The Cross: History's Greatest Makeover

17 Pentecost Proper19  September 16, 2018 

Proverbs 1:20-33 Psalm 116:1-8

James 3:1-12  Mark 8:27-38

Lectionary Link

How many of us are wearing a cross today?  How many of us often wear a cross as a necklace, bracelet or as earrings?

The cross rendered in gold, silver and jewels is perhaps the greatest symbolic makeover in history.

A tortuous instrument of capital punishment is now romanticized and spiritualized to the point of becoming jewelry.  In the language of St. Paul he wrote that he "gloried in the Cross of Christ."  How did such makeover happen?

It is no secret to us because we know the end of the story.  When Jesus reappeared to his disciples, the Cross of Jesus became something else.  It became but one event in the life of Jesus, and it became an event with different meaning than what the Roman authorities had intended.

The Romans used the crucifixion of Jesus to put an end to the Jesus Movement, which was regarded by them as a movement which threatened the peace of Palestine.  The Romans used the crucifixion to snuff out the Jesus Movement forever.

Even after the Resurrection of Christ, the cross had different meanings for the Jews.  For those who did not experience the resurrection appearances of Christ, it was hard for them to understand Jesus as a heroic Messiah.  For many Jews, the Messiah had to be a heroic king like King David who would be known when he delivered the Jews in Palestine from the Roman occupation.

The competing versions regarding the Messiah is found in the Gospel dialogue between Jesus and Peter.  Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah and when he was told by Jesus what it meant to be the Messiah,  Peter presumed to tell the Messiah that he was wrong about himself.  Kind of ironic: "Jesus, you're the Messiah but you don't know what that means."

This Gospel highlights the early disagreement among the Jews about Jesus and the nature of the Messiah.  The Hebrew Scriptures contain different traditions of the Messiah.  The Messiah was seen as a returning conquering King in one tradition; He was seen as a suffering servant in another tradition.

It was obvious to the Jews that Jesus was not a military Messiah who would free Israel from Roman control, in fact, in the year 70, Jerusalem was razed to the ground and the Temple was destroyed for the last time by the Roman army.

How is Jesus on the cross reconciled with the notion of the Messiah as being a majestic figure in the life of the world?

The Risen Christ was able to be made known to so many in such obvious and unavoidable ways, the ones who understood the power of the presence of the Risen Christ found a different way to understand the Messiah than the prevailing view.  Jesus was the suffering servant, sacrificial Passover Lamb Messiah in his first coming.  The Risen Christ would be the victorious Kingly Messiah in his second coming.

The continuous experiences of the Risen Christ in the lives of many brought about the new meanings of the Cross of Christ.

For St. Paul, he believed in taking on a mystical identity with the cross of Christ.  He wrote, "I have been crucified with Christ."   In such an identity he found the ability to die to his sinful self and let the Risen life of Christ live through him.  To have the power to crucify the sinful self, the possibility of living sacrificially became a reality.  For the writer of the Epistle of James, dying to one's self meant being able to control one's tongue.

In the churches of the Gospel, to take up one's cross and follow Christ became the mystical catch phrase for the transformation of one's life.

So why do we continue to wear the Cross today?  We have the same selfish ego problems common to people of all times.  We need help to live in the sacrificial way of love needed for the quality survival of our world and our local communities.  We need a higher power interdiction of the unworthy and harmful impulses of our lives.  The death of perfect Jesus was a reverse power; by identifying with the power of the death of Jesus, we bring to death the power of our selfish selves and we allow the power of the Spirit of Christ to perform the sacrificial acts of love needed to transform our lives to be like Christ.

Let us not trivialize the cross of Christ by separating it from all of the depth of its meanings.  It was a horrible event that happened to the perfect Jesus.  The cross of Jesus, killed him into his resurrection life and transformed the cross for us.

Let us embrace both the power of the cross and the power of the resurrection as we seek to transform our lives toward the excellence of Jesus Christ.  Amen.