Crucified

INTRODUCTION

READ THE APOSTLE’S CREED

I believe in God, the Father almighty,

maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord:

who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.

He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy catholic Church,

the communion of the saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

The single uncontested fact about Jesus of Nazareth was that he was crucified in Jerusalem sometime around AD 30. He was executed at the behest of the Jerusalem high priest and on the order of Pontius Pilate. That Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried is probably the only line of the Apostles’ Creed that even atheists could confess with a clear conscience. The problem is that we can all to glibly mouth the words “was crucified” without reflecting on them and without experiencing the horror that the words held for ancient audiences. The reality is that we have grown accustomed to the cross as a thing of religious art, fashionable jewelry, and theological symbolism. It might as well be the McDonald’s sign or the Apple logo. A cross on a building or on the front of a book indicates a religious brand rather than the most terrifying torture we can imagine. However, the cross remains one of the most distinctive symbols of what lies at the heart of Christianity; it tells us what God is like, how much God loves us, and what it means to follow Jesus.

Jesus was Crucified (John 19:16-24)

John 19:16–24 CSB

Then he handed him over to be crucified. Then they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews,’ but that he said, ‘I am the king of the Jews.’ ” Pilate replied, “What I have written, I have written.” When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, a part for each soldier. They also took the tunic, which was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it, to see who gets it.” This happened that the Scripture might be fulfilled that says: They divided my clothes among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing. This is what the soldiers did.

God himself is now hoisted up on a Roman cross. They expose his body to the elements. The soldiers flog his body and shred his flesh to pieces. They do just enough harm to his body to put Jesus in such excruciating pain that he is right on the verge of going into shock or dying right then and there. Now, they take nails and drive them through his wrists and ankles. Each blow of the hammer pierces his flesh and holds him in place so that others may come and mock and ridicule him.

Even then, Jesus hangs by his own will, by his on purposes and plans. He had come to save sinners, even those who put him on the cross. It was your sin, my sin, and the sin of every person who ever lived held Jesus upon the cross.

The Process of Crucifixion

The ancient Jewish historian Josephus called crucifixion “the most wretched of deaths.” The ancient Roman philosopher Cicero asked that decent Roman citizens not even speak of the cross because it was too disgraceful a subject for the ears of decent people. The Jews also considered crucifixion the most horrific mode of death (Deut. 21:22-23).

Crucifixion was likely invented by the Persians around 500 BC and continued until it was outlawed by the first Christian Roman emperor Constantine around AD 300. Although crucifixion was created by the Persians, it was perfected by the Romans, who reserved it as the most painful mode of execution for the most despised people, such as slaves, poor people, and Roman citizens guilty of the worst high treason.

Throughout history, crucifixion has remained perhaps the most horrid form of execution. Under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, German soldiers crucified Jews at Dachau by running bayonets and knives through their legs, shoulders, throats, and testicles. Under the leadership of Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge performed crucifixions in Cambodia. Today, crucifixion continues in Sudan.

The pain of crucifixion is so horrendous that a word was invented to explain it—excruciating—which literally means “from the cross.” The pain of crucifixion is due in part to the fact that it is a prolonged and agonizing death by asphyxiation. Crucified people could hang on the cross for days, passing in and out of consciousness as their lungs struggled to breathe, while laboring under the weight of their body. It was not uncommon for those being crucified to slump on the cross in an effort to empty their lungs of air and thereby hasten their death.

None of this was done in dignified privacy but rather in open, public places. It would be like nailing a bloodied, naked man above the front entrance to your local mall. Crowds would gather around the victims to mock them as they sweated in the sun, bled, and became incontinent from the pain that could last many days. Once dead, the victim was not given a decent burial but rather left on the cross for vultures to pick apart from above while dogs chewed on the bones that fell to the ground, even occasionally taking a hand or foot home as a chew toy, according to ancient reports. Whatever remained of the victim would eventually be thrown in the garbage and taken to the dump unless his family buried it.

Not only was crucifixion excruciatingly painful and publicly shameful, it was also commonly practiced. Tens of thousands of people were crucified in the ancient world. For example, when Spartacus died in battle, six thousand of his followers were crucified in one day. They were lined up along a road that stretched for one hundred and twenty miles, not unlike the shoulder of a modern freeway.

As a general rule, it was men who were crucified. Occasionally a man was crucified at eye level so that passersby could look him directly in the eye as he died and cuss him out and spit on him in mockery. In the rare event of a woman’s crucifixion, she was made to face the cross. Not even such a barbarous culture was willing to watch the face of a woman in such excruciating agony.

In the Roman Empire, crucifixion wasn’t only about death. It was about public disgrace. The problem with getting yourself crucified wasn’t just that it would ill you but that it would humiliate you at the same time. Modern readers of the NT might assume that the worst thing about crucifixion was the physical suffering. But in a culture of honor and shame, the pain of the soul—humiliation—can be even worse than the pain of the body.

Michael Bird: To put it bluntly, crucifixion was the attempt to manufacture a temporary hell for its intended victim. Death by crucifixion denied the humanity of its victim and even destroyed something of the humanity of those who had become capable of inflicting it on another human being.

This is why the cross is described by Paul as a stumbling block to the Jews, and foolishness to the Greeks.

N.T. Wright: The cross is offensive to Jews because a crucified Messiah implies a crucified Israel. Israel rejects the proffered Messiah precisely because she understands this. If the Messiah dies under the law’s curse, that means that Israel stands under the same curse: that is part of the meaning of Galatians 3:10-14. Calvary means that Israel also must die between two thieves, must share in the fate of the ungodly.

The heart of the Christian message, which Paul described as the word of the cross, ran counter not only to Roman political thinking, but to the whole ethos of religion in ancient times and in particular to the ideas of God held by educated people. Crucifixion, after all, was the punishment of slaves, bandits, and enemies of the state. It was particularly offensive to Romans that the Christians honored as a god a person whom Roman authorities had executed a criminal.

The earliest piece of anti-Christian graffiti is the famous Alexamenos inscription, dated to around AD 200, found on Palatine Hill in Rome, on what probably was a school to train imperial slaves, The inscription presents a man with a donkey’s head hanging on a cross, while another man faces toward a cross in a pose of worship. The words “Alexamenos worships his god” are etched underneath.

It is easy to plot the recurring themes: superstition, silliness, and insanity. No wonder that Justin Martyr could opine that “they say our madness consists in the fact that we put a crucified man in second place after the unchangeable and eternal God, the Creator of the world.”

Whenever the cross is raised, there will quickly gather a gaggle of mockers to hurl insults at it. And yet, none of the sneers, taunts, or profanities hurled at the cross and at those who raise it up can change the fact that the cross is a beacon of light in a world that is cold, brutal, and dark. For upon the cross we encounter the depth of God’s mercy for those once enslaved to the present evil age. The cross is hope, joy, peace, and love, and nothing can ever change that.

The Works of the Cross

ATONEMENT (Isa 53:6)

Jesus stands in our place for the punishment we deserve.

John Stott: The concept of substitution may be said, then, to lie at the heart of both sin and salvation. For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims prerogatives which belong to God alone; God accepts penalties which belong to man alone.

VICTORY (Col 2:13-15)

Jesus disarms the rulers and authorities of this world. He triumphs over every enemy of the Kingdom, nailing every debt, every sin, every rebellion to the cross. Satan may have bitten Jesus’ heal, but in the same motion, Jesus crushes his head. You may feel trapped, stuck, weak, broken, lost. It may be your sin, or the sin of others, but either way, you may feel like the you’re on the losing side of this life. Jesus came to fight for you, and he died so that you might experience victory over addiction, over hurt, over loss, over shame.

REDEMPTION (Tit 2:13-14)

Redemption is synonymous with being liberated, freed, or rescued from bondage and slavery to a person or thing. Redemption in the OT is God going to Pharoah, demanding he release the Israelites, destroying Pharaoh when he refused, and taking God’s people to their home. Their redemption points to the cross. God never gives legitimacy to the Devil or pays a price to him. God destroys the power of Satan and leads the slaves to freedom.

COVENANT SACRIFICE (1 Pet 1:18-19)

Sin is a disordering of God’s good and just world. It’s the wronging of what is right, the fracturing of wholeness.

Sin requires justice. Here’s the thing: this is sometimes hard to accept; when I slip up, when I fail, when I break relationship, I hope for forgiveness, that it can somehow be let go; but when others hurt me, when they offend me, I want justice. And justice requires retribution. It requires blood. The cross fulfills our need for justice. It is by the blood of Jesus that the price of retribution is made. Jesus takes our place, but as a spotless lamb, a perfect and pure sacrifice, unbroken by sin, unmarred by disobedience. The blood that he spills covers our sins re-rights the wrongs we have done, reorders the injustice, and restores what is good.

GIFT RIGHTEOUSNESS (2 Cor 5:21)

You can try to do everything right, you can try to be everything that is needed, but you, on your own, can never make right the relationship fractured by your sin. There is none, righteous, not one of us (Rom 3:10-11). We all fall short of God’s glory, short of his standard of faithfulness and truth and love and kindness. So at the cross, Jesus offers us his righteousness instead. And in doing so, he asks not that you would earn it from him, merely that you receive it from him. The heart of the gospel message is that you are more broken than you dared believe, and more loved than you dared hope. So when Jesus dies for you, what he offers is something you can’t afford; it is his gift to you. Through the cross, Jesus’ right relationship with God is not just given to you; it’s attributed to you. It is the transfer of legal standing from one person to another. Through Adam, all have sinned and are guilty. Through Jesus, all are might righteous (Rom 5:19).

JUSTIFICATION (Rom 3:23-25)

Justification is a fancy word for forgiveness. In the first century, it was a term used to declare a person innocent of all crime and punishment. Jesus cancels your debt and your guilt and declares you innocent by accepting your punishment on your behalf. But as I said last week, forgiveness in the Bible is more than just legally declaring you not guilty. It is setting you free by bearing the weight of your guilt and your responsibility. It is setting you free by taking your sin, your shame, your pain; Jesus takes it upon himself at the cross, and is crushed by it. And as he is crushed by your sin, you are free to go. Nothing is free, but Jesus paid the price for you, and your slate is wiped clean.

PROPITIATION (1 Jn 4:10)

Propitiation is all about value and worth. Every human is in some way searching for some way to be loved, to be considered worthy, to have meaning and purpose, to be considered and known and pursued. And so we put our efforts into becoming worthy of love, worthy of honor, worthy of respect. We acquire knowledge and relationships and money and skill, we spend everything in pursuit of feeling the right things and having the right experiences, we accumulate power and influence and achieve great things, all in the hope that our legacy will be made, that someone, somewhere, will attribute to us the value we crave. And we exhaust ourselves in the process. But the cross changes that perspective. Jesus came not because we loved him, but that he loved us and gave himself up for us. You have been loved and counted by your Creator from the beginning, and nothing you do or earn are acquire can make him love you any more or less than he already does. He died for you because he loves you. Your value to him is demonstrated by what he went through on the cross for you.

EXPIATION (1 Jn 1:7)

Sin is like a stain; it stays with you, it doesn’t leave. There’s a scene in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, after Lady Macbeth goads her husband into killing the king of Scotland so she can become queen; She is sleepwalking and looks down and has a vision blood covering her hands, and in particular a spot that will not leave. And she is washing and scrubbing and fighting to remove this mark of guilt and shame, and it won’t leave her. It drives her mad and eventually commits suicide. Sin is like a stain that constantly reminds you of your guilt. It will not leave, it will drive you mad, and it will rule your life and eventually destroy you. The cross of Jesus not only exposes your sin stains, it cleans them. The blood of Jesus washes over your sin and removes the stain you cannot get out.

RANSOM (1 Tim 2:5-6)

Before Jesus, you lived under the domain of darkness, you were ruled by the Adversary. His ways, his disordered kingdom, that’s the way of life; a life of selfishness, a life of empty promises and gains, a life of meaningless pursuits and messed up relationships. Jesus came to payed the highest price to transfer you from the domain of darkness to the domain of light (Col 1:13-14). The point here of ransom is not to say that Jesus paid the devil a sum that amounted to his death. All we need to understand is that there was a price that needed to be paid for your salvation, and Jesus considers it worth paying with his life. He pays your way to God’s kingdom.

EXAMPLE (1 Pet 2:21)

At one point, Jesus says that those would wish to follow him must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow. Now, in our day, we have sanitized the cross to mean hard things we don’t like or frustrating seasons or people who annoy us. I’m not sure Jesus is speaking metaphorically here. I think Jesus is say the way to follow him is freedom from sin and death, but it also means that living your life ordered rightly with Jesus will look upside-down, scandalous, and even treasonous to the world. It will not be an easy path to live as a citizen of heaven while still residing on earth. But a cruciform life, a life lived out of the example of the cross, will lead others to the feet of Jesus the king. In the cross, Jesus makes his bid to come and die as real and as good as it gets.

RECONCILIATION (Eph 4:31-5:2)

Sin breaks relationships. It reduces the humanity of others by treating them as less than they were made. Anger turns humans into objects to be destroyed. Lust turns humans into objects to be consumed. Bitterness spins stories that form villains and heroes, gods and demons. In Genesis 3, after the first sin, we were warned that our pursuit of becoming the hero of the story in our own eyes would lead to enmity, broken relationships, between humans and creation, between husband and wife, between parent and child, and finally, as Adam and Eve are driven from Eden, between Man and God. The cross restores relationships. It is God reaching down and rewriting the story of our hearts. It is healing anger and purging lust. It is reordering relationships. Christ comes to reconcile all things by his physical body through his death. Through him Jesus reconciles everything, whether things on earth or things in heaven, he makes peace through his blood, shed on the cross (Col 1:15-20). Jesus brings shalom. He brings peace.

REVELATION (Jn 1:18)

I’ll share about this in just a moment, but one of the biggest obstacles to trusting in God, in believing in him, in seeing any of this as real, is that there are many narratives, many presuppositions, many philosophies about who or what, if anything, God might be. Doubt is a very real and common struggle that pulls us in all kinds of ways, whether it’s religious fanaticism, self-righteous legalism, or self-propelled me-ism, each direction is followed when we hear and believe a lie about the realty of who God really, truly, actually is. The cross reveals the true nature of God. His love for you, his power to save, his unending mercy and grace and forgiveness. All is revealed in the heinous, disgusting, shame-riddled torture device of the cross, the vehicle of death that Jesus transforms into a vehicle for life and peace and relationship with the Creator. You know God when you see Jesus nailed, bloody, disfigured. You know everything you need to know about God when you see Christ crucified.

Different facets of the cross, just like the facets of a diamond.

Each side sparkles and refracts light differently, each side containing a new and different beauty. The gospel, found particularly in the cross, contains different facets that reach different people. You may feel trapped and beaten down and helpless; the cross is redemption. You may feel like you do not measure up to the goodness God requires; the cross is gift righteousness. You may feel like no one loves or cares or sees worth in you; the cross is your propitiation. And because you have come here, into a church, a gathering of people affected and overwhelmed by the grace of the cross, transformed by these same facets of the gospel, you can know that we see you the way Jesus sees you, that his mission is our mission, that we carry the cross and its effects wherever we go.

Jesus Died (John 19:25-37)

John 19:25–37 CSB

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. After this, when Jesus knew that everything was now finished that the Scripture might be fulfilled, he said, “I’m thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was sitting there; so they fixed a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it up to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. Since it was the preparation day, the Jews did not want the bodies to remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special day). They requested that Pilate have the men’s legs broken and that their bodies be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first man and of the other one who had been crucified with him. When they came to Jesus, they did not break his legs since they saw that he was already dead. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows he is telling the truth. For these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: Not one of his bones will be broken. Also, another Scripture says: They will look at the one they pierced.

John records the word of Jesus: Tetelestai. “It is finished.” This finishing work? Jesus reveals it in John 17 when he is praying to the father in the garden. He declares to Heaven, “I have revealed your name to the people you gave me from the world.... Now they know that everything you have given is from you, because I have given them the words you gave me” (John 17:6-8). Jesus prays then and there for the Father to “Glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you.” From that moment forward, Jesus no longer teaches in the synagogue. He performs no more healings. He casts out no more demons. Yet the Father glorifies the Son. When Jesus is crucified on the cross, when he is scourged and humiliated and shamed and disfigured, Jesus reveals the ultimate grace and truth that comes from the Father (John 1:14); in the cross, the work of revealing the truth about God and who he is, the work of revealing the grace and mercy and forgiveness of God, what God does, is revealed fully and totally his the sacrifice of Jesus.

It’s not enough that Jesus teaches; that makes him a good prophet, but not a good savior.

It’s not enough that Jesus performs miracles; that makes him a good priest, but not a good savior.

It’s not enough that Jesus pronounces forgiveness and reorders justice; that makes him a good king, but not a good savior.

How do you know when love is unconditional? I can say that I love my wife unconditionally, I can declare that I love my kids without end and that I would go to the ends of the earth for them. But do I really? I don’t have to challenge that declaration with my life. I don’t have to prove my love beyond a few sweeping gestures and a lifetime of faithful commitment. What I mean by all of this is that words are one thing; actions are another. A popular song from a few years ago made this really pointed for me:

"I'd die for you," that's easy to say; we have a list of people that we would take: a bullet for them, a bullet for you, a bullet for everybody in this room. But I don't seem to see many bullets coming through. Metaphorically, I'm the man; but literally, I don't know what I'd do - Twenty One Pilots

In death, Jesus proves how far God’s love is willing to go. This is what Jesus means when he says it is finished. Tetelestai. The greek root here is the word telos, meaning end (finish), perfection, wholeness. The Hebrew counterpart is the term Shalom; it is peace, it is reconciliation, it is whole. Jesus makes peace through his blood. He makes us whole. He ends the war between God and man. He perfects the revelation of God that we need to see in his suffering (Heb. 2:10). The term here is in the “perfect” tense in the Greek. Now, that doesn’t sound very interesting; but there are two tenses for actions that have already taken place. The first is the aorist tense, and it just means something happened; something was done, it’s over, move on to the next. But the perfect tense is different; it is completed action that has ongoing, present-day effects. The work that Jesus finished, it’s not just an historical event; it’s a work that continues to impact you and me, every day, in powerful ways. Jesus’ work continues to work, even now, in you.

Jesus was Buried (John 19:38-42)

John 19:38–42 CSB

After this, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus—but secretly because of his fear of the Jews—asked Pilate that he might remove Jesus’s body. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and took his body away. Nicodemus (who had previously come to him at night) also came, bringing a mixture of about seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes. They took Jesus’s body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the fragrant spices, according to the burial custom of the Jews. There was a garden in the place where he was crucified. A new tomb was in the garden; no one had yet been placed in it. They placed Jesus there because of the Jewish day of preparation and since the tomb was nearby.

It’s important to note here: Jesus being buried is not just a placeholder between Jesus dying and Jesus returning to life. It actually serves an important role in the story of redemption.

Paul tells the church in Corinth that the gospel story he passes on to them contained the most important details: “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures… he was buried… he was raised on the third day… he appeared… (1 Cor. 15:1-8)

John records how two secret disciples of Jesus come and request Jesus’ body to be buried. Joseph of Arimathea, who fearfully followed Jesus, and Nicodemus, a member of the Pharisees who met with Jesus under the cover of night. Normally, those who are executed by crucifixion were not buried. The victim was left on the cross for vultures to pick apart from above while dogs chewed on the bones that fell to the ground, even occasionally taking a hand or foot home as a chew toy, according to ancient reports. Whatever remained of the victim would eventually be thrown in the garbage and taken to the dump unless his family buried it. His death remained public and visible, a visceral reminder of what Human Empires truly thought of those at the bottom of the social ladder—they were not worth the dignity given to humans, for they were truly inhuman without any worth or value.

But watch what happens. Joseph and Nicodemus, two secret disciples, get permission from Pilate to take Jesus’ body from the cross and bury Jesus, not as inhuman, not even as a man, but as a king. Jesus is not buried in the ground, but in an above ground tomb designed for the wealthy and powerful. Jesus’ body is covered in a mixture of spices, of myrrh and aloes, a mixture employed in the burial ceremonies of kings and rulers.

Jesus burial is as shocking as his crucifixion in many ways. The King of the Jews is given a beggar’s execution. The Son of God is laid in a tomb, dead, his life exchanged for ours, our punishment taken out on him. It is horrifying, and yet, it is also infinite love. Our sins are buried with Jesus in the tomb. The curse of enmity taken to the grave. What we will discover three days later is that, when God raises the Son from the grave, and he departs the tomb, our sin and that eternal curse is left behind. Our sin could never overcome death, but Jesus is no match for it.

What does it mean to believe that Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried?

I am more broken than I dared believe; in Christ, I am more loved than I dared hope.

Jesus’s death reveals the love God has for me; His death is more than an historical moment, but a shift in history that rocks the very core of humanity. Through Jesus’ death, I have found life.

Jesus’ burial was that of King, who I now worship as living and powerful. My sin was buried with him, and it was not resurrected. My old life was nailed to that cross. I died and was buried with him, and through Christ I am made alive, freed from the chains that bound me.

The Cruciform Life

The more I see myself as crucified with Christ, the less I live, act, do, say things, for me, and the more I live and love for others. It is usually in the moments when I turn selfish, when I get angry or offended by others, when I experience shame over something I’ve done, that I find I’ve lost sight of the cruciform life and have been drawn to the gaudy neon lights of me and my personal, self-made value, that I’m all I need, that what I’ve done is worth celebrating, that my ways are good and right and glorious. All too often, I find when I have pushed too hard for my own vision of the good life, it almost always results in broken relationships, broken trust, broken communities, broken hearts. It is one of the strangest but truest phenomena of this created world that while my selfish ways destroy, but the cruciform life—dying to myself, living for others, loving the poor and the lost and the broken—almost aways results in reconciled relationships, restored trust, renewed communities, and healed hearts. One could almost say that the upside down nature of the cross is one of the greatest arguments there is for the existence of God, and the righteousness of his ways.