The Cross

 The Cross is central symbol of Christian faith. All four gospels have some different accounts of who else Jesus healed, preached to, and etc, reminding us of John’s words, “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (John 21:25). But all four gospels have the crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus, with the crucifixion and its lead up in great detail. This is because all the writers of the gospel accounts make central the Crucifixion of Jesus, The Cross. 

Theologian Brunner put it so well, 

“The Cross is the sign of the Christian faith, of the Christian Church, of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ....The whole struggle of the Reformation for the sola fide, the soli deo gloria, was simply the struggle for the right interpretation of the Cross. He who understands the Cross aright – this is the opinion of the Reformers – understands the Bible, he understands Jesus Christ (theologica crucis, Brunner, p.435). Indeed, for it is Christ Crucified that we preach!, “But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God,” (1 Corinthians 1:23). The apostle even went as far as to say, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died.” (Galatians 6:14). 

It is clear in the four gospels and the writings of St. Paul that it is the cross, Jesus Crucified for us, that is core of Christianity, that God became a Man and sacrifice for all our sins so that we are reconciled with The Holy Trinity, and all of this is done on the cross, and even Jesus raising from the dead is at a garden tomb right where Christ was crucified on the cross, “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.” (John 19:41-42), so that even the Resurrection of Jesus from the dead happens near the vicinity of the cross and crucifixion!

I do not advocate superstitious veneration of the cross as Roman Catholics do, who treat it as a talisman of protection, a means of penance if they pray in front of it, and who believe Jesus is re-crucified mystically ever time the Eucharist is preformed, which us refuted by Scripture, “Nor was it to offer Himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, for then Jesus would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, Jesus has appeared once for all at the end (culmination) of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9:25-28).  The cross itself has no power save who hung upon it, Jesus Christ is our savior, yet he accomplished that saving on a cross so that is why the cross is our emblem and cherished symbol, because Jesus accomplished our eternal salvatioj on it. 

We are even called to carry our own crosses as disciples of Jesus, “Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me,” (Luke 9:23) and “and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” (Matthew 10:38). The apostle mourns that there enemies of the cross, “For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ” (Philippians 3:18). I encounter people even in the church who seemed ashamed of the cross, wanting their church sanctuaries to look like bars with big screens and a stage for a concert, and no cross in sight. 

The Cross represents the fundamental and cardinal importance of Jesus’ salvic work. That we are not abandoned in our sins, doomed to be separate from God who is all good, but now we are covered, anointed with the blood of Jesus so that we may now enter God’s holy of holies!, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.” (Hebrews 10:19). 

The cross is tearing down of the curtain that kept us at a distance from our God, “And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life” (Matthew 27:50-52). Jesus broke down the barrier, and now we may cross over to God The Father because of Jesus and what He did on the cross!  

We should treasure this sacred symbol because it proclaims the gospel in a nutshell, it is an image of what Christ used to accomplish the destruction of Satan’s power, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil, ” (1 John 3:8), and “God stripped the spiritual rulers and powers of their authority. With the cross, he won the victory and showed the world that they were powerless.” (Colossians 2:15 NCV). Let us rejoice then and praise our Lord Jesus who saved us from eternal darkness at the cross! Amen.