Crosses are everywhere you look. You see them not only on and in church buildings. You see them at hospitals, in cemeteries, on bumper stickers, tattoos, billboards, and jewelry. Crosses are so ubiquitous that we hardly even notice them.
But a visitor from ancient Rome would be aghast. In pre-Christian Rome, references to crucifixion were vulgarities of the highest order. The cross was not referenced in polite company. Among the most disgusting insults a foul-mouthed Roman could hurl was, “go get yourself crucified.”
Against this backdrop, St. Paul, the apostle to the gentiles and first missionary to the Roman world, must have struck his hearers as some sort of kook. He said things like, “far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6:14). To the Corinthians he wrote, “I decided to know nothing among you, except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the single most important event in the history of the world. It changed everything—absolutely everything. Unless God Himself became a man and suffered the penalty for all sins, the penalty would still remain unpaid. But God the Father did offer up His only begotten Son. The only begotten Son of God did give His life for the sins of the world. As a result, everyone who repents can truly be forgiven every sin he has ever committed. The blood of Christ does that!
Jesus’ death was the one human sacrifice that counts. But it was not just a sacrifice by any means at all. Jesus was not thrown off a cliff—although they tried (Luke 4:29-30). He was not stabbed with knives, like Julius Caesar, or poisoned like Socrates. He wasn’t even stoned to death—although they tried that, too (John 8:59).
God Himself tells us the reason why He wasn’t stoned. “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death Jesus would die” (John 18:32). On multiple occasions Jesus had said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day” (Matthew 20:18-19).
There is something so special about this kind of death that God wanted to accomplish the single sacrifice for the sins of the world in that way and in that way only.
That is why the cross—and no other symbol—has become synonymous with Christianity from ancient times. Let us ponder that fact. Let us appreciate that God specifically chose it. Let us learn to rejoice in the cross of Christ like St. Paul and all the apostles did.
Jesus’ passion on the cross does not only refer to the pain that he endured. It also refers to the fact that it happened to him. “Passion” is derived from the word, “passive.” It is the opposite of active doing. It is passive receiving.
From this we learn a great truth: Unless God Himself is actively working, we can accomplish nothing. Unless we are passively receiving the gifts of God, we are not being saved. That’s why St. Paul said, “I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time.
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime.