CHRIST'S CROSS

                                                                CHRIST’S CROSS

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        “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). One of the main features of Christianity is about Christ’s crucifixion. The other, of course, is about His post-crucifixion resurrection. You can’t have one without the other. Indeed, Christianity is symbolized by a cross. People wear them, buildings sport them, and maps use them to identify churches.

When we look up the meaning of the word “cross” in Bible concordances and dictionaries, we see that stauros refers to a pole, a stick, or a stake. There is another word used for cross in the Bible, xulon, which likewise refers to wood, a piece of wood, such as a staff or rod. Peter, in Acts 5:30, says, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging Him on a tree.” (See also Acts 10:39; 13:29). He says of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:24a, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree…” And Paul says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” This “curse of the law” is in reference to Deuteronomy 21:23.

“And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha” (John 19:17). Obviously, Jesus was not carrying a tree up to the Place of a Skull. The word cross here is stauros, i.e., a pole, stick, or stake. Yet, the other word, xulon, can also refer to very similar items made from a tree, viz., a piece of wood. We get the idea of a rod or a staff made from a piece of wood when see what was in the Ark of the Covenant. “The ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant” (Heb. 9:4b).

You’ll remember Moses carried the rod of God which he used to part the Red Sea at God’s command, and he got in trouble for using it to strike the rock in anger? Well, “Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand” (Exod. 17:8-9). “Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun” (Exod. 17:11-12). This was how God used Moses to defeat His enemies. Yes, Moses did a lot of praying for victory for his people, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

Now, back to Jesus. The cross that Christ carried to His crucifixion was a piece of wood. But was it simply a plank of wood or was it a crossed piece of wood? This is where it gets interesting. We acknowledge that the piece of wood was more substantial than a walking staff. Jesus had already been thoroughly beaten and scourged (Isa. 52:14; John 19:1). So, after Jesus carried His cross for a distance (John 19:17), it changed hands. “Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross” (Matt. 27:32). Now, notice what happened when they got to the Place of the Skull, “They gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. Then they crucified Him” (Matt. 27:34-35a).

They crucified Jesus by nailing Him to a cross. There were nails through His hands and feet (Psa. 22:16; John 20:27). Jesus was nailed to a piece of wood and hoisted to a vertical position for passersby to see. Are we to understand that He was nailed to a single plank that was heavy enough to hold His weight when He was nailed to it but light enough to be carried up a hill by a severely beaten and scourged Man, even with the Cyrenian’s help? Or worse yet, did Jesus (and then Simon) carry two pieces of wood nailed together in the form of a cross? There’s no mention that Jesus carried two pieces of wood. So, we take it that Jesus had His hands nailed to the wooden plank both he then Simon had carried. And then was hoisted into place by lowering that beam of wood into a supporting wooden pole or tree sticking out of the ground designed especially for this purpose.

        Supposing Jesus to be around six foot tall, for Him to have His hands nailed to the cross with His hands above His head, then the pole He carried, allowing for it to be fixed solidly into the ground to support His weight when vertical, would need to have been a solid piece of timber at least nine feet (2.7 metres) long! It would’ve been like carrying  telegraph pole! However, if it was simply a crossbeam (patabulum) He carried, rather than dragging a huge cross (as per the movies and Sunday School depictions), then it would make a lot more sense. Especially, when we read the following, “And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Matt. 27:37). It does not say that they put up over His hands the accusations, but that “they put up over His head the accusation written against Him.”

And what did Jesus do as He hung there? Like Moses fighting the Amalekites, He prayed to God His Father with His hands outstretched. However, He didn’t have Aaron and Hur support His wearying arms and hands. Rather, He had sinners nail His hands to the wooden crossbeam. “Being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23). And just as Moses’s “hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword,” so Jesus’s hands were steady until the going down of the sun and He defeated His enemies. “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). Christ’s cross brought us victory!