JEREMIAH 31:31-34

PSALM 51:11-16

HEBREWS 55:5-10

JOHN 12:20-33

Sermon – 4/6/03

This [the cross around my neck] is a curious symbol to be used for a piece of jewelry. It is a beautiful cross, made of silver, decorated on the front with the Greek letters “Chi” and “Rho” (the first two letters or “Christ” in Greek) and inscribed on the back with my initials and the date of my ordination to the priesthood. (It was a present from the parish which I was serving when I was ordained.) It is a small work of art, one of millions of simple or elaborate, large or small crosses, which have been made as symbols of the Christian faith for the last, perhaps 1,700 years.

It is gruesome.

If we remember the reality this symbol represents, wearing a cross around one’s neck would be, on one level, as gruesome and offensive as wearing a little electric chair on a chain around one’s neck, or a little hangman’s noose, or wearing tiny implements of torture as decorative jewelry. For the cross was an instrument of torture and of execution. Nobody wore it as decorative jewelry until crosses stopped being used to kill people.

Crucifixion – executing someone by tying and/or nailing him to a cross – was a Roman punishment, one the Roman statesman Cicero called “the cruelest and most shameful” way to die. It was reserved for slaves and others who were not Roman citizens who were convicted rebels, thieves or murderers, and occasionally for Roman citizens who were convicted of high treason.

The Old Testament (in Deuteronomy 21:22) describes being hung on a tree as a “curse”, so crucifixion for Jews carried extra shame, a fact which probably added to Roman enthusiasm for crucifying Jews who the Romans considered to be guilty of any of those crimes. Often, those crucified were those rebelling against Roman rule; one of Pontius Pilate’s successors as the Roman procurator of Judea, circled Jerusalem with crosses, each of which held a dying man, as a way to remind the Jewish people that the Empire had power and they did not.

The condemned criminal was whipped after the sentence of execution was handed down by the Roman authorities. It was against Jewish law to whip someone 40 times (as that might cause death), so the Romans bowed to Jewish humanitarianism by limiting whippings to 39 times, but the Romans made the most of them by adding bits of metal or bone to the end of the whips so that each lash would cut more deeply. Traditionally, the convicted criminal would be whipped 13 times on the front and the remaining 26 times on his back, so that both his front and back would be in ribbons and bleeding profusely. In Jesus’ case, the soldiers adding the extra touch of the crown of thorns, to mock the person being executed on the charge of claiming to be King of the Jews – and to cut him and make him bleed more.

Then the executed criminal was paraded through the streets of Jerusalem, forced to carry the crossbar on which he would die, and with the crime of which he has been convicted inscribed on a placard hanging from his neck. It would eventually go over his head on the cross. The letters INRI we sometime see over Jesus’ head in religious art represent the abbreviation for the Latin words which say “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”

While the executed criminal was being paraded through the streets, he was fair game for anyone to spit on, tease, jeer at or throw things at, just as he was when he was totally helpless hanging from the cross. The condemned man was led to a hill just outside Jerusalem and then his clothes were raffled off among the soldiers; it added to the dying man’s humiliation to be displayed to the world in his underwear.

Because the flesh of the palms is so soft that nails driven into the hand there would be unlikely to hold the body’s weight alone, it’s likely the condemned man was tied to the crossbar as well as nailed. Nailing the person’s hands and feet added to their suffering, which was certainly part of the intent of the Romans. While exposed on the cross, the condemned man was vulnerable to any flies, mosquitoes or other insects that might be attracted by the dripping blood, and he was also totally exposed to the weather – which might be wind-blown sleet in mid-winter in Jerusalem, and might be endless baking-hot days in mid-summer. Finally, of course, the condemned man had no control over his bodily functions as he hung there for hours or sometimes days, adding to his humiliation and degradation.

Death sometimes came slowly and by exposure, but more often by asphyxiation. It is hard to breathe when hanging as dead weight in an upright position, so the Romans sometimes built a little shelf for the condemned man to put his feet on. With his feet planted on it, he could boost his chest up and breathe – which meant he lived a little longer and suffered more, which is why the Romans did it.

In tender deference to Jewish sensibilities, the Roman executioners made sure that no one would be actually hanging on a cross for the first night of Passover, so they broke the legs of those being crucified so that they could no longer boost themselves up and breathe in the way I described. Jesus, however, died at 3:00 p.m. on Good Friday, so his legs did not need to be broken.

Those crucified might have been buried in a mass grave in a pit in the ground. It would take great courage to step forward and associate oneself with someone who had met such a fate at the hands of The Empire; after all, The Empire might get suspicious of you, too. Joseph of Arimethia had such courage.

All this Jesus endured. All this, plus seeing his mother in anguish at the foot of the cross, all this, plus seeing how many of his disciples had betrayed, denied or deserted him. All this, plus that supreme agony of existential loneliness when God the Father cut off all communication with His only Son so that both could experience the desolation that humans can sometimes experience at our most desperate hours.

All this Jesus endured, though he was without sin. All this Jesus endured, though he was the Prince of Peace, not the guerilla leader the Romans thought he was. All this Jesus endured though he was their King as well as the King of the Jews; their King, our King and the King of all peoples.

All this Jesus endured, taking the punishment humanity merited for all of its sins. That’s yours and mine and everyone’s at all times and in all places, those things we have done that we ought not to have done, and the things we ought to have done which we neglected. All those sins left us broken, broken inside ourselves, broken in our relationships with other people, broken in our relationship with God, with no ability to mend ourselves, never mind perfect our society, never mind be able to hold our heads up in the presence of the Judge of all the Earth.

So to mend us, Jesus let his body be broken. To atone for our sins, Jesus “took the rap” for us so that we would not be punished as we deserve for the self-centered lives we humans live. To give us life, he died.

And so it is, that the once-ghastly cross is now a symbol of life. If God can transform the meaning of this [hold up cross on a chain], think how he can transform us!

Let us pray. In the words of Isaac Watts,

“When I survey the wondrous cross

Where the young Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.

“Were the whole realm of nature mine,

That were an offering far too small;

Love so amazing, so divine,

Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church