Essays
The Curse Of The Cross
THE CURSE OF THE CROSS
When we gather around The Table of The Lord every Sunday to commemorate the sacrifice of Jesus, we often hear two words that tend to dominate our reflections: PAIN and SHAME. It is true that the cross was an excruciatingly painful means of execution.
In fact, the word “excruciate” derives from the Latin word for cross (crux). The horror of His suffering both humbles us and breaks our hearts. It is also true that abject shame accompanied crucifixions. Jesus was treated as a common criminal: stripped, mocked and spat upon by irreverent Roman soldiers. Covered only by a loincloth and hung between two robbers, our Lord was taunted and harassed by an ignorant and mean-spirited mob who were but pawns in the hands of envious Jewish leaders who knew better.
But there is a third word that best describes the true theological agony of the cross - - the word GUILT. It is a word that com-municates a concept that is hard to grasp. To talk of “the guilt of Christ” seems thoroughly inappropriate - - the very idea startles us. Was not our Lord the perfect Lamb, without spot or blemish (1Pet.1:19)? Yet this is a truth that is unavoidable. On the cross, (God) made Him who knew no sin to BE SIN on our behalf (2Cor.5:21). These words from Paul are echoed by Peter: HE BORE OUR SINS in His body on the tree (1Pet.2:24). The apostle John makes the same declaration, in saying, (God) loved us and sent His Son to be THE PROPITIATION FOR OUR SINS (1Jn.4:10). And if more specificity is needed, Paul is most explicit in affirming, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, HAVING BECOME A CURSE for us (Gal.3:13). These passages fulfill the prophecies of Isaiah - - The Lord God caused THE INIQUITY of us all TO FALL ON HIM. The Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief if He would render Himself as A GUILT OFFERING…He was numbered with the transgressors, yet HE HIMSELF BORE THE SIN OF THE MANY (Isa.53:6, 10 & 12).
The ultimate agony of the cross was that JESUS BECAME SIN for us. The dire repercussions of such are delineated in Isa.59:2, where Isaiah makes it clear: your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. It was this vicarious “guilt of sin” that evoked that horrible and haunting cry of dereliction from Christ our Savior. For this one moment in time, never before and never again thereafter, Jesus was abandoned by His Father. “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying…My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mt.27:45-46).
Terry Siverd / Cortland Church of Christ
