In historical context, the Roman Cross was a tool of cruel capital punishment.
To be present when it is used, it divided the living and the dying, the guilty and the nonguilty, the shamed and those not shamed, the Roman citizen and non-citizen (Roman law prohibit crucifixion of Roman citizen), the sufferer and the witnesses.
As divisive as it is, God ironically used it to accomplish unity of Jews and Gentiles: “and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.” (Ephesians 2:16)
There’s so many of these great reversals in Scripture. The Incarnation (coming of God, who became a man name Jesus) and the Cross was a Cosmic invasion that flipped the script, declaring we are all equal but not in the way we expect (we are all equally sinners and guilty before God) along with an unexpected good news of the Shepherd who died as a sacrificial lamb to save sinners, and that this King of King would then bring various ethnic people with hundreds and thousands of years of hatred be together under a new Kingdom and a different Kingdom ethics.
Hi Jim, Reconciliation through the cross. If that doesn’t get you, nothing will. That is what it took to make peace between God and us and us and God, hence we are His peacemakers when we minister in His name, through the power of His Holy Spirit. And the peace that He allows us to usher in, is for His Kingdom, it’s not of this world, nor can it be, though many think that it is. That which is of the flesh is flesh and that of the Spirit is spirit. We do error when we mistake our identity with our nation of origin and not His Kingdom. Nothing wrong with being proud of our country but our identity with God is not because of where we are from or where we live, it is because we are of His Kingdom, earned and paid for by the cross that Jesus gave His life for us on. Powerful, humbling. Blessings Jim and thank you.
Agree with you brother 100%. You are my brother in Christ because of Christ, even if I’m an American and you are a Canadian. Is it 7:21 where you live now? Good night for now!
Get your head down Jim! Yep, I am rising and you are laying down, seems like a plan!
This is a great truth. We are all equal at the foot of the cross. Unbelieving society has always ranked people according to race, ethnicity, nationality, education, occupation, wealth, social class, attractiveness, age, health, etc., but we are all the same at the foot of the cross. This is very unexpected because fallen society has always placed so much value on its classification of people.
Amen! O how precious is the Gospel, which saves us from Hell but also has implication of how we relate to others! Ok good night for now, hope you have a good day! This post fired me up!
Thanks, brother! Have a good Monday!
John’s Gospel is full of ironies, and quite a few directly surround the Cross. Caiaphas, afraid he and the other Jewish leaders would ‘lose their position’ (place of power) because more and more were following Jesus, desired to be rid of Jesus, saying, “…it is better that one man die for the people than for the whole nation to perish” (11:50; cf. 18:14). The narrator of the Gospel (John) adds:
Thus, ironically, the fulfillment of Caiaphas’ words would have larger consequences than he assumed (cf. 7:35), and would result in the inclusion of Gentile believers as children of God on equal footing with the Jews (12:32; cf. 4:42; Rom 2:28-29), as per the OP.
Also, when the Jewish leaders essentially forced Pilate to crucify Jesus against Pilate’s will, he avenged himself by placing Jesus’ purported ‘crime’ above the Cross:
This could also be read, as per Pilate’s revenge, as a way of mocking the Jewish leaders, since their allegation now looked like Jesus was their actual Jewish king—something the leaders vehemently denied—who died shamefully, thus implying Pilate’s victory over all Jews. (Pilate: “Shall I crucify your king?” A: “Crucify him!”) Yet simultaneously it is also, of course, a correct identity statement—something completely lost on those Jews who remained blinded.
The layers of irony are as nutritious as they are delicious!
So many beautiful ironies that you shared! The one with Pilate with the title for Jesus as the King of the Jews always move me, so providential, ironic and true. Do you feel like this, that once you see irony in TV e Scriptures, it becomes living color, and once you see it, you keep seeing them being really there in the text and all over? Suddenly now I go through life and see movies and read stories and I see them all over and in some ways I see it as a reminder of the providence of God in life! I imagine you have a few posts on irony in John and the Bible?
Yes, I do! But I see a host of other linguistic devices, too. Since I came to faith late, I’ve also done the reverse—seeing ironies (and etc.) in Scripture from previous secular reading. But since studying theology and Christology, I’ve learned to better analyze everything. In general, I’m a skeptic; so, I have to search things out to see if they are really as purported. And I think my analytical skills were improved by reading works that are critical of some Christian ‘truths’ I formerly took for granted. Some of these helped me hone apologetics. Others caused me to question my presumptions and refine my positions.
John’s Gospel is such a fount of linguistic beauty. I like it because the Greek is simpler, generally, than the others; however, conversely, it’s much deeper in meaning. John is replete with double meanings (polysemy).
I have a post that goes into quite a bit of detail on Pilate’s inscription: What Did Pilate State in John 19:22?: Conclusion [the first part largely deals in grammar].
In our church we have people from many different countries and backgrounds. But we know that this world is not our home. We are citizens of Heaven. At the foot of the cross we are all the same, sinners saved by grace. Praise God.
God is AMAZING !
Amen! I imagine in your church there’s Asians and perhaps people from the continent of Africa, Europe and North America? Always love seeing diversity in the church, not for diversity sake but the powerful reach of the Gospel
You are right although we don’t have anyone that I am aware of from North America.
The power of the Gospel. God is awesome!
Important post, Jim! I hope it’s ok to share this. I believe there was an actual, literal flood and that the only people who survived were Noah and his wife, Shem and his wife, Japheth and his wife and Ham and his wife. These six people, Noah’s sons and their wives would have been the people who multiplied and populated the earth. This led me to wrestle with the question, how would this affect the crucifixion? My research for what it is worth led me to the conclusion that the line of Shem (Middle East/Asia), Japheth (Europe) and Ham (Africa). Jesus as is well known is from the line of Shem and the Jews (Semites) handed Jesus over to Rome (Japheth) who agreed to the death sentence, crucifying Jesus. Simon of Cyrene (Africa) carried the cross for that Jesus would be nailed to when Jesus became to weak to carry it Himself. From the beginning God orchestrated that ALL people groups/ethnicities would be complicit in crucifying Jesus. We truly are all equal at the foot of the cross. God is a color, ethnicity, race, culture creating God. I am thankful that God’s people do not all look like me or come from where I come from. I am thankful Jim for this post, it is very necessary!
Wow that is an amazing insight, of course you can share this and I don’t see you applying this in a bad or racist way. Wow that is profound and I haven’t paid enough attention with Simon of Cyrene before nor have I figured out the lines from Noah and the table of Nations. That is incredible how we are all guilty no matter our background. This will preach!!! Did you write a paper on this topic? Sister you should write a post on your insight
No, I have not written a paper on this, I will next time! Yes, it will preach!! Expect people to be uncomfortable. I have discussed this in mentoring sessions and in small group settings. Sometimes when I share this people say, “Mandy, you think too much!” What I have found is that people give assent to things in the Bible but they do not think about or ask questions as to what something entails. The above discussion is an example. People will say yes only Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives survived the flood but they do not think further than that. They give mental assent/agreement to Scripture but do not think about what it means.
My whole ministry life is centered on teaching people HOW to think (and ask good questions) not what to think. Thank you, Jim, for allowing me to share this, it is something that is very near and dear to my heart!
I was in NO way implying that you don’t think or anything like that! Sorry, I am really super passionate about this! Thank you for not being upset or annoyed that I even said anything at all!
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As Christians, despite JESUS’ sacrifice on the cross to save, redeem, and unify us, we are still breathing in this fallen world where unfairness and inequality, among others, exist. We can only pray/ask GOD for repentance/forgiveness, and to sanctify us while we are still living in this world; keeping our worldliness at bay.
Amen Gersom. In a sinful world that we live in we must not forget that we will see evil and bad things happen and done by sinful people. There is nothing new under the sun, and for the Apostles and the Early Church preaching the Gospel should never lose its priority, and we too in the 21st Century must not act like our time and country is uniquely sinful. Good reminder brother about this and also the reminder to pray. I feel sadder seeing some pastors and Christians in America lose focus of the Gospel and into all kinds of things in terms of worldly wisdom that end up being divisive and bad for relations of ethnicities, including excusing the rioting. We gotta be mining the Gospel for application and heart change amen?
We really can only pray to GOD, the Good Shepherd, to watch His elect according to His sovereign will and purpose, Jim. GOD’s messengers and the flock are the target of the prince of this world. There are many possible assumptions why they might be losing focus on the Gospel and one of them is not truly understanding the Gospel, so it is easy to add something not in the Bible. There is also the possibility of pressures from the flock and of this world; such as giving the right message to an audience/flock. And maybe, Christianity is too politicize and follows the polarization of society; losing the center/middle ground. I don’t know, I’m just really sleepy at this 2am. I’ll just surrender it to GOD and have my sleep.
Well said. The Word explained.
Thank you Maw Maw!
You welcome.
As Christians, we have selected images of the Cross. We understand our Savior and Lord shed His blood and gave up His body for our sins. At the same time, it can represent Easter Hope because Jesus defeated both sin and death.
Powerful
This is really interesting, Christ unite like no one else could!