The crucifixion of Christ

The Christian religion holds that God, who had always through His messengers and prophets, communicated His word to man, at last, as the climax of His grace, sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, to redeem fallen man.

Crucifixion of Jesus is at the centre of this redemption plan. Good Friday sets before the world the stark singularity of the cross of Christ. We of the 21st-century are far removed from the gruesome reality of crucifixion– we can scarcely imagine its offensiveness, its loathsomeness, its gross injustice. Further the Cross, which was only an instrument of torture turning into a symbol of a religion and an object of religious reverence or worship would appear strange to human ways of thinking. And yet, the cross is "the inner criterion of Christian theology." We simply cannot wish it away.

On Good Friday (which falls on April 6 this year) Christians observe the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross. Why call the day of death, "Good?'' Through His death, foretold nearly 700 years before His birth by Prophet Isaiah, Christ was accomplishing the ultimate sacrifice for the redemption of the whole human race. And it is the belief of Christians that those who come to trust in Himâ€"-his birth in human flesh, death and resurrection–will have eternal life.

Risen Lord
"Easter'' (which falls on April 8 ) is all about the resurrection of Jesus, whose body, after His crucifixion, was kept in a tomb. On the third day, Jesus appeared to many of His disciples. The fact of the resurrection has been recorded even by non-Christian historians.
On Easter morning, pious Christians greet each other with the salutation, "The Lord is risen!''

He was crucified between two thieves on a Friday. And the cowardly disciples had shut themselves in a room afraid of the Jews who had killed their Master. While the Saviour laid down His life for our sake, His disciples, all very much like us, tried to save themselves. In striking contrast to His willingness to sacrifice, they displayed the human tendency of self –protection, that of putting self interest before everything else.

Once Jesus appeared before them, they regained courage, came out of their hiding and boldly preached the Gospel. The illiterate fishermen turned the world upside down.
Resurrection is the proof that death is not the end of the road for man. The fear of death haunting him from birth is finally conquered at the Cross.

The supreme message of the resurrection is that God is living and His power is available to man. There is a power in whom man could trust and which would never allow evil to finally triumph.

The frightened disciples, according to the Biblical account, have gathered in an upper room hiding from their enemies. Their Master is dead and they are afraid of the Jews. The situation looked hopeless.

A few weeks later the same men are out in the streets and aflame with superhuman confidence. They have a message which they proclaim fearlessly. They are out to conquer the world. The contrast is between two picturesâ€"one of abject despair and the other full of triumphâ€"can only be explained by one event: Christ is risen.

Reality
The Gospel account of this supreme event bears the marks of reality and authenticity. The witness of the disciples who began to preach boldly brought conviction to thousands who joined the fold of faith. The amazing transformation of a motley group of disciples again disproved that resurrection could be an invented story. Each one of them met a martyr's death.

The Church would not have prevailed in the world if Christ had not risen from the grave. The person of Jesus Himself, His sheer vitality had from the beginning impressed His disciples. "In Him was life'' declared John. At his touch lepers were cleansed, the blind received sight. He healed all manner of diseases. He even rebuked and silenced the storm. When He called even the `dead' Lazarus came out of the grave. The moral perfection of sinlessness of Jesus is another irrefutable factor. In Jesus alone, among the sons of men, the final break with sin has been achieved. In Him the power of Spirit over matter was fully set free and not thwarted by sin. And hence with Him the impossible became possible.

One can feel uneasy with the description of God suffering on the Cross! The common concept of a god who is utterly aloof, totally unmoved by human affairs, functioning something like a field of force or a great principle does not tally with a God who suffers. Language fails to explain the mystery of not only God's suffering, but suffering in the human realm. The Cross is a symbol of suffering. The Cross was the symbol of sacrifice. It was the alter where the Lamb of God was slaughtered to take away the sin of the world, according to the Bible.

There is a verse in the Bible which makes clear the application of suffering and the "death and resurrection'' principle. It reads like this: " Unless a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it dies it bringeth forth much fruit.'' This life-through-death principle applies to Christian service as well. It is the law of the Kingdom of God. Fruitfulness is costly. It is in dying that we become life givers. Through a combination of inward struggles, wrestling with weaknesses and trying circumstances we have to learn to die to self every day (1 Corinthians 15:31). The seed must perish for the harvest to be produced.

C S Lewis, a well known Christian author, was initially an atheist. He knew what non-believers thought of Christianity. He, in writings, dealt with their objections and their problems. And one of the books he wrote was called The Problem of Pain. In it he took up the problem of human suffering. He showed how the problem of pain did not prove that there was no God; in fact He showed that the fact of God's existence and even of His love was substantiated by the fact that we suffer pain in this life. His wife died of cancer in the sixties and the impact of the pain was too much for him. He wrote another book, A Grief Observed, detailing his experience. His faith in God has been severely tried but purified.

The Cross has been written into the constitution of things. John Henry Cardinal Newman has written as follows on the meaning of the Cross: "It is the death of the eternal word of God made flesh which is our great lesson how to think and how to speak of the world. His Cross has put its due value upon everything which we see, upon all fortunes, all advantages, all ranks, all dignities all pleasures; upon the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life……it has taught us how to live, how to use the world, what to expect, what to desire, what to hope.''