Remembering the Ugliness of the Cross- Acts 2:36-37

I hope you are asking why I've put a picture of someone hanging from a noose with this verse about crucifixion. Why not put a picture of Jesus' crucifixion on a cross?

It's very simple. When I was trying a find a picture of a crucifixion, it occurred to me that most of the paintings of Jesus on a cross are still pretty pictures. Jesus very rarely has more than a trickle of blood coming from his head and/or his side. As I was looking for those pictures, I also remembered something I had read about the cross losing some of its meaning as a gruesome executioner's tool instead of as the beautiful symbol of faith that it is today in our culture. We wear crosses as ear rings and necklaces. We display pretty pictures of crosses in our stained glass windows and in our church bulletins.

But to the average first-century person living within the Roman empire, that would be equivalent to wearing a pair of earrings shaped in the form of a noose, or a necklace with an electric chair pendant. I didn't want to include a picture of the cross, because I don't think it draws the same reaction from us that it did 2,000 years ago when Peter finished his sermon by saying, "God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!" The "stumbling block" of the cross was the exact same gut reaction that we have when we see images of modern day execution today. THE LORD AND CHRIST SHOULD NOT HAVE DIED LIKE THAT! AND I CERTAINLY SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN A PART OF CARRYING IT OUT!! That reaction and feeling is why Paul said the message of the "crucified Christ" was "to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1:23).

The image is offensive. And the realization that I am responsible for the Lord and Christ dying in that manner is exactly what motivated the people to be "cut to the heart" and to ask the only logical question. If we are responsible for the brutal and inhumane execution of our Lord, "what shall we do!?"

The sermon that led up to this conclusion was the same outline that is used often in the book of Acts and, hopefully, is still used in every sermon today:

1. Jesus was a man, but He was sent by God and He was God.
2. That was proven to you by the miracles and works He performed.
3. You killed him through the hands of lawless men.
4. But it was God's plan for all of that to happen.
5. GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD!!

I doubt any of those points of the sermon are new to you.  Many of you have been familiar with at least the basics of those truths (even if you did not accept them) since you were little. But when was the last time those words that concluded the sermon "cut you to the heart" the way it did the crowd that day?

I am convinced that the faith and the extraordinary obedience that follows the disciples of the Way throughout the rest of the book of acts is because they understood completely the debt they owed to Christ. They understood that their sins nailed him to the cross. They did not view the cross as a beautiful thing to be taken advantage of. They viewed it as it was...a cruel execution.

But they did view the resurrection as the most beautiful thought in the world! They believed that they could be free of the guilt, not by their own merit, but by God's grace. And that grace that they felt through the power of the Spirit of the risen Christ Himself living in them motivated them to spread that gospel wherever they went. It motivated them to stand firm in the face of persecution. It motivated them to rejoice about the fact that "to live is Christ, but to die is gain!" (Philippians 1:21)

May we once again be "cut to the heart" and recognize the awful cost of sin. May we be motivated to see the answer for that debt in Christ. And may we live every minute of every day this week joyfully serving the master who let his slaves execute him in the most painful way invented at the time...just so we could see Him again after we are all raised from the dead with Him.