Sermon Tone Analysis
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*Branding Success*
Here’s another question.
How many of you own some sort of symbol of the cross?
Whether it’s a piece of jewelry like earrings or a necklace or bracelet or ring, or maybe a picture or knick-knack in your home, or one of those special book covers made for Bibles or a bookmark?
Or maybe a tattoo?
No matter what it is, how many people have some kind of symbol of the cross somewhere in their possession?
Do you realize what kind of branding success that is?
This one simple shape is so immediately identifiable to Christianity that it is represented throughout the world—and has been for two thousand years.
And most everybody here owns some kind of expression of the cross in some form.
Do you know how much Nike pays to get its swoosh symbol out there?
Or what McDonald’s would give for golden arches to be represented in almost every home?
The cross has been this kind of symbol for the Christian faith for two thousand years.
And its everywhere.
In fact, maybe the cross is so pervasively present everywhere that we have become sort of numb to its presence—numb to its meaning.
We don’t think about it much.
But should we?
What difference would it make to the way I live out my faith?
How does the cross inform who I am as a Christian?
How I live as a Christian?
Does it even make a difference?
I’m making the argument here that how you understand the meaning of the cross makes all the difference in the world for how it is you live out your Christian faith in this world.
*Why did Jesus die on the cross?*
Go ahead.
Write in an answer.
Maybe it’s been so long since anyone asked that question that you have to pause and think for a minute.
Maybe you’ve actually never thought about that question before, so maybe the honest answer you write down to the question of why Jesus died is, “I’m not sure.”
Let’s take it back to the answer you wrote down to the question.
Here’s my guess.
I’m guessing that most people who go to church would answer the question “Why did Jesus die on the cross?” with an answer that goes something like, “to save us from our sins.”
But is that all?
And if it is, how does that even work?
How does Jesus coming to earth and being tortured and executed somehow remove all the failings in my own life and everybody else’s life before a perfect and holy God?
How does that work?
Why couldn’t God just snap his fingers and make sin disappear forever?
Why couldn’t he have come—as the Jewish people expected—and be a powerful hero who waged battle against evil and completely defeated sin in a glorious battle once and for all?
Why the cross?
*What the cross meant then*
So on the one hand, while the cross is so simply identified with Christianity all around the world, on the other hand, this same cross is rich with deep meaning.
In fact, there is so much deep meaning in the cross that maybe it falls short to answer the question with a simple phrase.
Maybe the cross is about much more than saving people from sins.
Maybe the cross is packed with so much meaning that we can take this one symbol of the cross and keep digging deeper and deeper into it over the next several weeks leading up to Easter.
Disclaimer—that’s exactly what we are doing.
Where to start then?
How about we go back to the time when the cross of Jesus actually took place and looked at it through the eyes of people who might have actually been there?
In the time and place of Jesus the cross meant one thing: Roman execution.
Particularly the cross was used by the Roman Empire to make a visible example of what happens to anyone who dares to oppose or threaten Roman imperial power.
Crosses were meant to kill criminals in a way that sent a message to anyone who even thought about joining some kind of rebellion against Rome.
And crosses were typically set up alongside the roadways just outside of towns; roads that were well traveled.
So, many people would pass by and see the example of what happens to criminals of Rome.
A cross, then, was not just about executing criminals.
There were many ways to execute criminals that would have been much easier than a cross.
A cross was used by Rome to make a statement.
“This rebellion is over.”
Anyone who was sentenced to death on a cross was put there so that Rome could make sure everyone knew and understood with absolute certainty; “Whatever revolution you thought this guy was a part of, it’s over.”
In the day of Jesus, crosses had just one meaning: Rome is in charge.
Rome holds ultimate authority.
Period.
How crazy is it then that the first disciples and the apostle Paul take this symbol of Roman authority and place it as the ultimate symbol of Christianity?
The symbol of the cross which for everyone sent the message that any movement threatening Rome is over becomes the same symbol that the first Christians use to declare that this Jesus movement is just getting started.
The cross was not the end of Christianity.
It was the beginning.
Understand that for those first followers of Jesus, the crows became a paradox.
The cross now meant the exact opposite of what Rome intended.
The cross became their symbol of Jesus’ ultimate authority in this world.
Instead of a symbol that ended the revolution, it is the symbol that began the revolution.
*The cross through the years*
Let’s trace a little bit of this movement down throughout the years.
Let’s follow the cross though the years to see how it got to where we have it today.
There is so much rich meaning packed into this one symbol.
How did all this come together over the centuries?
There is one scene in particular in the gospel that intrigues me.
At the end of Luke’s gospel is a story about two disciples traveling away from Jerusalem on the evening of first Easter when Jesus rose.
They are not aware that Jesus has resurrected.
In their minds, Jesus was executed on a cross and the meaning of that cross was clear to them: this revolution is over.
But as it turns out, Jesus himself comes along and walks with them on the road.
But also, they don’t recognize that it is Jesus.
Look at just these two verses that share the conversation taking place on that road.
Luke 24:26–27 NIV
26 Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”
27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
I would love to know exactly what scriptures Jesus shared with these guys while they walked.
Luke doesn’t clue us in on that detail.
All we know is that Jesus used Old Testament passages to help these disciples understand that the cross would now and forever have a new meaning.
I’d like to think that one of those passages from the Old Testament which Jesus shared along that road was from Isaiah 53.
Isaiah 52:13–53:12 NIV
13 See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.
1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
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