Transforming the Cross from Death to Life

Have you ever gone into a jewelry store to be shown a necklace with a miniature electric chair hanging from it? Of course not. How about a charm bracelet featuring a hangman’s noose? No way, right? Then why do many people proudly wear cross necklaces and bracelets, tee shirts with images of the cross, or even use crosses as wall decorations in their homes?

 

More than 2,000 years ago someone had the brilliant idea (not really) to invent crucifixion, perhaps the most heinous, excruciating form of death ever conceived. In Jesus Christ’s day, seeing criminals being executed by nailing them to a cross wasn’t unusual – just cruel. Not only was it painful beyond imagining, but it also was humiliating and dehumanizing. 

 

Witnesses probably regarded many of the people crucified as deserving of that fate, but Jesus wasn’t. Even Pontius Pilate, the one who had to authorize Jesus’s crucifixion, stated, “I find no basis for a charge against Him” (John 18:38). But the Lord’s death was foreordained, not because He had ever done anything wrong – which He hadn’t – but because there was no other way for God to accomplish once-for-all atonement for the countless sins of mankind.

 

The Israelites understood this from the Torah – which now is part of the Bible’s Old Testament. As God told Moses in instituting ritual animal sacrifices, “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11).

 

Long before false charges were brought against Jesus to justify His crucifixion, He understood the shedding of His own blood was the ultimate reason He came to earth in human form. Just hours before going through His mock trial on false charges, being cruelly scourged and mocked, and then crucified, Jesus had shared the Passover meal with His disciples. Using the traditional cup of wine symbolically, He told them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

 

By willingly dying for us on the cross, He transformed the instrument of the most diabolical form of execution into God’s glorious mechanism for forgiveness, freedom from sin and guilt, and the promise of eternal life.

 

An electric chair, a noose, even a syringe for transporting lethal poison will always signify death. No one in their right mind wants to wear symbols of those around their neck, on a bracelet or displayed on a shirt. But through Jesus’ sacrificial, atoning death on the cross, it now serves as a symbol of hope, standing for God’s incredible love, grace and mercy.

 

Some Christian denominations continue to display the crucifix, which bears the image of Jesus on the cross. But for most evangelical congregations, the cross is shown as empty because we know Christ is no longer on the cross. And the tomb in which His body was laid also is empty. As the angel told the women who had gone to the tomb to anoint Jesus’ body, “He is not here; He has risen, just as He said…” (Matthew 28:6). 

 

Because of that, millions around the world proudly wear crosses to declare their faith in Jesus Christ, knowing His death, burial and resurrection forever transformed the cross into a representation of forgiveness, redemption and rebirth.

 

The words of 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 ask and answer, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” The unsurpassed example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and despair.

 

Speaking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, Jesus drew a parallel to an event that took place while the Jews were wandering in the desert thousands of years earlier: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). The key words are, “everyone who believes in Him.”

 

The Lord proceeded to utter perhaps the most profound and revolutionary words ever spoken. He told the Jewish leader, “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life…. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son” (John 3:16-18).

 

For many of us, the cross does not remind us of tragedy; it serves as the symbol of God’s unfathomable love for His creation, His substitutionary payment for our sins – for all who are willing to receive this greatest gift of all. As Jesus declared on the cross with His last breath, “It is finished” (John 19:30). He used a Greek word, tetelestai, which literally means, “paid in full.”

 

This closing weekend of Holy Week is bittersweet, commemorating Jesus’ death on the cross for our sins but also celebrating His resurrection. As someone has said, He died a death He did not deserve to pay a debt He did not owe, a debt we could not pay – to redeem us and offer us the gift of eternal life.

 

A well-known hymn, “Hallelujah, What a Savior,” says it so well:

“‘Man of Sorrows’ what a name

For the Son of God who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim

Hallelujah, what a Savior….”

 

Indeed. What a Savior!

It Can Take Time to Connect the Dots

Did you ever play “connect the dots” as a child? Maybe you had an activities book with pages for coloring, word-finds, tic-tac-toe and other games. You’d turn to a page with an incomplete illustration; to determine what the object was, you’d draw lines to link the numbered dots. It might turn out to be a duck, a donkey, the Eiffel Tower, or an ice cream cone. You didn’t know what it was until you’d connected all the dots.

 

Life can be like that. As we’re going through it, it might seem like a random assortment of twists and turns, exits and on-ramps, with some unknown destination. It seems confusing as we plod through life’s circumstances one day at a time, but through the beauty of hindsight we can glance backward and find order in the chaos.

 

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers, once observed about the course life takes, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So, you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." 

 

Have you ever felt that way? I know I have. A description for much of my life, particularly my working career, could be, “You can’t get there from here. You have to go someplace else first.” I was born in Germany, where my father was stationed in the U.S. Army. We traveled to the United States by ship and eventually settled in New Jersey. After high school I attended college in Texas, then transferred to a university in Ohio to study journalism. 

 

My 10-year career as a newspaper editor took me from a community newspaper in Ohio to a suburban newspaper in Pennsylvania, back to the Ohio newspaper, and finally to Texas. Next, I moved my family to Chattanooga, where I joined the staff of a Christian ministry, and 17 years later, a sister ministry with an international focus. After three years I became part of the team for a non-profit based in Atlanta. Can you see the convoluted path my career has taken?

 

All I can say in summary is that God has done “immeasurably more than all [I could] ask or imagine…” (Ephesians 3:20). During this journey of more than 50 years, some of the changes I made didn’t make a lot of sense. However, as Jobs said, even though I couldn’t connect the dots looking forward, I now can connect them looking backward.

 

As Christians all around the world prepare for the annual observances of Good Friday and Easter, we might apply the same “connecting the dots” principle to what we now know about Jesus Christ. The Bible’s Old Testament contains numerous prophecies about the birth, life, death and resurrection of Christ, all made hundreds, even thousands of years before God took on flesh and invaded this world. Here’s a handful of examples:

 

From the prophet Micah we read, “But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you One will go forth from Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2). Jesus, of course, was born in Bethlehem.

 

The prophet Isaiah prophesied, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). In Matthew 1:18-23 and Luke 1:26-35 we read about a virgin, Mary, who was pledged to marry Joseph. The angel Gabriel tells her that God has chosen her to be mother to the Son of God, and the passage states, “…they will call Him ‘Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us’” (Matthew 1:23).

 

Isaiah 9:1-7 is one of the longest prophecies in the Old Testament, describing Jesus’ ministry centered in Galilee. “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned…. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to His government or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this.”

 

Jesus’ crucifixion was prophesied in Psalm 22:14-16, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me…. Dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers has encircled me; they have pierced my hands and my feet…. They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” Zechariah 12:10 says, “…They look on me, the one they have pierced….”

 

The crucifixion accounts are included in each of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What’s especially interesting about the Old Testament crucifixion prophecies is they were made hundreds of years before the Romans invented that heinous, excruciating form of execution.

 

And Christ’s resurrection from the dead – also reported in each of the gospels – was prophesied in Psalm 16:9-10, “Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices…because You will not abandon me to the grave, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.”

I wonder, as these prophecies were being made, if the prophets had any idea of how they would be fulfilled by Jesus in such spectacular fashion. Those men of old might have struggled to “connect the dots,” but we can today as we look backward with 20:20 vision through the pages of history. 

The Day That’s ‘Good’ Because of What Happened Next

Christmas has given us Santa Claus, reindeer, festive lights and candy canes. Easter brings us the Easter Bunny, Easter eggs, beautiful flowers and jellybeans. But what both annual holidays have in common is Jesus Christ. One commemorates His birth; the other celebrates His resurrection. Without the latter, Easter, there would be no reason for the former, Christmas.

 

When I was a boy, my parents would take me to church on Good Friday, where we would sing mournful hymns and hear a somber message. Two days later we’d return to church for Easter, where hymns of joy and triumph would be sung and an uplifting sermon would be spoken.

I vividly recall one Good Friday, I might have been eight or nine, sitting quietly in the pew pondering. If I had been a character in a comic strip, there might have been a question mark hovering over my head. I remember turning to my mother and asking her, “If this is the day Jesus was crucified, why do we call it ‘Good Friday’?” In my mind the thought kept recurring – what’s so good about being crucified?

 

My mom, even though she liked to play albums of hymns by the likes of Perry Como and Tennessee Ernie Ford and proudly possessed a lighted reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “The Lord’s Supper,” was hardly a theologian. So, she suggested we ask “the Reverend” after the service was over.

 

That sounded like a good idea. As we slowly shuffled toward the church doors to leave, I knew the minister would be there greeting the congregants as they departed. When we reached the door and he gripped my hand, I popped the same question. 

 

Apparently, he didn’t view this as an important, teachable moment, because I don’t remember him giving me much of an authoritative answer. I know he mumbled something, but he definitely didn’t suggest anything like, “Son, that’s a great question. Why don’t you ask your parents to bring you to my office this week where we can talk about it?”

 

It wasn’t until many years later that I discovered the answer to my youthful question. Good Friday isn’t “good” because a sinless, blameless Jesus Christ was wrongfully scourged, then forced to carry His own cross to be executed in perhaps the most horrific manner ever devised by humankind. It’s good because on that cross He became the propitiation – the absolute substitutionary atonement – for our sins. 

 

The words of 2 Corinthians 5:15,21 express it perfectly: “And He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf…. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Try chewing on that for a while.

 

Because of this, the apostle Paul could announce to believers in the ancient church of Rome, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). As a good friend of mine used to say whenever he spoke, “Jesus took the rap for you and me.”

 

In isolation, the events of Good Friday weren’t good: Angry, spiteful and frightened religious leaders bringing trumped-up charges against an individual who threatened their positions of power and authority. A spineless Roman official, Pontius Pilate, willing to sacrifice his conscience and sense of rightness to appease an increasingly hostile mob. Torture, mocking, and then the crucifixion Jesus endured, the Son of God crying out in His last breaths, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

 

And yet even then, Jesus’ heart of love and compassion could not be defeated. He pleaded, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Who could do that? Only the incarnate God, in His limitless and unfathomable mercy and grace.

 

If things had stopped at that point, we’d have no Good Friday. Maybe history might have even forgotten that moment. However, on the morning after the Sabbath, the greatest event in the history of the world occurred. 

 

The stone placed across the tomb’s opening to “secure” it had been supernaturally rolled away to reveal what lay inside – no body, only no longer needed burial cloths. As angels proclaimed to the women who had come intending to minister to their Lord’s body, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He is risen!” (Luke 24:5-6).

 

The fact of His resurrection is miraculous enough. But because Jesus lives today, He offers new life to any and all who will put their trust in Him. Amazingly the Scriptures declare, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

Because of the glorious celebration of Easter and all it represents, we also can rejoice in what the Lord did for us on that truly Good Friday. And we can affirm, "He is risen; He is risen indeed!"