Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Mar/80

Contributor - Richard Westra

Title - The Meaning of The Cross

Topic - Crucifixion

1 Peter 2: 24

Some of you saw the film entitled, "Jesus of Nazareth", directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It was a powerful and moving picture of the life and ministry of Jesus, and as in any commentary, one person's interpretation of what happened in Palestine nineteen hundred and fifty years ago. The crucifixion scene is the part of the movie that brought out the most emotion from the viewers and it occupied the greatest part of the movie, as it does in the Scriptures. In two of the scenes we see the suffering through which Jesus had to go. In the first instance we see Pilate calling out to the guards to take Jesus away and give Him a flogging. The soldiers march Jesus to a column in a far corner of the courtyard. "His garments were torn off in preparation for the flogging, and other soldiers joined the group. The flogging is carried out with a long leather whip, studded at intervals with pellets of lead and sharpened pieces of bone. Quite literally, it could tear a man's back to ribbons. Men bad been known to go mad under the lash, and few retained consciousness to the end." In the case of Jesus, it showed how the head of Jesus was slack against the column when the officer called the whipping to a halt. At that the soldiers made fun of him, placing on His head the crown of thorns, giving nim a reed to hold, and mocking him as a pretty helpless King.

The second scene shows Jesus on his way up to the grounds where the crucifixion was to take place. Like every other criminal he was required to carry the crossbeam to the place of execution. Stumbling several times he finally reached the place where be was hoisted up the vertical pole and his feet fastened to the pole with nails. Pilate's sign went up above him, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews".

The first reaction we have about these scenes is, "How cruel can people be?" For Jesus it was a day of intense suffering. As Isaiah said so well, "like a sheep that is led to the slaughter, and like sheep that before its shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth'. What was the reason for suffering so much? Was it simply the result of being rejected by the people? Yes, the world could not accept such a one in their midst. He raised too many questions which threatened to expose the wickedness and evil that rested within people, and this could not go on forever without there being a reaction from those who felt threatened.

Do the same thing today and you will quickly see how long you stay friends with people. Call to question the wrongs which people take lightly and you won't remain their friend very long. Expose the dangers of too much alcohol consumption and our society becomes threatened. Talk about the, use of overspending on consumer items and this country tells you that you are infringing on the rights of the consumer. Speak out against oversize profits and our capitalistic society will put you into the camp of the socialists or Marxists. Jesus' call to repentance is not accepted very well, even today. Should the church be more vocal on these issues, she too might suffer what the Lord and Master had to suffer. This suffering is the end product of anyone who dares to stand up against the wrongs that are committed in the name of pleasure and fun.

There is more to Christ's suffering than that. This is a very popular way of interpreting the end of Christ's mission here on earth, but it essentially is no different than the death of Socrates who like a 'gadfly' poked away at the problems of his day 300 years previous to Jesus. He too bore the punishment of one who poked around in the affairs of people, calling to question the problems of his day. Jeremiah suffered because he got too personal with people, saying things that the establishment didn't like. Martin Luther King got his reward for doing things which the greater part of our society felt he should not have done. Many great people have suffered because of what they believed. As a result they have become heros or heroines. Jesus' suffering is more than that.

Through Jesus we have an example of now a person ought to live. As Peter said. "Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps". (I Peter 2: 24) Some of the things we can learn from the suffering of Christ are then given.

1. When He was reviled, He did not revile in return. Revile means to abuse someone by what you say so that in the end his/her reputation is ruined. Jesus was reviled by those who brought him to trial when they dressed him up as a King and made fun of Him. No one came to protect him. Normally a King has an army, but Jesus bad none. Even those who were with him during his ministry had forsaken him. Naturally this was cause for those who brought him to trial to belittle his power and his capacity to rule. Jesus' response was not intended to show his power. Nor does he attempt to destroy the enemy's reputation, but endures the suffering in the knowledge that there is one who has power to bring justice to its final conclusion. When people 'knocked' him down, he did nothing to destroy their character. In this he calls us to do the same thing. If someone doesn't like us and they say things about us which attempt to destroy us, we are not to think of things which will destroy them. We are to keep quiet and remember how our Lord was silent. When others try to show how we take on the 'martyr complex' we are not to fight back, but are to accept this in love. It is difficult, but that is the way our Master has gone before us.

2. When Jesus suffered, he did not threaten." This is a great move on Jesus' part because He could have called the legions of heaven and they would have supported him, but He chose to suffer with love. He did not say that God would punish them, or that God would bring about justice, or that they would all go to hell. Not a word of threat was spoken. He suffered in love, because he knew that man is a sinner and does not always know what he is doing. He didn't even suggest that the Roman rule would one day fall, even though it would. His only response was to trust in Him who is the judge of all. Can we do anything less than the Master?

This of course is not all the suffering of the cross meant for the early church. Peter goes on to say, "Jesus himself carried our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed." Here then is the glory of the cross. This is the message that came constantly across in the early church's sermons. The gospel did not come across as a word of wisdom or as a sermon on moral conduct. It was a message of hope that freed mankind from the power of sin, a message that gave people the power to live the right kind of life. There was power in the cross; a power to change lives. He suffered for us, a specific reference to the fact that the cross was part of God's plan to deal with human nature. This goes against almost every other teaching in our world, for our society does not believe on a very large scale that God should do something for us by way of suffering. It is a message that brings people on their knees, and people do not like to be brought to their knees. Two things it says to us today:

1. The human situation is such that it takes the suffering and dying Christ to deal with it. It isn't enough just to say to someone, "If you follow the example of Christ, then you will live the right kind of life". Even though Christ provides us with an example on how to live, it is not enough. He provides power to change the situation. The situation is such that no one can correct it except God. Sin, Tithe separation of man from God, is not something which we can correct. It goes much deeper than simply dealing with our actions.

This is brought out in our experience day after day. When one of our children goes wrong, we say, "If I told him once, I told him a hundred times that he was going to get into trouble by driving his car that way. Now that it is wrecked he will learn to drive more carefully." But learning from experience is not the answer to our problems. By saying that, we are saying that sin goes no deeper than an education. Sin is much deeper than that. We can't simply correct our selves by learning from our past. If we could, all of us would not make the same mistakes over and over again. Let us be very careful what we teach our children. We must teach them the gospel. We cannot deal with sin by any other way than the process of laying them before the cross of Christ and humbly getting on our knees in repentance. The best way to teach this to our children is to get on our knees with them, seeking for repentance. We are not better than they. Our life is no more acceptable in God's sight than theirs is. All of us need to seek forgiveness. Sin is part of our very character. To deal with our character, there has to be a change in our character. As Paul had said so often, we have to become a new person.

Christ's suffering and death is God's way of dealing with our characters In his death on the cross He carried our sins in his body on the tree, becoming a reproach to all who saw him. What we see in that film then, is not just a suffering man, but a suffering Son of God who has taken on the troubles and problems of the world, our individual sin and iniquity. Isaiah says it this way, "Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed".

Do I understand all of this? n all my work as an interpreter of Scripture I have not been able to understand it. I can remember struggling over this question many times. Each time I come out on the side that the death of Christ was for me, and for the world. On the cross He handled my problems. All I can do is fall on my knees in confession, call upon my family to fall on their knees in confession, and call upon everyone to fall on their knees in confession. There is no room for condemnation or judgment, since we all fall into the same category. There is room only for us to be sorry for our sins and to be thankful that Christ has the power to make us new persons.

2. The second part of this Scripture passage in 1 Peter tells us that through the death of Christ we receive the gift of a new life. Emphasis must be placed on the fact that this new life is a gift from God. Last year in studying the system of sacrifice in the Old Testament, I learned something which I never understood. I had read about the sacrifice as a gift by the People of God, since it involved one of the best lambs in the sacrifice. But in studying the concept I learned that the sacrifice was more accurately a gift of God to man. Through the sacrifice God gave his people the gift of forgiveness - something that is worth far more than any old sheep, no matter now much it costs. The sheep was also God's and God commanded the people to sacrifice it so that God could communicate to his people. Through this sacrifice they had prepared their hearts to receive what God had to offer. In every respect it was a gift.

Peter, in speaking about our sins being carried up in the body of Christ n the tree, uses a word that spoke of the sheep being carried upon the altar. Christ is the sacrifice, the body, that bears the sins of the people. Through him God offers his own Son, the gift that no one else could give. Through that gift He also gives to us the gift of forgiveness, a gift which cannot be received anywhere else. Through that gift we receive the new life that we have; the new character that must needs come if we are to be different. In bearing our sin in his body on the wooden cross, we die to sin and live righteousness. In other words, the suffering of Christ makes us different. Through his sacrifice we are different.

We will soon mark the day when Jesus was crucified. First, it was a day when his mission was completed and He suffered for speaking out for repentance. Second, it was a day which provided us an example on how to bear reproach for what we believe. Third, most important of all, it was a day when we were changed, became new people, lived a new life, and grasped our only hope.

Please click the "Back" button of your browser to return to previous page.