One of the earliest depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus was discovered in Rome, Italy, in a room near the Palatine hill. Scratched into a plaster wall was a young man looking up at a cross on which hung a man with the head of a donkey. An inscription read, “Alexamenos worships [his] god.”
The graffiti mocks Christians for worshipping a crucified man. One might as well worship a donkey.
In 1 Corinthians 1:23, Paul writes that the cross is “a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.”
It is, indeed, a strange event. Crucifixion was a means of state-sponsored execution, like an electric chair or lethal injection. Except that unlike a lethal injection, it was meant to expose its victims to maximal suffering and humiliation.
The Roman Empire was an elitist society which prided itself on social standing. The whole goal of life was to ascend the ladder of status. Crucified people weren’t just at the bottom of the ladder, they weren’t on the ladder at all. They were the dregs of society, worms and not men.
It’s often claimed that Jesus was crucified with two “common criminals,” but that’s almost certainly a myth. Rome didn’t crucify petty thieves. Since Barabbas, a murderer, was scheduled for execution at the same time, it’s likely that the “thieves” on the cross were among those who robbed and vandalized in order to unsettle things in Palestine with the ultimate aim of overthrowing Roman rule. Some modern translations have called them “rebels,” “revolutionaries,” or “insurrectionists.”
The Jews had an even lower view of a crucified man. They believed that a man hung on a tree was cursed by God. When they looked at Christ on the cross, they saw the ultimate evidence that he was a false Messiah, a liar and a charlatan, worthy of divine wrath.
And yet, we worship him.
Why?
Because this man on the cross is no mere man; he is God incarnate.
Because the sins for which this man is crucified are not his own, but ours.
Because this death is no mere death; it is a payment for sin, a ransom for sinners.
Because the shame which he bears is not his own; it is the shame of Adam and of us all, trembling beneath the fig leaves of our own self-righteousness.
Why do we worship him, this suffering Servant, stricken, smitted, and afflicted?
Because neither Pilate nor Herod nor Annas nor Caiaphas is the ultimate actor on this day; it was the will of the Lord to crush him.
Because this is not just another tragic death, left to the cruel whims of history; it is a death according to the Scriptures, foretold from ages past, down to the parting of his garments, the sour wine, the unbroken legs, the pierced side.
Why do we worship him, this crucified Messiah, bloody, bruised, and beaten?
Because this man on the cross is no mere man; he is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of Man who will come on the clouds of glory, Truth in a person, the Second Adam, the Lord of Life; the great I AM; the bread from heaven.
His cross is the tree of life from which we eat the fruit of immortality. It is Jacob’s ladder, by which we ascend to heaven. It is the altar of sacrifice on which the sin offering is made once for all. It is the pole lifted up in the wilderness, that all may look and live.
Bring your sin. Bring your guilt. Bring your shame. Find forgiveness in his name.
Come, behold the wondrous mystery
Christ, the Lord upon the tree
In the stead of ruined sinners
Hangs the lamb in victory
See the price of our redemption
See the Father’s plan unfold
Bringing many sons to glory
Grace unmeasured, love untold
Let me be numbered with Alexamenos. Let me be a fool for Christ.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast
save in the death of Christ, my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them through his blood.
