Lent 17 Pondering the Meaning of the Cross During Holy Week, First Day
In Jesus’ time the Cross was used by the Roman Empire as an instrument of fear and death. Only Rome had the authority to exact capital punishment and the cross became the preferred form used for non-Romans because of its public agony and personal humiliation. Roman citizens however, were seen as being above all non-Romans. So they, except in extreme cases of treason, were subjected to more ‘honorable’ forms of execution or permitted to commit suicide. The cross simply extended what the emperor, his leadership and its people thought about themselves. Because of their power and size, the empire was divine, its emperor a god and they were superior.
For those who have seen the movie ‘Spartacus’ you will remember one of the final scenes where the road to Rome was lined with crucified slaves punished for their part in a slave uprising. It graphically illustrated the theme of man’s sin in control of institutional forms. When a man or a leadership exalt themselves outside of God and His Word they have only horizontal vision. They make themselves gods. So someone has to be lower. Herein lies the problem of ethnic, racial, social, national and denominational divisions. Without the vertical dimension man is lost in himself, his definitions, his conclusions and his laws. Only isolating sin and fear remain to guarantee ultimate aloneness. That is hell.
This was the condition of the world in which Jesus chose to be born. It was the world in which He chose to live and the condition He knew would judge Him by its standards and condemn Him to die by them. The devil was in complete control of this world and everyone in it. The words of Genesis 6:5 sum it up, “The inclination of every man’s heart was only evil all the time.” Add to that Paul's quote from Ps.14:1-3, “There is no one righteous, not even one…”
If we apply the horizontal secular standards of today we will find the same dynamics at work. We live under their threatening judgment all the time. It is not only secularly led governments but also social, economic, class, peer group and educational distinctions that rule in both open and subtle forms. We find them around us every day. Scripture is clear about man’s condition in every generation, “There is nothing new under the sun.”
Human dynamics are the same in every year of existence. The reason? Every person is born brand new needing to learn, to grow in wisdom and to know how to be productive. The only things that change are the size of the population and the technology it develops. Human nature remains the same and each new person needs to realize his spiritual needs to be saved from sin and follow Jesus as Lord.
This is why the Cross of Jesus transcends every generation, why He came when He did. No more telling situation existed than when He was unjustly tried and executed for claiming to be God’s Son. He was executed because He brought the vertical dimension into visible reality. He exposed the emptiness of living for power, for superiority and for self alone. He showed the lostness of life without God. He lifted up the individual heart as more important than any level of human position or authority. He returned the importance of every person having dignity, significance and purpose and that government was a servant not a definer of humanity.
What sinful man had done to the horizontal dimension Jesus redeemed by living in it and showing how it was to be lived from within, directed in the heart from above, as opposed to living by man’s definition through fear and intimidation.
Instead of fighting the world’s authorities and its corrupted judgments, He submitted to them and its death penalty. He did five things through the Cross.
First, He exposed the limitations of human power through spiritual power.
Second, He revealed the full love, grace and purpose of God for all people, past, present and future.
Third, He reversed the understanding of the purpose of government to be a servant before it rules.
Fourth, He reversed the understanding of the individual from being a slave to being an image of God.
Fifth, and most importantly, He revealed Himself to be the focus for our lives, the One Lord in whom we entrust everything. The proof was in His Resurrection.
The Resurrection is why we turn back to the Cross to understand how to live. The life that Jesus carried to the Cross was lived with the Cross in mind. It is the way Jesus lived knowing that He would be killed because of it. He lived in the atmosphere of His Father’s love, trusting His Father’s will under the authority of His Father’s Word. That is why His way is to be our way. That is the way we take up our cross every day and do the same.
Next, we want to see how the Cross defines the specifics of life, how we think, how we feel and how we behave. Stay tuned.
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