Saturday, March 31, 2007
John 19:17-18 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others -- one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
MEMENTOS OF HIS PASSION: A CROSS
A cross didn't need fine craftsmanship or rare wood. It wasn't a piece of furniture or a decoration. A cross was a tool used to kill.
It could take three days for man to die on a cross. His limbs becoming full of gangrene and infection, body slowly dehydrating, life ebbing away until it was gone. Because of the way it was used, a cross was also a symbol of severe pain, humiliation and death.
To many onlookers, the cross of Jesus was also a symbol of guilt. Rome didn't just hand out death sentences. This man must have earned His horrible death.
But Jesus' cross was different than the others raised on Mt. Calvary. He did not earn His cross, sinners did. It doesn't matter how much any one individual contributed to buying His cross, we all had a part in its purchase.
It is fitting that Jesus' cross was placed in the middle. Of all the crosses that ever were, His takes center stage. His cross held the Son of God. His cross was not merely used to bring death, but to conquer it. All crosses display the consequences of sin, but only the cross of Christ displays our Savior from sin.
The cross of Christ is a precious memento because it preaches a two part sermon of sin and grace. First it reminds us that OUR SINS got Jesus crucified. But then the cross comforts us by showing that OUR SINS were taken away through Christ crucified.
A cross was a tool of death, but Jesus used it to bring us life. A cross was a symbol of sin's consequences, but Jesus made it a symbol of sin's solution. A cross was made with the simplest of carpentry, but Jesus' cross spans the immeasurable gap between sinners and their loving God.
