1. The Cross
    1. Dictionaries & Encyclopedias (11/12/02-11/29/02)
      1. Fausset (11/14/02-11/17/02)

Fausset (11/14/02-11/17/02)

The cross was for a slave's death. With it came pain, guilt, and disgrace. The Hebrew language refers to this foreign instrument of punishment as 'warp and woof.' Scourging usually came before a crucifixion, as was foretold of Jesus. The victim carried the cross to his place of punishment, as Jesus did, fulfilling the act typified by Isaac's carrying the wood upon which he would be sacrificed. In His case, when exhaustion prevented Him from carrying it, it was given to Simon of Cyrene to carry.

Jesus was nailed to both crossbar and upright, and offered a drink designed to stupefy. This drink He refused, choosing to suffer consciously. Towards the end, He did take drink so as to fulfill prophecy. Pilate was surprised at the speed of His death, quickened apparently by a ruptured heart, for this form of death usually took days. Because of the upcoming special Sabbath, he allowed the Jews to remove the bodies in accordance with their religious law. However, it was imperative to God's purpose that His legs not be broken, for only thus could the prophecy be completely fulfilled in Him.

The agony of the cross was manifold. The body, being held in an unnatural position would feel pain in every movement. The nails were driven through parts of the body full of nerves, yet devoid of vital organs, making for great pain without deadly injury. Exposure would bring inflammation and gangrene to the wounds. As these things combined to distend parts of the body, blood flow through the arteries would exceed the return capacity of the veins. To all of this was added the slow and lingering aspect of the anguish, and burning thirst.

Constantine abolished the use of the cross, after his conversion. The Andrew's cross is an 'X'. However, Hippolytus says he was crucified upright. The Anthony's cross is a 'T'. This symbol is common as a religious emblem (both pagan and Christian) in Egypt, India, and Persia. Given the record of an inscription placed above His head, it seems most likely that Jesus' cross was of the traditional form. The inscription was written in black on a gypsum background. Interesting to note that the Jewish people, having cried out for His crucifixion, were themselves crucified in great numbers by Titus.

The event of His crucifixion was typified in the lifting of the brazen serpent by Moses. The early church saw the cross as displaying the height, depth, length, and breadth of Christ's love. By His crucifixion, Jesus transformed a curse into a blessing. Jesus' nail pierced hands were foretold in Scripture.

That stories of the cross of Christ being discovered are no more than stories should be evident from the requirements of Jewish law, for that law required that the cross be burnt. No reliable historian records any such discovery having been made.

At first, the cross was no more than an emblem, but in some circles, it was thought to have some sort of spiritual efficacy. Thus, in the 6th century, the Roman church authorized worship of the crucifix.

The cross continues to have symbolic significance in the Church, representing the mortification of fleshly desires, and spiritual union with the crucified Christ.

"Our will and God's will are as two separate pieces of wood; so long as both lie side by side there is no cross; but put them across one another, then there is a cross."

Thoughts (11/16/02-11/17/02)

Crossed Wills (11/16/02)

"Our will and God's will are as two separate pieces of wood; so long as both lie side by side there is no cross; but put them across one another, then there is a cross." What an incredible picture! At first glance, this quote struck me as describing another joyful image to associate with the cross. But, looking more closely, the symbolism given to the cross here is that of our failures. Look at it again. If our wills are in accord one with another, if our will is truly and fully submitted to God's, then the paths of our two wills run side by side, and never cut across each other. There is no conflict because the agreement is total. The place of the cross in this image is the place at which our will has rebelled, the place at which we have rejected the word of our Master, and insisted on our own path.

That place can only be a place of dying. God's will and desire for us is life, life abundant and eternal, life of a quality that truly deserves to be called living. Where our choices oppose His, our choices can only be death. How fitting, then, that such points of departure are depicted in this quotation as describing the cross.

The cross has a vertical and a horizontal component. Consider this in the shape of modern worship. We think of certain songs as being vertical or horizontal in nature, either speaking to our fellow men about God (the horizontal), or speaking out to God (vertical). The vertical points to God. The vertical, in this clash of wills, points to the direction that God has declared, the direction of life. The horizontal beam represents man's will, departed from God's and bent on man's own ends. And man's own end, apart from God, can only be death.

For a Slave's Death (11/16/02)

When our wills cross, something must die. God, the eternal One cannot. God's perfect will, not subject to change, will not. The cross was for a slave's death. It still is. We, in accepting the work of Christ, have been made willing slaves to Him. We have fulfilled the type of the slave in Israel, who declared an end to his claims for freedom by piercing the ear. Our ears have been pegged to the doorpost of God. We are His slaves. We are slaves willingly and joyfully, but we are His slaves nonetheless.

The cross was for a slave's death. By it, Paul declared, he had been crucified to the world, and by it, he said, the world had been crucified to him. His will had opposed the will of God. Something had to die. Wisely, Paul placed his will upon the cross of Christ, putting to death all his plans and agendas of his own in favor of God's plan for him. He chose to die a slave's death spiritually, that he might know the life that was his as a son of the living God.

The Crossroads (11/16/02)

With the opposition of our wills, we come to the idea of the crossroads. Why do we call them crossroads? It is a crucial point, a place where critical decisions must be made. On the cross, Jesus had a critical decision to make, one He had already settled in His own mind, yet had to face again. He had submitted Himself to God's perfect will earlier, in the Garden. Yet, the cross remained largely theoretical at that point. He agonized. He had doubtless seen the cruelty of this form of death in his course. It was not that uncommon, and there had been rebellions in His lifetime. Those caught were surely punished on the cross. He knew what was coming, yet it remained at a distance yet.

Now, He was on the cross Himself. It was no longer some future event, it was now, and entirely too real. Again, He was facing the decision, but with the agony of His spirit magnified a thousandfold in His flesh. Every moment that He hung upon that cross, suffering in body, jeered by those around Him, even those who were suffering that same bodily agony, spit upon by the very people He was dying to save; every moment of that time, He had a choice: He could choose to be faithful to God's will, accepting the loss of His fleshly life to save all mankind, or He could choose to save Himself at the cost of all mankind. Had He desired, He could have called down legions of angels to defend Him, yet He chose obedience.

Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow Him. Here, I think, we begin to get the meaning of that. Just as He faced a decision in every moment He spent on that cross, so we face decisions every moment of our Christian life. Some of them will seem insignificant. It will seem like it couldn't possibly matter whether we choose God's way or our own in this little thing. But the life we are called to live requires that we learn to see even these small things as the crucial matters that they are. Even small rebellions are rebellions, nonetheless.

Take up your cross. Walk the road of perpetual crossroads. Face those decisions head on, but choose you always the vertical way that leads to life. It is a path of gradual dying, as we move towards life. In every moment of decision, we will need to choose whether the flesh will die or the soul. Flesh and spirit, we are told, are at enmity with each other. They are bent on different goals, as the spirit seeks to follow after God's will, and the flesh seeks to follow its own. They form a cross in our lives moment by moment, day by day. They force decision, bring crisis upon us. Those who take up this cross and follow Jesus will leave the fleshly will to die on the cross, and walk on with Him in new life.

I must note here, however, that this is not to say that the flesh is evil. We cannot return into Gnostic heresies, but must hold on to the Truth of God. This idea of good spirit vs. evil flesh was the heresy out of which Augustine was saved. It is not the flesh that is evil, it's the fallen will that guides it. The sinful part remains a matter of the will, not the members that carry out that will. The moral dilemma is in the choosing to act. Note, also, that the body will be redeemed just as our soul has already been. This mortal must put on the immortal, the corrupt must put on the incorruptible. There remains another renewal that we will not know until the end. Yet we know that this renewal will come, for we know the One who has declared it to be that way, and we know that He is Faithful and True.

Choosing to Suffer (11/16/02)

This is another aspect of the crossroads decision, the life of a cross carrier. Jesus chose to suffer consciously on the cross. He was offered the opportunity to dull the pain, to suffer but not know His own suffering. He chose not to do that. He chose to face the pain of His decisions head on.

This is an interesting thing. We who grew up in the sixties and seventies, as well as those since, have learned any number of ways to hide from the pain. We have entire subcultures seeking to numb the pain of living this life of death. Nor are we the first culture to sink into this mode. Drug abuse is not a new phenomena, drinking one's way into oblivion is not a new phenomena. On the other hand, this culture has perhaps raised the bar. We have industries whose only purpose is to numb the pain. A quick look in the halls of medicine will show that 'pain management' is a big thing in the medical world now. If you can't fix it, at least stop it from hurting.

It's not just in the realm of drugs and medicine, either. The media empire is also largely bent on dulling the pain of death. Entertainment is a huge industry, an industry seeking to numb the pain with distraction. The world today largely understands its hopeless situation more fully than ever before, and it doesn't like looking at that situation. So, the world has become very good at distracting itself, keeping its eyes off of what's really happening, looking at anything but the pain.

Jesus chose another path. He chose to know the pain and suffering that sin had brought upon mankind, to feel it more fully than any man ever had, to feel it multiplied by all the number of mankind, as He took the whole of man's guilt upon Himself. This, too, is part of the way of the cross. We can no longer hide from the pain of the death we used to walk in. We can no longer hide from the pain of the death that walks around us. We, like our Master before us, must face that pain, consciously choose to accept the suffering, knowing that the suffering brings life, not death, in the final accounting.

It will hurt to allow our wills to die on the cross. We must face that pain consciously, being strengthened in the end by the knowledge that we willingly chose that death. We grow stronger as we are taught the power of our will aligned with God's. It will hurt to deny the flesh. The nails of self-denial will grate on raw nerve endings, bringing a seemingly unending agony until the strength of fleshly desire is spent, and desire dies.

If we have truly chosen to align ourselves with our God, it will hurt to see the suffering and death around us, even when it puts on a cheerful face. If we know His compassion, it will hurt to see the ravages of rebellion on those around us. If we hear His Spirit within us, we will see through the masks behind which those around us hide the pain. If we follow His prompting, we may have to tear off those masks and expose the pain, so that healing - true healing - can come.

It's going to bring suffering on us when those off of whom we tear the mask react to the exposure of their wounds. Will we choose to bear that pain? Will we allow the pain to come upon us, that His healing may come upon them? Jesus chose to suffer consciously, and what He suffered was not His own punishment but ours. What He chose to suffer was the agony that we by all rights should have known. This is the cross of mercy. When we expose the sinner to His peril, we may well feel the brunt of his agony. We may experience ire, rejection, brutality, cursing, any number of reactions as the sick flesh is exposed. Will we choose to suffer for His purpose? Will we choose to bear up in silence, even as our Lord before us? Will we consciously choose the road of pain, that life might come more fully?

Emblem or Idol? (11/17/02)

While there is a great deal in the symbolism of the cross that is of great benefit to the Christian, some of the points brought up in this article also point to the great danger of the cross as a symbol to the Christian church. Notice a series of points here. First and foremost, there is the example which Scripture itself provides us. The article speaks of the brazen serpent that Moses was instructed to set up in the wilderness. The story is familiar. The people of God had sinned against Him, and He had sent deadly serpents among them as punishment. Moses prayed for a salvation for the people, and God gave him the instructions. Indeed, all who looked upon that brazen serpent were healed of the venom, and lived.

Clearly, this really is a type of the cross of Christ. It is made clear in Jesus' own statements regarding what was to come in His death. However, I am concerned with the rest of that type. What became of that serpentine emblem as the years go by? Scripture also speaks to us about that part of the story. It seems that as the years went by, the people of Israel began to worship the serpent on the pole, completely forgetting its origin and purpose. That which had been sent to heal and restore had once more become a trap because of the fallen nature of man. Sin had once more taken advantage of something meant for good, to spread its death amongst God's own people.

Do you see the danger? Consider the history of the Church. The cross quickly became a symbol common to the church, a representation of certain great truths of belief. It spoke to those early believers of the immeasurable vastness of God's love demonstrated in the redeeming sacrifice of His Son. No harm there. However, as history moves forward, the cross became a matter of mystical powers. Stories arose of the cross' discovery. Miraculous claims were made for the healing efficacy of bits of wood said to come from this cross. Churches began to clamor for their own piece of this miraculous relic. In fact, the demand for cross fragments became so great that the papal offices had to create their own miracle to keep up with the demand. They claimed for themselves the power of multiplying that wood, of generating new fragments to sell to those who had yet to get one.

Do you see the danger? That which began as a symbol of redemption, which began as a reminder of how this Christian life was to be lived, had become a tool of avarice in the church, a tool of sin in the highest ranks of the church. The cross is not alone in carrying this danger in itself. We are more than able to take any symbol, any tool, any religious form, and turn it into an idol that takes on greater meaning to us than does the God these things are to represent to us. When the serpent symbol was no more, there came times in Jewish history where the house of God became more important to them than the God whose house it was. They thought themselves saved by the temple, and completely ignored the One who truly was powerful to save.

We must be ever vigilant to ensure that our preferences in worship do not become more important to us than God. We must be ever vigilant to ensure that our pastors do not become more important to us than God. We must be ever vigilant to ensure that our limited understanding, our convictions in doubtful matters, do not become more important to us than God. When we direct our praises and worship to the cross, rather than to the Christ, we place ourselves in harm's way. "I cherish the old rugged cross?" I think not! The cross itself did nothing. By the cross, people accomplished great evils upon their fellow man, both before and after the death of God's own Son. By the cross, the Church has committed some of its most hideous mistakes. Why? Because the God who chose to die on the cross had become less meaningful to them than their symbols and rules.

Finally, consider this matter. By and large, the cross as a symbol is, and by what this article says, always has been extremely ambiguous. Throughout the orient, throughout the northern African territories, the symbol of the cross was known. When Europeans began to explore the Americas, they found many cultures here that were already familiar with the cross as a symbol. But, a symbol of what? The significance varied from man to man and place to place. The meaning of the symbol was not necessarily the meaning intended by the bearer of the symbol

In our modern culture, this same truth applies. We look upon those around us wearing crosses as jewelry, and immediately bring our own thoughts and feelings to bear. We assume that these folks must believe as we do, since they wear what to us is a symbol of our faith. Yet, often enough, we will find that to the wearer, it is nothing better than a pretty design, or perhaps a reminder of their youth.

The symbols of religion are not the truth of religion. Claims of belief are not proofs of belief. We would do well to remember these things. We would do well to remember that we are always at risk of allowing our favorite form or symbol or religious leader to become more to us than God. We have to keep our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. He alone has been given to us as the visible manifestation and incarnation of God.