The Cross cannot be devaluated
(First Part)

The central word during Lent is the word cross . The cross of Jesus was not like the cross worn today by the clergy, by those who wear it for adornment, not like the silver cross in our chancel. These are all pale imitations of the cross planted on the hill of Calvary.

The cross of Christ, as the New Testament puts it, was a “cruel tree.” In the custom of the ancient world, as the philosopher Cicero put it, “the cross was the most hideous, the crudest of punishments inflicted on criminals.” And Roman citizens who were convicted were spared this punishment. The cross was reserved for the scum of the earth. To die on the cross was to die slowly an agonizing death. The nails were from hard wood, and therefore caused excruciating pain to the hands and feet. The hymn often sung around the world describes it so: “See, from his head, his hands, his feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down, Did e'er such love and sorrow meet, Or thorns composed so rich a crown?”

So in a day when so many things are devaluated, such as Asian currencies including the Philippine peso, Christian morality reduced to all-too-free love, Christian theology being adulterated by superstitious elements, Christian ethics relegated to a softening of it, we are called to recall again the full meaning of the cross. For the value of the cross should be reduced in meaning.

For one thing, the death of Jesus on the cross has revealed to humankind sin in its truest form. “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us have turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” What were the forces that put Jesus on the cross? They were forces that revealed sin as purely human attempts to put man, not God, at the center. The self-interest of the high priest Caiaphas, the flip-flopping ambition of Herod, the hatred of the crowd for the Son of God, even the abandonment of Jesus by those who had been his followers.

That is to say, Jesus was crucified by the sins that are familiar to us now, that are true-to-life, not only true to life with those who crucified Jesus, but true-to-life with us. We don't speak in the past tense when we speak of the cross as revealing to humankind sin in all its ugliness and shame.

It would be quite a relief if we could regard the Lord's death as something that happened in the distant past; for we could express our anger against those who nailed him to the cross, those who mocked him, those who cried out, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross . . . He saved others; himself he cannot save!” (to be continued)*

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