The Obscenity of the Cross

I was listening to a great sermon this past Sunday at church by this guy, and I was struck by the awfulness of the cross. Sometimes we wear it around our necks, or on our fingers (as I do). In many people's lives it becomes a decoration, when it was really a torture and execution device. Why don't you see people wearing nooses on necklaces? Why are there not electric chair earrings? I'm not saying we shouldn't have crosses around, I'm just saying that we don't need to forget the horrors of the cross.

This is a great quote from R.C. Sproul on the obscenity of the cross:

"In some instances, the prevailing indifference to the cross mutates into outright hostility. I once was asked to deliver a lecture explaining the relationship between the old and new covenants. In the course of delivering this lecture, I referred to Christ’s death as a substitutionary, vicarious sacrifice for the sins of others. To my surprise, someone in the back of the room yelled out, “That’s primitive and obscene.” I was taken aback for a moment, so I asked, “What did you say?” He said it again with great hostility: “That’s primitive and obscene.” At that point, I had recovered from my surprise, and I told the man I actually liked his choice of adjectives. It is primitive for a blood sacrifice to be made to satisfy the justice of a transcendent and holy God, but sin is a primitive thing that is basic to our human existence, so God chose to communicate His love, mercy, and redemption to us through his primitive work. And the cross is an obscenity, because all of the corporate sin of God’s people was laid on Christ. The cross was the ugliest, most obscene thing in the history of the world. So I thanked the man for his observation."

The cross was the most horrible, merciful, awful, compassionate, painful, loving, scandalous, restorative, punishing, justifying, propitiating, ugly, beautiful event in the history of mankind. God came and bore our sin in His body on the tree. He can truly empathize with any suffering no matter how deep and how persistent. We should not forget the full scope of the of the meaning of the cross.