The Cross - Part One
“The cross stands as the centerpiece of Christianity. It smacks against everything we think of in life, (and everything we want).”
- Ravi Zacharias
Many of us have heard that Jesus died for our sins. Indeed, I heard it while I was growing up but those words did not mean anything to me. Partially because I did not know what was meant by “dying for my sins.” There was an assumption being made by my teachers that I knew everything that they were talking about. In his film The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson attempts to capture what was meant by the statement “Jesus died for our sins.” But when he set out to do so, he was hammered in the media by many critics who claimed that the film was simply too bloody and too sensational. After seeing the movie myself, in the back of my head I thought that one could aptly name the film The Slaughter of the Christ and nothing would be lost. But rather than simply side with the critics (who have missed the point) about the film being as “sensational” as it was, let me explore this question – why did Gibson feel the movie had to be that realistic?
Or, better yet, why did Christ need to die on the cross at all?
There are many, many places in the Bible that contain echoes of the cross but I will turn to Isaiah for most of my explanation.
“See my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness – so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For they what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 52:13 – 53:7).”
The ruthlessness of the crucifixion is vitally important; not because Christianity also smacks of sensationalism, but because it represents historical fact and shows the truth of what Christ endured. The Romans were good at many things – brutality was at the top of the list. Indeed, the Romans got the idea from the Phoenicians and put it to excellent use.
Secondly – it is so very easy to dismiss the importance of the crucifixion if you and I do not have to see the awfulness of it. I can’t help but wonder if that is what drives some of those who criticize the movie in such a fashion – an unwillingness to see what the cross really cost Jesus. Because if we are to look at the cross in its awful and powerful truth, we would see the very face of God. There are those in the movie who do look at the truth of the cross and see God there, as Isaiah writes “…kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told they will see, and they have not heard, they will understand.” Not just kings, but people. That is why the thief on the cross beside Jesus asks to be remembered when Jesus returns to his father’s side. That is what Simon sees after he helps carry the cross, all the while claiming that he was an innocent man and carried the burden of a condemned criminal and he realizes that it was the other way around; he would have left Jesus to his fate and not cared. That is what the Romans see when Jesus is dead.
But there are those who do not want to see God’s face because of all that it would entail for them. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (John 3:19-21).”
We see the truth of this in life. Steven Jay Gould once said this concerning atheism “Once you find out that there is no higher power, no superior cause, it is liberating if not exhilarating.” Quite a contrast to Aldous Huxley who was a little more honest in his book Ends and Means when he said “Science does not have the right to give to me my reason for being. But I am going to take science’s view because I want this world not to have meaning. A meaningless world frees me to pursue my own erotic and political desires.” Or better yet listen to Thomas Nagel, professor of philosophy at NYU who says this “In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions… in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper – namely the fear of religion itself… I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God, and naturally, hope there is no God. I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that (The Last Word).” I remember once speaking to a young tattoo artist in Panama City, Florida concerning the truth of the gospel. He argued that the Old Testament and New Testament God were completely different, I provided illustrations to show that this was not so. At the end of our exchange he looked me in the eye and told me, rather unblushingly, that he didn’t care about the evidence; unbelief boiled down to the fact that he and his wife engaged in various activities that he did not want to give up.
This truth applies in our personal lives, our scientific lives, all parts of our life and what we want effects what we will do. Ideas have consequences. I quote someone whose name I, unfortunately, forget, but he said this, “Nothing good can come if the will is wrong.”
- Ravi Zacharias
Many of us have heard that Jesus died for our sins. Indeed, I heard it while I was growing up but those words did not mean anything to me. Partially because I did not know what was meant by “dying for my sins.” There was an assumption being made by my teachers that I knew everything that they were talking about. In his film The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson attempts to capture what was meant by the statement “Jesus died for our sins.” But when he set out to do so, he was hammered in the media by many critics who claimed that the film was simply too bloody and too sensational. After seeing the movie myself, in the back of my head I thought that one could aptly name the film The Slaughter of the Christ and nothing would be lost. But rather than simply side with the critics (who have missed the point) about the film being as “sensational” as it was, let me explore this question – why did Gibson feel the movie had to be that realistic?
Or, better yet, why did Christ need to die on the cross at all?
There are many, many places in the Bible that contain echoes of the cross but I will turn to Isaiah for most of my explanation.
“See my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness – so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For they what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth (Isaiah 52:13 – 53:7).”
The ruthlessness of the crucifixion is vitally important; not because Christianity also smacks of sensationalism, but because it represents historical fact and shows the truth of what Christ endured. The Romans were good at many things – brutality was at the top of the list. Indeed, the Romans got the idea from the Phoenicians and put it to excellent use.
Secondly – it is so very easy to dismiss the importance of the crucifixion if you and I do not have to see the awfulness of it. I can’t help but wonder if that is what drives some of those who criticize the movie in such a fashion – an unwillingness to see what the cross really cost Jesus. Because if we are to look at the cross in its awful and powerful truth, we would see the very face of God. There are those in the movie who do look at the truth of the cross and see God there, as Isaiah writes “…kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told they will see, and they have not heard, they will understand.” Not just kings, but people. That is why the thief on the cross beside Jesus asks to be remembered when Jesus returns to his father’s side. That is what Simon sees after he helps carry the cross, all the while claiming that he was an innocent man and carried the burden of a condemned criminal and he realizes that it was the other way around; he would have left Jesus to his fate and not cared. That is what the Romans see when Jesus is dead.
But there are those who do not want to see God’s face because of all that it would entail for them. “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (John 3:19-21).”
We see the truth of this in life. Steven Jay Gould once said this concerning atheism “Once you find out that there is no higher power, no superior cause, it is liberating if not exhilarating.” Quite a contrast to Aldous Huxley who was a little more honest in his book Ends and Means when he said “Science does not have the right to give to me my reason for being. But I am going to take science’s view because I want this world not to have meaning. A meaningless world frees me to pursue my own erotic and political desires.” Or better yet listen to Thomas Nagel, professor of philosophy at NYU who says this “In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions… in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies, and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper – namely the fear of religion itself… I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God, and naturally, hope there is no God. I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that (The Last Word).” I remember once speaking to a young tattoo artist in Panama City, Florida concerning the truth of the gospel. He argued that the Old Testament and New Testament God were completely different, I provided illustrations to show that this was not so. At the end of our exchange he looked me in the eye and told me, rather unblushingly, that he didn’t care about the evidence; unbelief boiled down to the fact that he and his wife engaged in various activities that he did not want to give up.
This truth applies in our personal lives, our scientific lives, all parts of our life and what we want effects what we will do. Ideas have consequences. I quote someone whose name I, unfortunately, forget, but he said this, “Nothing good can come if the will is wrong.”
posted by Brian at 10:41 AM
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