The Inequality of the Cross

Today is good Friday. It is the day Jesus died on the cross. The cross is the divine symbol of inequality. And Jesus chose to take this divine symbol up for us. He didn’t have to. No one forced him. But he did anyways.

Jesus reigned in heaven as God, but he set aside this glory and became like one of us. He set aside the prestige and honor of heaven and was born to a poor mom and dad in the tiny town of Bethlehem. He grew and matured and soon taught in the synagogues and to the country folk.

He gathered quite a following as he performed signs and wonders, all the while preaching that he was someone special. He could forgive sins, heal the broken, and bring dead people to life. Some believed in him but most didn’t. Even the ones he healed of their diseases had trouble believing he was God.

Even his disciples did not like what Jesus was about. They wanted a king who would rule and overcome their oppressors. But Jesus wasn’t going to rule the way they wanted. He called his disciples to give up everything and follow him. But they understood all too well and would rather not give up their rights for him.

Jesus knew he would soon show them just want it means to give up everything. It began with his disciples betraying him, one with a kiss and the rest as they fled. Then the crowds betrayed him, joining with the political and religious leaders of the day in condemning him. And through this all he remained innocent—perfectly in the right.

His tormentors spit on him and struck him. They cursed him. They stripped him of us clothes and lashed him so that flesh hung off his body like strips of leather. He was beaten so bad he was not recognizable. But they weren’t done. They took this king and marched him outside of the town. And there they nailed his hands and feet to a cursed tree. There on Golgotha we nailed our redeemer to a cross.

Jesus hung on the cross, fully God and fully man, yet we treated him like neither one. We treated him much worse. And if things couldn’t get any more unfair for Jesus, his own Father abandoned him. His friends, his family, everyone, they all abandoned him to death on a cross. The cross is the divine symbol of inequality.

It’s easy to forget about the cross. It’s much easier to think about rights, rights to define marriage, rights to carry arms, rights to health and well being, rights to a clean environment, rights to happiness, rights to love, rights to anything we want to call a right. But Jesus gave up all his rights and he calls all who follow him to do the same.

Jesus knows what he is talking about, because three days later he rose from the grave. He gave up everything for us and for God’s glory, and he received even more glory than before. Now he looks upon us and calls us to abandon everything but the cross of Christ. The cross is the divine symbol of inequality. Let us bear our crosses well.

“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20