What's Jesus Doing Up on the Cross? He's Scandalizing!

What's Jesus Doing Up on the Cross? He's Scandalizing!

The cross is an outrageous offense. It doesn't matter from what vantage point you stand or where you grew up or what you know, the cross makes scandalous claims that prompt intense reactions.

Pontius Pilate
Pilate was so smug and self-assured that even the over-the-top blood-thirsty crowd unsettled him. "So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves'" (Matthew 27:24-44).

The Jews
The Jews, rejecting Christ, called out for His crucifixion. Crucifixion was the most shameful, painful, awful death that a person could experience and they wanted it for Jesus. They passionately pleaded for Christ's torturous death in a way that defies explanation.

Review just the highlights of the scandalous treatment of Jesus Christ in Matthew 27;27-34, 38,44:

"Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. (600 soldiers.) And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him (meaning they made him look like a fool.) "And they spit on him . . . they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe) they crucified him. "They offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it."

"And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way."

Fellow prisoners
First the Romans, then the Jewish leaders, now even the criminals take their shot at the Savior on the cross. What a scandal! The dictionary defines a scandal as that which causes a public outcry and produces an expression of malicious sentiment. The cross of Jesus Christ always has been irrationally and inexplicably an outrageous scandal.

Why the irrational hatred of Jesus Christ?
Why the over the top, illogical animosity towards our Lord? Without explanation, it goes on to this day everywhere around us. If you doubt this reality, take some pagan friend out for dinner this weekend. Everything will be wonderful at dinner as you converse on a variety of subjects until you bring up your love for Jesus Christ and the forgiveness found only in the gospel. Then get ready.

You can follow Mohammed or Ghandi or any religion of the east, you can be a washed out liberal Christian or a closet Catholic and everything will be wonderful. You can be for abortion, pro homosexual and support every liberal agenda in the country and polite company will, at worst smile with deference. In fact, you can be passionate about absolutely anything and you will be applauded for your commitment but let someone whose heart is in the grip of this world find out that you have given your heart to Jesus Christ and that He is the greatest treasure of your heart and you will soon experience hatred or at best that irrational behavior.

Irrational Hatred of Christ and His Cross Goes to Washington
I was invited recently to go with 30 other pastors to a White House brief. What a great privilege! In the past the president has met with us personally in an off-the-record meeting but on this occasion, he sent a top White House official to brief us on the spiritual battle raging in our country in the highest political arenas.

On the day we were there, the President announced his new Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers. We were told of her testimony as a devoted, born-again, follower of Jesus Christ. She came to Christ in the early 1980's and she loves the Lord. As soon as I had what my heart had hoped for confirmed, I knew that her nomination could not stand. Within days the press poured out a vitriolic, irrational hatred of her that seemed to shock even the abuse-hardened Washington insiders. No sooner had Ms. Miers acknowledged her adult conversion and her ongoing love of the Savior than those who represent the kingdom of darkness began a scandalous assault upon her life and record until resignation was her only choice. Even some of the so-called Christ-less conservatives opposed her in a way that defied all logic and reason.

What happens in Washington also happens in your city and on your street. The very forces of darkness are lobbing their greatest attacks against those who would lift high the Cross of Jesus Christ.

Irrationality on my Street
There used to be a little boy in our neighborhood that would come over to our house. He had the bad habit of taking the Lord's name in vain. His parents were not concerned that he did so and did not correct him. As a habit, I do not correct other people's children--unless they're on my front porch. One day I heard him calling out the name of Christ repeatedly in a blasphemous tone and so I told him gently and by name, "We love Jesus Christ here at our house and you can't speak of Him in such a disrespectful way when you are at our home. He's everything to us. He loves you and you shouldn't talk about Him like that." I thought that was the end of it until his parents found out that I had corrected him. I met with them and tried to calmly request that our beliefs be respected on our property. Well, our relationship with these otherwise fine people never recovered and they have had an irrational anger and hatred toward us from that day forward. Even recently, my daughter saw the same boy on a school bus (now, five years later.) Had he forgotten the issue? I don't think so or he wouldn't have gotten right in her face screaming the name of Jesus Christ. Would that have happened if we were Hindu or Hare Krishna? It's so irrational; how do you explain it?

It's All about the Cross
There's a battle going on as Satan and his demonic army spend themselves to incite hatred against the Cross of Jesus Christ. Very few are neutral in this battle; most are firmly entrenched and fighting on one side or the other. When you live for Christ and express to others the message of the Cross, you're going to experience this scandalizing hatred.

What's Jesus doing up on that cross? He's fighting for the souls of men. He's seeking to redeem them from their own scandalizing hatred. Hear the soldiers laughing and mocking as the Savior gives up His life for them. Two thousand Easters later, people still scream and mock the cross of Jesus. It's a scandal!