Judas Iscariot led the team of Roman soldiers and Temple guards to get His Master arrested and all the disciples fled, leaving Him alone. Apostle Peter even denied having known Him thrice and as per Gospel according to Apostle John ‘He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him’. It was only this John, who because of his contacts in the Chief Priest’s household could be near the Lord witnessing all the events. At noon time the sun was darkened and the Saviour was further isolated from everything so that He could then usher in a new dawn in the life of all humanity from then on.
Why did God allow the curse of the cross on His own Son? Apostle Paul was a great Jewish scholar who was trained by Rabbi Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of that time, was a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin. While mentioning his supernatural experience of meeting Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, he told King Agrippa, ‘at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me’ (Acts 26:13). Lord Jesus Himself claimed to be ‘the light of the world’ and Apostle John called Him as ‘life, and the life was the light of men’ (John 8:12). Apostle Paul then provided His real identity, ‘in Him dwells all the fullness of Godhead bodily’ (Colossians 2:9). He further adds, ‘by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him’ (Colossians 1:16-17). Thus Lord Jesus is the Creator and in Him the complete nature of God was revealed to the entire universe.
Moses was given the details of the creation process to write about this light that God said at the time of starting the process of creation, ‘Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good’ (Genesis 1:3-4). This ‘light’ lit up the darkness of the earth to make it suitable for creation. At the time of the end of re-creation with the ‘New Jerusalem’ being on earth ‘the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light’ (Revelation 21:23). This is the light that was put on the cross to ‘take away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29) and the absolute darkness of that sin was put on Him. Today the crosses on our Church buildings and around our necks scarcely reveal and remind us of that darkness which afflicted the Son of God. He ‘humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death’ and the worst form of death ‘even the death of the cross’ (Philippians 2:8). The Jews and Greeks of that time could never accept such horrible death to the Son of God, the Messiah.
It was not just crucifiction that He was subjected to, but the torture of scourging, where the flesh of the back was ripped apart, mockery, being spit upon and being nailed to the cross with nails in His hands and feet. The prophet was shown this state of His Son, by God that He could write ‘many were astonished at you, so His visage was so marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men’ (Isaiah 52:14). The reality of that darkness is so ugly that God, the Father, who had declared twice before His marvelous love for His son, also turned His face for He could not bear to see that. And the Son cried out not to the Father but to the loving and just God ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’ (Psalm 22:1). The Son was aware of this separation and the deep agony of it, that in the Gethsemane Park, He prayed three times for an alternative but each time also surrendered to the will of the Father.
The Son of God ‘for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God’ (Hebrews 12:2). But was that His aim, for this place was already His from the beginning? He prayed to the Father in heaven declaring that the work assigned to Him was finished and sought ‘glorify Me together with Yourself , with the glory which I had with You before the world was’ (John 17:4-5). Apostle Paul identified our state, ‘we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad’ (2 Corinthians 5:10). But we as believers ‘were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life’ (Romans 5:10).
When we realize the agony that our Saviour underwent and still hold that of little value and continue to live life as per our truth and follow our ways, than ‘the way, the truth and the life’ shown by Him in Himself, how much more we despise His sacrifice. A believer must never forget the fulfilled prophecy about our Lord, that His visage was badly marred.
Importance of the cross of Calvary – In effect the sufferings of Lord Jesus did not start on the cross but were evident all along His ministry when the Jewish leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees always tested Him. He asked them not to believe Him if ‘I do not do the works of My Father’ and then further said, ‘But if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know that the Father is in Me, and I in Him’ (John 10:38). To these Jewish leaders the cross was a just punishment.
Mary, the mother of our Lord, had said to Gabriel, ‘behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word’ without caring for the effect of that on her life, marriage and her family (Luke 1:38). Simeon had declared prophetically about His work when the Child Jesus was brought to the Temple to offer a sacrifice offering, saying ‘a sword will pierce through your own soul also’ (Luke 2:34-35). Mary would have lived all her life remembering these words and the cross to her was that sword afflicting her very being, her soul. To her the cross was a display of the love of her Son who became Her Redeemer who ensured her care and support through Apostle John by saying to him, ‘behold your mother’ (John 19:26-27).
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed the Lord, was afflicted in his soul and said to the chief priest and elders, ‘ I have sinned by betraying innocent blood’ (Matthew 27:4-5). To him the cross was his greatest and unpardonable sin and darkness filled his soul to lead him to hang himself.
To the Apostle Peter, who betrayed His Lord three times, it was always a reminder of his fearful failure but also of the love of the Lord who despite the physical abuse ‘turned and looked at Peter’ (Luke 22:61). The look was not of condemnation but of love and understanding. He would also never forget the warning of Satan’s attack and the Lord’s instruction, ‘when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren’ (Luke 22:32). To him the cross represented forgiveness, restoration and love of his Master, and not only to him but to all others also.
To Apostle John the cross was the finale of the display of the love of God the Father’s to redeem the perishing world and give the believers eternal life (John 3:16). He had experienced the love of Hid Lord to declare to all about himself ‘the disciple whom Jesus loved’ (John 13:23). He lived filled with that love even when put into boiling oil without getting affected in any way or exiled to Patmos island and received revelation of the second coming of the Lord and establishment of His rule on earth.
To the Jewish people the cross of Jesus was and probably still is a curse. The Jewish people, under the urging of their leaders, sought that Barabbas be released and the Son of God be crucified (Matthew 27:20-25). Pilate washed his hands off the whole thing and said, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this Just Person’. Then ‘all the people answered and said, ‘His blood be on us and our children’. When He was being led for crucifiction a great multitude, who had been blessed by Him ‘followed Him, and women who also mourned and wept. But, Jesus turning to them, said, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children’ (Luke 23:27-29). And then He prophesied about the great suffering that would come on them in near future.
In AD 70 the Roman army under General Titus destroyed the Temple of God and most of Jerusalem. Josephus, the Jewish historian wrote about the death of 11 lakh people with about 97,000 being taken prisoners.
To Mary Magdalene and the other women who supported Lord Jesus’ ministry (Luke 8:2-3), what did the cross mean? Mary Magdalene was afflicted by seven demons and was set free by the Lord and others ‘provided for Him from their substance’. The Creator accepted provisioning from His own creation and these women followed the Lord. Mary Magdalene is not shown to have any close family and her and the life of others revolved around the Lord. These women were present at the sight of crucifiction and witnessed everything. For them it caused a deep emptiness in their souls and Mary Magdalene returned to the tomb ‘early while it was still dark’ (John 20:1) seeking solace there.
What did the cross mean to Lord Jesus? Our Lord told the disciples, ‘for this I came to this hour’ and then prayed to God the Father, ‘glorify Your name’ (John 12:27-32). In answer from heaven the voice was heard, ‘I have glorified it and will glorify it again’. The Lord then declared, ‘now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world (Satan) will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth (crucified) will draw many peoples to Myself’. To Him the cross was the way to glorify the Father in heaven, destroy the works of the devil by freeing us from his clutches through forgiveness of sins and draw people from all over to Him as followers.
Relevance of the cross to an unbeliever? Apostle Paul answered this very question that the cross or ‘Christ crucified (is) to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks (or Gentiles), Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Corinthians 1:23-24). The Jewish leaders even today do not see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53) and other messages about the suffering Messiah as true but believe in Him to be the conqueror to restore the kingdom of Israel. The Greek who considered themselves great philosophers and thinkers, it was folly to believe in God who suffered at the hands of mere mortals.
But to the disciples it is God’s power to exercise self-restraint and offer Himself as a sacrifice to pay the full penalty of sin for all of mankind to reconcile us to Him. It is God’s wisdom to fulfill His plan of defeating the devil through active obedience of His son to face apparent defeat but victory in His resurrection and ascension.
The cross as a Roman symbol is absolutely horrible but it is a symbol of a spiritual war between honour of the glory of God and shame of the darkness of sin and evil. We are told to ‘run with endurance the race that is set before us’ is to claim the prize in the end (Hebrews 12:1-3). But for Lord Jesus it was to endure the cross, ‘despising the shame’ to finally sit down ‘at the right hand of the throne of God’. We are then encouraged to not ‘become weary and discouraged in your souls’ by following the example of the Lord and face all hardships of the battles of this life. He looked the shame, humiliation and torture right in the face and challenged it with determination. In this manner ‘having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it’ (Colossians 2:15).
The cross places a believer at the victory stand and we start our race from that and then we can ‘do all things through Christ who strengthens us’ (Philippians 4:13). Each of the two criminals who were crucified with our Lord had a different view, while the one recognized his sinfulness by saying, ‘we (suffer) indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong’ (Luke 23:39-43). The other mocked the Lord saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us’. He spoke the same words that the devil had uttered before Him during His temptation in the wilderness, asking Him to firstly, prove His status as Son of God. And secondly, to use His spiritual powers to satiate His hunger after forty days of fasting. The Jewish leaders said the same thing and even today many seek a sign in their body, or life and get the same answer as those before Him from the cross- silence.
But the other criminal prayed to Him, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom’ and received immediate salvation and assurance of being in Paradise with Him the same day. And both the criminals would have seen the result of their choice just a few hours after that. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar, Lord Jesus told about their death and thereafter (Luke 16:19-26). Lazarus the beggar ‘was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom’ in Paradise and the rich man ‘in torments in Hades’. He was told by Abraham about the great gulf between the two places ‘that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us’. The one who rejected the Lord would be in torment in hell and repenting to no avail for his foolishness.
The criminal could see Him as He was, the Son of God, but the chief priests, the scribes and the elders mocked Him, saying, ‘He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If he is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him’ (Matthew 27:41-42). It is believed that Annas the High Priest was strangulated to death at the command if his son-in-law Caiphas, who in AD 36, along with Pilate, was removed by Rome for growing unrest and is believed to have committed suicide.
We as believers must remember that Friday is the way to Sunday, the day of great rejoicing and hope for our future. Also that everyone has a problem with the cross, for religious minded want miracles and power, while the intellectuals want wisdom. It is only to us believers that it represents ‘Christ the power of God and wisdom of God’ and we go out to the entire world with this message of His love, glory and victory. The cross represents change and if as a believer no change in our life is taking place, we must examine our faith. Many times we feel isolated despite the promise of the LORD God to never abandon us. Apostle Paul assured the Romans and also all believers that God, who offered the sacrifice of His own Son to redeem us from the darkness of sin and the devil, why will He not give us all other things also? But then are we ready to receive what we ask?
