Is this weird to anyone else? If Jesus were executed 100 years ago, would we put electric chairs on our walls? Or him hanging from a noose on chains around our neck?
Exactly. It's a symbol of the most beautiful act of love mankind has ever seen. It reminds me of His victory through the self-sacrificial love He displayed on the cross.Pro Sandy said:
The cross is a powerful thing. The romans used it for death, but God used it to bring life.
We dont use it as a sign of death, but a sign of victory over death.
The cross didn't bring Jesus back to life.Pro Sandy said:
The cross is a powerful thing. The romans used it for death, but God used it to bring life.
We dont use it as a sign of death, but a sign of victory over death.
If the son of God died for our sins with those instruments of death we would. As a Catholic we often will wear or have crucifixes with our Lord on the Cross. This certainly helps focus the attention to Christ as our savior versus his form of execution.Martin Q. Blank said:The cross didn't bring Jesus back to life.Pro Sandy said:
The cross is a powerful thing. The romans used it for death, but God used it to bring life.
We dont use it as a sign of death, but a sign of victory over death.
My question remains, would you put an electric chair on your wall or a needle considering our government uses those means to execute today?
Many put the crucifix over their altars, a graphic depiction of the very act of execution, blood an all. There's a couple thousand years of context in the symbolism there. I don't think I could equate a change to it from a clean sheet and do justice to the meaningfulness of this particular symbol.Martin Q. Blank said:The cross didn't bring Jesus back to life.Pro Sandy said:
The cross is a powerful thing. The romans used it for death, but God used it to bring life.
We dont use it as a sign of death, but a sign of victory over death.
My question remains, would you put an electric chair on your wall or a needle considering our government uses those means to execute today?
Does your church have a cross on the sign outside, or inside anywhere?Martin Q. Blank said:
Is this weird to anyone else? If Jesus were executed 100 years ago, would we put electric chairs on our walls? Or him hanging from a noose on chains around our neck?
If Christ died by those means, then yes.Martin Q. Blank said:The cross didn't bring Jesus back to life.Pro Sandy said:
The cross is a powerful thing. The romans used it for death, but God used it to bring life.
We dont use it as a sign of death, but a sign of victory over death.
My question remains, would you put an electric chair on your wall or a needle considering our government uses those means to execute today?
Quote:
Where is death's sting, where grave thy victory?
"You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."Zobel said:
It doesn't apply. The Hebrew word has nuance, something carved, but the word in this context means idol - the LXX is quite clear (eidolon). We are not to have other gods before Him, or make an idol. There is no general prohibition of images, and images were used (and were God-pleasing) in the Temple. The cross is not an idol.
Martin Q. Blank said:
Is this weird to anyone else? If Jesus were executed 100 years ago, would we put electric chairs on our walls? Or him hanging from a noose on chains around our neck?
Zobel said:
The fathers also got pretty excited about passages like Ezekiel 9:4, where the word for "mark" is literally "tov" which in ancient times was a t, or cross.
I don't think you can show the empty tomb without the cross. He doesn't teach us that the moment of victory was when He was raised, but when He was killed, when He was lifted up on the pole (John 3:14, John 8:28, John 12:32-33). It was finished as He died. St Paul didn't characterize his gospel as Christ resurrected, but Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:18,23, 2:2, Gal 3:1).
We share the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor 1:5), we carry the death of Jesus in our body, (2 Cor 4:10) and we fill up in our body what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions (Col 1:24) and rejoice as we share in his suffering (1 Peter 4:13).
I'm not arguing against the Resurrection as the exclamation mark, but it's the promise we look towards. We participate in the suffering, so that we may receive the life that He was the firstfruits of. If we unite with Him in death, we will be united with Him in His resurrection (Romans 6:5,8). So in that regard I think the cross is apropos.
I really like jrico2727's post that the cross represents both His cross and our own. Very insightful.
Patriot101 said:
If only the tomb with a stone rolled away was a thing.
It's just probably not as aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
Stolen from George CarlinMartin Q. Blank said:
Is this weird to anyone else? If Jesus were executed 100 years ago, would we put electric chairs on our walls? Or him hanging from a noose on chains around our neck?
Who's "they"?Zobel said:
Hmm.. but not simply death. Not any death... His crucifixion was the ultimate victory. If they knew what He was going to do, they would not have crucified Him. He came in poverty, humility, weakness and died in a way that was complete foolishness to the Powers. And that's exactly why it was the triumph. It wasn't only that He died, but how, and who He was. He completely took everything the Lord had been preaching from the beginning and used it to invert the world's understanding of power, beauty, strength. So we take that instrument of death and make it our sign of victory. To show once for all that the God of power who created everything is the God of widows, orphans, the poor, the refuse of society. The cross is the dot on the exclamation mark of that upending of everything the world assumes.
Quote:
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith would not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom - but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.