jesus on the Cross that summed up all that he came to accomplish on earth is “finished.” —”It is finished” All Done!
All that is needed for humanity’s redemption after the fall is done!
The book of Hebrews breaks it down for us: Hebrew 2: 14–17 has this:
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death…For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:14–17).
Jesus’ death on the Cross brings to fulfillment God’s judgement pronounced on the serpent after the fall:
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” (Gen. 3:15).
On the Cross, the heel of the woman’s offspring — Jesus — was struck by Satan, the serpent, and Jesus Christ, rising from the dead, crushed the head of the devil forever.
Jay Y. Kim writing in The Wondrous Cross, puts it this way: “For the followers of Jesus, his death is not the end, or even the beginning of the end. It is simply the end of the beginning and the beginning of eternity.”
God has revealed Himself — in the past through the prophets, and today through His Son Jesus (Hebrew 1: 1–2).
Jesus, the God-made-man was an enigma. He was misunderstood; His language was blunt and proverbial, carrying deeper meaning than the wisest and the most intellectual of the human race could comprehend.
Apostle Paul who himself was intellectual — a former critic and persecutor of Christians had this to say about the Cross:
“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 . For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”
“Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” (1 Corinthians 1: 18–25).
It is God-honoring for believers at a time like the Easter season to appreciate and celebrate the wisdom of God and the message of the Cross.
But appreciating and celebrating Christ’s death on the Cross goes beyond Easter season. The Cross is a place where we put pride to death. In Mark 8: 34–35, we read:
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it.”
The crowds were following Jesus because of what they could get from him — the miracle worker. But Jesus called them aside and showed them what it means to follow him.
Some people think that a hardship, a physical handicap or a chronic health challenge is the “cross” they must bear. No, that is not what Jesus meant. He was referring to the shame and humiliation of the cross. It is the insult and humiliation that come with standing out differently from the crowd.
What is your pride? Do you feel you have a right to a certain standard of living? a promotion at work denied you? Or a better car? Is it your pride to show off your accomplishments and so look down on others? Jesus is saying to you, Crucify it — nail it to the cross.
Don’t get me wrong; it is not a sin to have the good things of life, but we must know as Christ’s disciples that everything we have is a gift of God’s grace; not a right or an entitlement.
The Lord said, “follow” me. To follow Jesus is to obey him and walk in his footsteps. It is to pattern our lives, our words, and our actions after his.
Folks, let us appreciate and celebrate the wisdom of God and the message of the Cross, singing Isaac Watt’s soulful and insightful song:
Alas, and did my Savior bleed and did my sovereign die/ Would He devote that sacred head to such a worm as I?
At the Cross, at the Cross where I first saw the light/ and the burden of my heart rolled away, rolled away/ It was there by faith I received my sight/ and now I am happy all the day
Was it for crime that I have done /He groaned up on the tree? /Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond degree.
But drops of grief cannot repay the debt of love I owe/ Here Lord I give myself away /It’s all that I can do.
HAPPY EASTER!
