The Cross

I've just spent the last couple of days hanging out at church where there's been a 24-7 prayer thing. I spent alot of time thinking about the power of the cross. This came to a climax when I was able to have a really good discussion with someone who asked me if the cross really did look like the symbol we recognise today. I said that in some cases they were made like that (but not as neat and smooth and "pretty"), but in others just a beam was used for the hands and that was nailed to a tree. The depiction in scripture of Simon being forced to carry the cross for Jesus after he had been so badly scourged implies that He had to carry the entire structure, not just a beam.

"Oh well, I expect he had other things on his mind" said the person I was talking to. My immediate thought was 'I bet he didn't!' but after a couple of seconds not knowing what to say, it really hit me. The other things on His mind was us. When Jesus knelt in the Garden, knowing what was about to happen to Him, he prayed for us, "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John17:21)

When the soldiers were beating Him, tearing the skin and muscle from his back, He thought of us. When they drove nails through his bones and hung Him up to die, He first ensured that someone would look after His mother, then he carried on praying for us.

Last night as I was chatting with the guy that leads my church, he came up with an awesome thought...the romans re-used the crosses...what would that have meant for the murderer/robber who was the next one to use Jesus' cross?

This morning I watched a presentation which brought up the two criminals crucified beside Jesus. One prayed...Jesus loved him enough to grant him salvation. The other mocked...Jesus loved him enough to let him.

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Eph 3:17b-19). How wide and high is the love of Christ? Roughly the dimensions of the cross.

Another thing Jonny said...the Romans saw the cross as a symbol of their power - anybody who defied them was crucified...a barbaric method of execution which was excruciating and drawn out (Jesus was on the cross for 6 hours before he died). Christ turned that around, and now the cross is a symbol of Gods power.