Last week, as we started our series on the Symbols of Easter, we talked about the Lamb. The Lamb, we discovered through passages in the Old and New Testaments, is a symbol of the blood price paid for the debt of our sins, a debt we all owe. It’s a symbol of sacrifice, a symbol of a debt paid.
Today, we’ll talk about the Symbol of the Cross, perhaps the most recognizable symbol that we associate with Christianity and Christ. Everyone knows what a cross is and what it looks like. Even people who want nothing to do with Jesus, know what the cross is. It’s one of the most widely recognized symbols worldwide. But it wasn't always associated with Christ, or the sacrifice He made for us to pay the debt for our sins. The cross actually has a very dark history, and was associated with some really terrible things in the past, especially before Jesus.
Before Jesus, the cross was a symbol of power, AUTHORITY, control, and terror. Why? The Romans used the cross as a way to deter those who disobeyed or posed a threat to them. If you recall the story of the hours leading up to the crucifixion, when Jesus appeared before Pilate, Pilate was pretty insistent that Jesus hadn’t actually done anything against Roman law. He wasn’t a criminal in Roman authority eyes. To the Romans, it was odd that the Jewish religious leaders would want to have Jesus crucified like a criminal if he hadn’t disobeyed Roman law. He did however pose a threat to the peace of the area because His presence and His ministry had caused such a stir that the religious leaders were calling for his death. There was an angry mob, and so ultimately, Pilate agreed to have Jesus crucified.
But the cross, and specifically crucifixion on a cross, was the Roman’s way of deterring people from committing crimes or doing things to subvert Roman authority. The cross was a symbol of punishment and terror. The cross told the people that they were controllable by the Romans, and that they would answer to Roman authorities.
The cross had other associations as well. Before it even began to be used as a sign of Roman rule and authority, it was used in pagan nature worship. Before it was used to kill criminals, the cross was placed in places where pagan religions and their practitioners would gather to worship the gods and goddesses of nature, and nature itself. Nature deities were thought to inhabit the wood that they would use to make crosses.
So, because of the cross’s association with criminals, and because of its history of being used in pagan nature worship, to decent, God-fearing people, the cross was an evil, and vulgar thing. In Galatians 3:13, Paul told us this, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’—“ (NASB) It’s a connection Paul makes between Jesus and what He did when He died on the cross, and an Old Testament passage in Deuteronomy 21:23 that talks about the manner in which criminals should be put to death, “his body is not to be left overnight on the tree, but you shall certainly bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is cursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.” (NASB)
It was a curse to hang on a cross because of what the cross had come to represent, from as early as Moses’s day when the cross was used in pagan nature worship practices. Paul adds this as well, from 1 Corinthians 1:23, “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness,” (NASB) What is it that is foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews? That Christ was crucified on a tree, a cross, that was considered by all to be a cursed way to die, marking that the person had been cursed by God. Why would God let His Messiah die on a tree and be cursed? That’s a stumbling block, that’s foolishness, to so many. It was an offensive way for anyone to die, but especially for God’s chosen One.
Theologian Roland Barnes said this, “Of all the possible ways in which Jesus could have been executed, He was hung on a tree to demonstrate the covenantal curse that rested upon Him for our sake.” And in so doing, Jesus subverted the symbolism of the cross.
He does that a lot doesn’t He? He takes the weak and uses them for strong things. He takes the broken and uses them to heal others. He takes the humble and uses them to teach the proud. He takes cultural norms and turns them on their heads. He takes gender roles and rearranges them for His glory. He doesn’t work the way we think He should, and He will always surprise us if we just let Him do what is best. So Jesus subverted the symbol of the cross, and all it was associated with, and the ways of the world!
Paul said as much in Colossians 2:14-15, “having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (NIV) Everything that the cross once stood for was nailed to the cross when Jesus was crucified, and just like He does with us when we come to Him, He gave the cross a new meaning. So what I want you to do in your bulletins if you’re taking notes, I want you to cross out the first explanation of the cross and what it means as a symbol. Cross it out. It’s not valid, because Jesus gave the cross a new meaning.
The Lamb is a symbol of the blood price paid for the debt of our sins, a debt we all owe. The Cross, through Jesus’s sacrifice, has become a symbol of VICTORY over the death sin brings; a symbol of resurrection! Because He took on the curse for us, and died, taking sin with Him, and was resurrected on the third day, we can have victory over the death sin brings too!
Whatever that sin looks like, His death and resurrection can give you victory over it! Even if it’s too terrible to admit to anyone, even hard to admit to yourself, He can give you victory. Hebrews 2:14-15 says this, “Therefore, since [these His] children share in flesh and blood [the physical nature of mankind], He Himself in a similar manner also shared in the same [physical nature, but without sin], so that through [experiencing] death He might make powerless (ineffective, impotent) him who had the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and [that He] might free all those who through [the haunting] fear of death were held in slavery throughout their lives.” (AMP)
He defeated the devil, and defeated the power of death and sin so that we could have freedom from the slavery to sin we were held in our entire lives before we said “yes” to Jesus. Jesus gives us victory. That’s what the cross means to us, that’s the power of the cross for those who believe.
1 Peter 2:24 also adds this, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (NIV) Not only did Jesus give us freedom from sin on the cross, but He also made it possible for us to live righteous lives. It is by His power that this is possible.
Galatians 6:14 tells us this too, which was Paul’s attitude toward Christ and everything else in the world, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (NIV) The world, and all its ways, all the ways of darkness that John talks about in his books, have been crucified to ME! The world and its ways has been crucified to you! We don’t have to live in slavery and bondage to sin and death. We can be free, and the sacrifice Jesus paid on the cross is what gives us our freedom.
Think about this: in Genesis 3, it is through the fruit of a tree that sin enters into humanity. We had the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we were tempted to eat the fruit of the tree which we knew would lead to our deaths. Sin=death. In the gospels, it is on a tree that Jesus hung as He took on the sins of the world and defeated the power of sin and death, once and for all. And in Revelation 22:14 we read, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” (NIV) For those that accept the gift Jesus paid for on the cross, the tree, we get the right to the tree of life, the ultimate removal of sin in eternity.
This is why the cross has become a symbol of Eastertide. May it be a reminder to us all that Jesus defeated the power of sin and death once and for all, for you, for me, for eternity, and through His resurrection we have victory over the power of sin in our own lives! May we remember that Jesus takes the ways of the world, the ways of the culture, the norms, and He subverts them and gives us a new way of living.
Questions to form your quiet times this week:
1. What difference has the cross made to your life? Have you experienced the victory over sins in your life, or are there still sins you struggle with on a regular basis? If Christ has given us victory over the power of sin, why do we still struggle with sin?
2. Martin Luther once wrote, “The cross alone is our theology.” What does that mean to you?
3. Jesus subverted what the cross stood for. How does He still continue to subvert the normal ways of the world? Try to think of specific examples.