I want to start this post today with a video of a song that’s really been impacting my life recently. So, before you continue reading, please take a few short minutes to listen to it.
I really don’t have to follow up to those lyrics, but I wanted to share what that song has put on my heart.
I remember the night my church went to see the Passion of the Christ when it was in theaters. I was a senior in high school. I remember sitting next to one of my close youth group friends, and as we gazed at the brutality our Savior experienced, we sunk into our chairs. I remember the agony I felt knowing that Christ endured that pain for my salvation. It was devastating to me.
Flash forward 13 years to today…almost exactly 13 years later strangely. After years of television shows of crime scenes with blood pooled around dead bodies, violence of war movies, and the brutality shown on the news, I wonder if I’ve become desensitized to the raw emotion I felt back then. Would watching that movie impact me like it did the first time I saw it? I may take the time to watch it this weekend to test that theory.
Our world is full of devastation. We are surrounded by it. I’m afraid that because of all the media and desperation we see in this world today, we forget that what Jesus did for us was brutal, horrendous suffering.
We wear shiny silver crosses around our necks (I’m speaking to myself too), doodle them on our papers, and play media during worship of a beautiful sunset behind Christ’s silhouette on the cross.
We make it a beautiful symbol of our faith.
Nothing about that cross was beautiful though.
Crucifixion was used as a capital punishment for the worst criminals of their time. It was used similarly to our modern day lethal injection. As a form of punishment before the actual crucifixion, the “condemned” were forced to carry their cross to the place of execution. According to most sources, a full cross weighed well over 300 lbs. While it was meant to be an execution, the purpose was also to humiliate those being punished by making them as vulnerable as possible.
After a gruesome humiliation and beating, and carrying the 300+ lb. cross, the person being punished was tied or nailed to it with 4-5 inch nails. Once nailed, they were left to hang for several days until death occurred usually by asphyxiation (suffocation). The muscles supporting their body would eventually give out and they would begin to struggle to breath because of the pressure on their chest and lungs from the weight of their body hanging.
I explain all of that because I think it is important to understand that our Savior, Jesus, endured humiliation, pain, and suffering for us. He was an innocent, sinless man, and yet He was punished and killed for our salvation. It should’ve been us on that cross, receiving punishment for the sins we have and will commit against God. But He loves us THAT much!
In His prayer before He was taken, Jesus asked that God take the burden from Him, but He knew God had set the plan in motion to save our souls. And even though He could have changed all of it and come down from the cross, He stayed on it for you and me. He suffered, and bled, and died, so that our sins wouldn’t separate us from God.
The cross that symbolizes our faith isn’t a beautiful thing. It is a sign of suffering. But that sign of suffering is our victory. So the next time you wear a cross or see one displayed somewhere, remember the symbol of death it portrays, and thank God for sending Jesus to suffer for us. Because without His death and resurrection, we would have no hope of being with them eternally.
His death was hell’s defeat. All He asks is that we live like He did. It’s a small request in exchange for our salvation!
Courtesy of Be Salt & Light Blog
