A
S A WRITER, the apostle Paul
EASTER 2008
knew how to craft his words
to create an explosion. When
he referred to Jesus as the
“crucified Christ,” he coupled words that
would have angered his readers. Jews
were familiar with Roman crosses erected
in Palestine and recalled the curse insti-
tuted by God upon anyone hanged on a
tree: “He that is hanged is accursed of
God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Even the
Greeks and Romans reasoned that God’s
“Chosen One” would never be treated as
a rebellious slave on anything as utterly
offensive as a cross!
In the days of Christ, the cross sym-
bolized the worst type of execution. Cru-
cifixion was reserved by law for murder-
ers, inciters of rebellion, and the lowest
kind of criminals. The cross meant tragic
suffering and slow death for its victims,
made worse because they were exposed to
the physical elements and animals that
prowled at night.
In a strange twist of irony, the church
now views the former symbol of humility
and shame as the path to life and salva-
tion. God designed His amazing plan of
redemption so the cross was the principal
prop used in the drama that established
the Christian faith. Without the cross,
there could have been no suffering, aton-
ing death of the Son of God. This ulti-
mate symbol of Christ’s love for an unre-
pentant world is still relevant to us today.
Paul was dead to the world and the London to return to Germany to help fel-
The Cross Makes the Power
world to him. The world had become low Christians resist the Nazis. The deci-
of God Available to Us
nothing to him. Paul found in Christ’s sion was costly. Bonhoeffer participated
With courage and through the inspi- death on the cross the power to resist in a plot to overthrow Hitler and was
ration of the Holy Spirit, Paul used the temptation of worldly ambition. arrested in 1943. In 1945, he was hanged
term “crucified Christ” to describe how Through Jesus Christ’s suffering on at the Flossenburg concentration camp on
God showed His wisdom and His power the cross, we resist the temptation to hate April 9—only days before the area was lib-
in the cross of Christ. The power of God and, instead, demonstrate love. The for- erated by the Allies.
for transforming our lives came through giveness we gain at the Cross enables us Bonhoeffer bore his cross willingly
the weakness of Christ at the Cross. to forgive. Although the world worships and with courage. As followers of the
People like to glory in things they power and prestige, we show the world Cross, we can be confident that as the
own or can accomplish, but not the apos- that true power lies in the enduring love Father fortified His Son for the endurance
tle Paul. He knew Christ had suffered a displayed on the cross of Jesus Christ. of the cross and suffering, He will also
particularly cruel and shameful death, yet Many of us will be called on to bear attend us during our cross-bearing time.
Paul gloried in the Cross. “But God forbid crosses in our lives. These may be crosses
that I should glory, save in the cross of of loneliness, illness, poverty, and abuse.
The Cross Reveals the
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German
Wisdom of God
is crucified unto me, and I unto the Lutheran pastor during the Nazi era. In The Cross reveals the wisdom of God
world” (Galatians 6:14). 1939, Bonhoeffer gave up a lectureship in in offering mankind the only effective
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