We often speak of the Cross as stark and unrelieved tragedy; as the most awful, wicked and incongruous thing that ever happened on the planet. And in a sense we are right. Almighty God comes to earth, lives like a man among men and he is whipped, spat upon, pierced with nails and hung up naked for leprous sinners and harlots to jeer at. It is too shocking to be credible.
It is a marvel that even in hell they could not think of a thing so fiendishly wicked as that. It was indeed the most dastardly thing that ever happened on the planet.
Let us, if we can understand a little more clearly why the Cross was necessary. We shall not understand it all. The deep mystery will elude our probing, but some glean of understanding will come as we gaze.
I will put it to you as questions. Could any but a crucified Saviuor reveal our sins?
It is a recurrent tragedy of our race that we do not realize the sinfulness of sin. We call our sins ‘mistakes’ ‘weakness’, ‘slips’ and even when we use the right word – we use it lightly. What is sin?
This is sin! It is sin that takes the holy God–incarnate here on earth and treats him as no beast should be treated. It is sin that takes the gracious loving Jesus who never harmed a soul and spent all his days in helping and healing, and strips him, lashes him, spits on him, pierces him with nails and the laughs at him. That is sin. Your sin. O yes! Your sin. You have been guilty of the same sins which nailed him to the Cross. Gossip, greed, bigotry, slander. It took the Cross to make you realize what sin really was.
Here is my second question. Could any but a crucified Saviuor save us from our sins? It seems not. The New Testament is quite emphatic on this point. Without shedding of blood there is no remission. It is death which gives life.
Now, why that should be I do not know and I don’t think anybody else does but God himself. The New Testament has no theories about the Atonement. It has the atonement but not the explanation.
Here is the third question. Could any but a crucified Saviuor meet us in our agony?
If I had no crucified Saviuor with which to greet those who have been broken by the tragedies of life, I would not know what to say to them. How could I speak to that girl whose young husband was actually killed on their honeymoon? How could I speak to those parents whose longed-for-child turned out to be a cretin? How could I speak to that poor polio victim twenty years in suffering? How could I speak to multitudes of sufferers in a world like this if one had no Saviuor to speak about?
There are tears in things and there were tears on the face of Jesus Christ. Not for his own suffering, but for that of others, is it not recorded that Jesus wept? He weeps with the sufferers still; with you who are suffering and whose hearts may be bitter and resentful.
Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things? Wasn’t it fitting? Can’t you see it had to be?