The Power of the Cross

Today, the cross is probably the most widely recognized symbol of Christianity in the world.  However, in the time of Christ the cross was viewed as the ultimate symbol of punishment, and represented one of the most barbaric practices of the Roman Empire.  It was this punishment that Jesus Christ endured for each of us, so that our sins could be forgiven.

Today as we observe Good Friday, we remember Jesus' pain, suffering, and the ultimate sacrifice that he made for us at the cross.  It was on that "darkest day" that the Old Testament prophecy from Isaiah was fulfilled.

He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

(Isaiah 53:3-6)

On that day Jesus Christ bore the weight of every sin you and I and every other person had ever and would ever commit.  As scripture says "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23) and we were all "bought with a price" (1 Corinthians 6:20).

May we all remember the sacrifice that Christ made for us, and may we remember how he transformed the cross from a symbol of oppression into the most powerful symbol in the world: the symbol of forgiveness, hope, and love.

In Christ,
Justin