The Cross

I write to you this weekly email as I scurry about making preparations for our upcoming Holy Week services. Just a reminder - Maundy Thursday and Friday Worships are at 7pm on their respective nights. And Easter Sunday is at 8:30 and 10am. We are encouraging as many members as able to attend the 8:30am worship as we are expecting a full house at 10am and want to make sure to have enough room for our guests. I am looking forward to seeing God at work in wondrous ways this week.

Throughout the week, we remember Jesus' sacrifice upon the cross. The cross is a common symbol of our faith. We display it prominently in our church. Many of us adorn ourselves with it as jewelry. We wear it on t-shirts. We proudly display it on our Bibles and in our homes. There are very few places we can go and not be confronted with this symbol of life. We see it in the sacred and the secular. We see in nature and creation.

We see it so often, that sometimes it is easy to forget what the cross was all about. The cross for Jesus was much more than logo used to identify the organization he would start called the Church. The cross for Jesus would be the ultimate sacrifice he would make for those he loves.

Crucifixion was used by the Roman Empire and was reserved for non-citizens and violent offenders. Crucifixion would be used against a Roman citizen only in cases of high treason and desertion during times of war. It was largely recognized as the most painful and disgraceful form of capital punishment in a time when no form of capital punishment was not designed to be quick or humane. Crucifixions were public events to serve as a deterrent for others. They would often take place outside the city walls along a well traveled road for all to see. It would have been common for the charge against the guilty party to be written out and nailed to the cross above their head.

Victims would often be scourged and tortured prior to the crucifixion. The crucifixion could take place on a single vertical stake or on a vertical stake with a crossbeam near or on its top. Blocks where sometimes attached to serve as a seat or as a footrest to draw out the torturous pain for up to three days. Without the rests underneath, the victim would be held up solely by their arms which would be attached by nails or rope. This could prohibit the victim from breathing and would block circulation. Victims would die from a combination of suffocation and heart failure. This was why the soldiers intended to break Jesus' legs, to hasten death, before the onset of the Sabbath.

After a victim had died, their bodies would often remain on the cross for days as they rotted away and became food for scavenger birds. Eventually the body would be taken down and thrown in the garbage dump. In Jerusalem, this would have been the Hinom Valley, also know as "Ghenna." It was the valley of fire where the garbage was burned. Jesus used this imagery to describe hell.

In Deuteronomy 21:23 we are told that "anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse." Jesus became cursed by God so that we could be blessed by God. It is the great exchange. In it we discover the forgiveness of sins. It is our ticket out of hell to heaven. The cross is no small thing and for that we worship him and give him our thanks and praise.