If you know who Jesus is, than most likely you’ve heard his name tied together with this thing that us Christians call “the cross.” If you’re anything like me, then you have probably gone through most of your life having a lighthearted idea of what the shape of a cross symbolizes. It's common for people in todays day and age to perceive the symbol of the cross in this way. It's not uncommon to see crosses that are bedazzled and hung on walls for decoration or tied around peoples necks or wrists and worn as jewelry. Maybe you have even seen crosses embroidered on the back pocket of those Miss Me jeans you used to own in middle school.
We are exposed to this symbol of faith everywhere we go. Don’t get me wrong, this reminder of Christianity is a beautiful thing, but sometimes seeing crosses used in such a casual way in our everyday life can cause us to be numb to how powerful the symbol of the cross really is.
At one time or another, we have all heard the story of Jesus being crucified for our sins, but to many of us, this story often seems like fiction. It's hard for us to imagine His crucifixion as a real occurrence because of how we are unable to relate to the idea of people getting hung on a cross as a form of criminal punishment. For us to be able to understand what the cross's true meaning is, we must first look at what exactly the act of crucifixion involved.
We now see the cross as a symbol of faith, but around 30 A.D., the cross was not regarded in even remotely the same way. At the time that Jesus was on this earth, the cross was seen as nothing more than a weapon used to torture perpetrators of crimes. Crucifixion was something that mothers tried to protect their children from in the same way that our parents tried to protect us from the idea of murder or rape when we were kids.
At the time of Jesus’ death, the cross was seen as the ultimate punishment for crime. The extent of the agony that this punishment caused is unimaginable, but let me try to enlighten you. (I would suggest skipping the remainder of this paragraph if you want to be spared the gruesome details.) When someone was crucified, they were required to carry their own cross to the place of their execution. That doesn’t seem so awful, right? Wrong. These crosses were not light, they weighed up to 300 pounds. On top of the physical strain that carrying a cross caused, these people were often required to walk through their entire town to get to their place of execution, causing immense mortification and disgrace to the perpetrator. Once the condemned arrived at their place of punishment, they were offered a mixture of wine mixed with gall in order to numb the pain that they would feel. That was pretty nice of the Romans, right? Nope, wrong again. This ancient numbing medicine would go down just about as smooth as a bottle of nail polish remover. (According to Matthew 27:34, Jesus refused to drink this.) After receiving this ancient form of morphine, the accused would be nailed to the cross. If your picturing a longer version of a nail that we use to hang pictures on our wall, you're a little off. Think more on the lines of those huge iron nails that are used to secure railroad tracks to the ground. Once a person was nailed to the cross, they were left hanging to die. If the Romans were feeling generous, they would sometimes break the legs of the condemned in order to speed up the death and put the wrongdoers out of their misery.
I didn’t tell you all the gory details of crucifixion just for the heck of it. Without understanding the full extent of suffering that this form of execution caused, you wouldn’t be able to recognize how incredible the sacrifice was that God made when he sent his one and only son to earth to be crucified.
As humans, we have the mark of original sin. Every person on earth commits wrongdoings against God, even when they don’t realize it. The reason that God sent Jesus down to earth was for him to pay the ultimate price for our sins. God thought of the worst form of torture and sent His one and only son to receive this punishment. The most degrading, embarrassing, agonizing form of death was brought onto the only human that has walked this earth without doing a single thing wrong, but why?
The bible teaches us that our God is just, meaning that God couldn’t allow everyone to get away with sinning without consequences. God loved us so much that He had immense compassion for us. He is sympathetic to the mark of original sin that all humans are born with. He didn’t want to see us suffer and endure the punishment that we all deserve for our sins. So, what did God do with all this compassion he felt for us? He used the crucifixion of His Son, Jesus, as acceptance for all of this punishment on our behalf. God loved us so much that he made that sacrifice for us and send Jesus to earth to suffer that consequence. And the most amazing part is that He asks for NOTHING in return! How amazing is that? God removed the power that sin has in our lives when He sacrificed Jesus for us, and he doesn’t expect us to give him anything in return!
At this point you're probably trying to comprehend just how incredible this sacrifice was that God made for us is. You're probably trying to process what it feels like to know that you are loved that much by God. At the same time, you might also be wondering how all of this relates back to our worlds understanding of the cross in today's society. In this day and age, the cross is simply seen as something that we can wear as a necklace or bracelet in order to show the world that we believe in Jesus. This lighthearted idea of what the shape of the cross symbolizes is flawed. The meaning of the cross is so much deeper than this earthly understanding that most people have. In today's world, when we look at a cross we are hardly reminded of Jesus, let alone the HUGE sacrifice that He made on our behalf.
A cross should symbolize the sacrifice that God made when he sent Jesus, his one and only son, to the world to save us from our sins. God sent Jesus here to tell us exactly how he wanted us to live our lives, the cross should reminds us of this blessing. We should view the cross as an image that signifies God's immeasurable love for us. The cross should recall to us the perfect, sin free human that Jesus was. The cross should be our inspiration to model our lives to look like His. When Jesus was nailed to the cross, we were released from the power that sin has on our lives. When we make known this incredibly loving sacrifice that Jesus made for us, we are inspired to live our lives more like Jesus in order to exalt Him for everything He did for us. The next time you see the figure of the cross, take a moment to reflect on what the cross signifies, and use this symbol as a reminder of the unimaginable love God has for you.
