7. What is the point of the cross?

The enduring symbol of the Christian faith is the cross. Not only is it the most memorable sign for Christianity, but it has also become a jewellery accessory too. Many people wear a cross around their necks, perhaps for a variety of reasons, but do they know the full significance of that item of jewellery?

Two thousand years ago the cross was the cruellest form of execution. So horrific and barbaric that eventually the Romans removed it from their repertoire of torture and murder.

Once nailed to the piece of wood the victim would be hoisted high into the air then left to hang and suffer. Normally it would take days for the person to die a slow, painful death their body racked with pain and yet fighting for air. Suffocation was the most common cause of death. With their legs often broken by the soldiers and their limbs stretched out on the wood, they would try to fill their lungs with air but find movement virtually impossible.

Jesus’ crucifixion was different in a number of ways. He was beaten by the soldiers, spat upon, insulted and humiliated by having a crown of thorns hung upon his head. Jesus was so weak and wounded and his back almost stripped of flesh by the cruel whips of the guards that he stumbled and fell whilst carrying his cross. A man named Simon of Cyrene was called upon to carry his cross. Jesus was nailed to the cross. Within hours he was dead. A spear was thrust into his side to make sure he had dies. Blood and water flowed. (We now know medically that this is a sign of death.)

Will we ever come close to understanding the agony Jesus underwent?

Jesus was killed on a cross of wood, his body nailed to a tree. Jesus was dead and placed in a tomb.  But what did this death accomplish, in essence what was the point?  It has long been said that if Jesus was just a man who died, then His death acomplished nothing.  The  point of the cross is not just that Jesus died, but that He also rose, and in doing so He defeated death, and therefore the power of death.  Which means that through the death and ressurection of Christ you and I may find life, both now and for eternity.