Why the Cross?

In order to have a visual object to look at while praying the rosary I copied a picture of Christ hanging high above the world, his upper body bowing forward as if to plummet off the tree of ignominy, that glorious instrument that redeemed you and me.

It certainly sends the message while praying how much he cared for us.  My question, as I continued to look on this image, why the cross?  Could not God have allowed another manner for Jesus to die without such agony (1st Sorrowful Mystery).  Was not the scourging more than enough (2nd Sorrowful Mystery)?  Then thought I, how about the total rejection of most Pharisees and those they led to send a message that repeats over and over in a modern day society.  A tragedy of rejecting Christ written 500 years before Christ.  (Zec. 11: 1-17).

Zechariah 11 was written to God’s covenant people to warn about the ultimate tragedy of rejecting the Good Shepherd.  Though we profess to have accepted Christ as Savior, it’s easy to fall into a way of life where practically we reject him.  (excerpted from a series of Zechariah on the internet).  

Isaiah and the four Suffering Servant Songs say volumes about what the Messiah would experience; “Here is my servant” whom I uphold………”Until he establishes justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait for his teaching.”  (Is. 42: 4).  “You are my servant, he said to me, Israel through whom I show my glory.  (Is. 49: 3).  “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard.”  “My face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”  (Is. 50: 6).  “We had all got astray like sheep, each following his own way;  But the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.”  (Is. 53: 6).

There is mention that our sins could have been forgiven with one drop of the Sacred Blood of Jesus.  In addition to the constant rejection, the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the way of the cross with Jesus falling three times, the heavy blows upon nails which ripped into his flesh as he was nailed to the cross, the sudden movement upon the torn flesh as the cross was uprighted, and the certain asphyxiation he experienced with the weight of his body arms outstretched to increase the loss of oxygen.  He was already dead when the soldier thrusted his sword into side of Jesus, whereupon blood and water gushed forth.  John says that this may very well be the birth of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist.  A footnote to Jn.19:33-35, John emphasized the reality to Jesus’ death, against the Docetic heretics.  

Docetism, a Gnostic heresy with the belief that Jesus’ physical body was a illusion, as was his crucifixion; that is Jesus only seemed to have a physical body and to physically die, but in reality he was incorporeal, a pure spirit, and hence could not physically die.  (see my article “The Blood of Christ”)     

Then why the Cross?  Did you ever see a person with a splinter, how it pains the person until this small sliver of wood or metal is removed.  Once gone, the results of the pain leaves and soon is forgotten.  A child, growing up has an accident resulting in a broken limb.  There is a way to see it as an opportunity for friends to write their names on the cast.  In about six weeks the cast is removed, and after a series of therapy just stories of how he/she got past this and soon it is forgotten. 

We all have experienced painful events in our lives, and once it is over the misery is forgotten as well.  Let’s put Christ in the position of just some pain, a drop of blood here, an insult with a crown of thorns,(no doubt lots of pain) and in time it may be forgotten.  If one would take just a moment and place ourselves on the cross, suffering every painful and lasting experience.  Would we soon forget?  Not likely.  Prophets told of a time when God’s Shepherd would suffer and die.  But, as in Isaiah’s Suffering Servant, more than a man dying would accomplish, in God’s Plan, to redeem every sinner, a pathway to glory that would only be found in the Death/Resurrection of the Word of God, Jesus Christ. 

Why the Cross?  Why not!