When We Survey the Wondrous Cross

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(Bible Study Lesson for October 1)

The other day I was walking my dog (or she was walking me) and I saw something shiny in the dirt on the football field of the school where I walk here.  I reached down and saw it was a small, less-than-inch gold-colored crucifix.  I picked it and put it in my pocket.  I found it the other day while doing laundry.  I can't help but think that is how we treat the cross sometimes. 

I am not equal to teaching about the cross, but at the same time I welcome the opportunity to teach about it.  What greater theme could we address? At the same time, the cross has created a number of personal perceptions about it.  That is the lesson today.  First, how the wider world sees it, and second, how did the people around the cross that day see it.

The wider world sees the cross in different ways today:

Martyrdom:  A good person standing up for a good cause and being executed for it. This ignores the “how could Jesus be a good person if he was lying about being God” point.

Victim:  He didn’t mean for this to happen.  Uh, no.

It didn’t happen.  This is just denial because someone doesn’t want to deal with it.     

Suffering model:  Catholic. His suffering is partial and we “fulfill it” or “fill up the sufferings of Christ, based on an obscure verse in Paul’s writing (Col 1:24): They say that our sufferings are necessary to complete Christ’s.  So sufferings are necessary, even physical, which is kind of the viewpoint Mel Gibson was coming from (plus he likes violence in all his movies, leading secular reviewers to see the film as a type of violence pornography, but they are being hypocritical).

In reference to Col. 1:24, I quote this source:

John Piper, Desiring God website, http://www.desiringgod.org/messages/filling-up-what-is-lacking-in-christs-afflictions
“Here’s my answer in summary: What’s missing is the in-person presentation of Christ’s sufferings to the people for whom he died. The afflictions are lacking in the sense that they are not seen and known among the nations. They must be carried by ministers of the gospel. And those ministers of the gospel fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ by extending them to others.
Paul sees his own suffering as the visible reenactment of the sufferings of Christ so that they will see Christ’s love for them.
Christ has prepared a love offering for the world by suffering and dying for sinners. It is full and lacking in nothing—except one thing, a personal presentation by Christ himself to the nations of the world and the people of your workplace. God's answer to this lack is to call the people of Christ (people like Paul) to present the afflictions of Christ to the world—to carry them from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.
In doing this we "fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ." We finish what they were designed for, namely, a personal presentation to the world of people who do not know about their infinite worth. “

The next and most correct view (although incomplete in some ways is the Penal Substitution view:  Someone has to die for the sins.  Jesus took it upon himself.  He paid our debt.

Source: Theopedia

Penal substitutionary atonement refers to the doctrine that Christ died on the cross as a substitute for sinners. God imputed the guilt of our sins to Christ, and he, in our place, bore the punishment that we deserve. This was a full payment for sins, which satisfied both the wrath and the righteousness of God, so that He could forgive sinners without compromising His own holy standard. Source also presents arguments against this, some complicated, some that it makes God look like a big meanie abuser in heaven to do this to Christ. 

J.I. Packer addresses this view (as a supporter but also a gentle critic) in this source.    

Finally, we have the God is love paradigm of the cross.  The cross is a supreme picture of how much God loves us.  This one does not contradict the penal substitutionary paradigm but keeps it from being just a business or legal transaction. 

We could spend weeks studying the doctrines of the cross.  The cross can be studied as victory, reconciliation, ransom, etc.  It is very rich and should make us just fall on our knees in awe and thanks.

Second, I want to approach this lesson with the questions, How did each person experience the cross?

Peter, disciples.  Was Peter there?  Had he run away?  Jesus said they would be scattered.  We only know John was there, the youngest, with Mary.  I think Peter and some of the others were there, hiding, not wanting to be identified out of fear but still wanting to be near their friend and Lord.  I see us there.  We want the relationship without the cost.   

Soldiers:  varied from a job to do – scorn based on racism and racial superiority and power.  They gambled for his cloak (Luke 23:34)

Crowd:  I am not sure how much of the crowd that called for his death was there.  Maybe some because they had a thirst for seeing blood, were just like people who go to NASCAR to see the wrecks.  Crucifixions were daily occurrences in this time and even more public than this one.  Jesus’ suffering on the cross was probably not physically worse than what others went through.  Jesus’ suffering was worse because of the separation from God, the spiritual aspects.

Elites:  Since they knew that he was supposed to rise, they wanted to be sure he was dead and nothing could possibly happen.  They feared that “the last deception worse than the first” so they asked Pilate to put a guard on the tomb.  Matthew 27:64

Mary.  She had to have had the worst and most devastating time of it.  Artist have tried to portray it through the ages.  Were any of her other children there?  James, the brother of Jesus?  Why would Jesus give Mary into John’s care?  John 19:26–27: “Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.”

Let us note that even Jesus could not make his siblings straighten up, although James did after the resurrection.  (I Cor. 15:7). Paul says that after the resurrection He was seen by James, his brother, first, and only then by apostles. That verse leads to the question, “Did Jesus visit his family first?” I can see him doing that, to assure his mother. 

 

Last, how was the cross experienced by Jesus Himself?  Refer to Hebrews 12:1-2, especially in context of Hebrews 11:

Hebrews 11:39-

³⁹ And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, ⁴⁰ God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
“For the joy that was set before Him” is the key phrase.  What is that joy?  We can think of many things, perhaps.  Resurrection, victory, seeing millions reconciled to God,

We can see Jesus’ perspective from the seven last words from the cross:

1. Luke 23:34: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
2. Luke 23:43: Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.
3. John 19:26–27: Woman, behold your son. Son, behold your mother.
4. Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
5. John 19:28: I thirst.
6. John 19:30: It is finished. (From the Greek "Tetelestai" which is also translated "It is accomplished", or "It is complete".)-It is Finished.
7. Luke 23:46: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

There is one group I didn’t mention so far as to how they experience Jesus as “they survey the wondrous cross.”  I didn’t mention Us.  That is where I finish.  We can see the cross in both a “we” and a “me.” Studying it from a “we” perspective, reading theologians, means I don’t look at it from a “me” perspective.  I had lost the sense that he was dying for me, not just the world, theologically. And I know I am not worth what he went through, but that did not matter to Him.  God created us and has a commitment to us even if we don’t have one toward Him.  God created me and loves me, and I have a daily responsibility to put that before my eyes.