Cross-Examination (Part One)

CROSS-EXAMINATION (part one)

A few weeks ago I did a play on words sermon titled Cross-Contamination. Today, I'll be doing the same thing with the term, cross-examination. We know this term from a trial. The first attorney asks a witness questions and then the other one is allowed to ask questions. The second attorney is cross-examining the witness. I'll be using the term from a Christian perspective; examining things through a spiritual lens.

When we go to the doctor, he or she may do an examination. Depending on how thorough it is, an exam may take a while due to the doctor's attention to detail. They don't want to miss anything. To examine means to inspect, study, investigate. When you examine you don't just make a passing glance; you take your time; you look with precision.

Doctors examine patients, detectives examine a crime scene, but what about when it comes to spiritual examinations? Looking at things on a surface level won't give us all the information we need to make a valid assessment. We need to go deeper. We may find some things that don't look too pretty but they will need to be dealt with if we're going to live the right way.

It's time to do a cross-examination.

1) Examining the cross.

We start our cross-examination by examining the cross. Specifically we need to examine crucifixion and the commitment Jesus made for us.

Phil. 2:5-8, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!"

Paul explains that our attitude as Christians needs to be like Jesus' was; humble and obedient to the max. Jesus let go of his glorious state in heaven with the Father and became a human and therefore, a servant. In heaven Jesus didn't serve; he is served. But becoming a human meant he would now be humbly obedient to the Father and subject to living out his life as a sacrifice for others.

In heaven, Jesus is the authority figure. But on earth, he took orders from the Father-to the point of being obedient to the mission of death for the sins of mankind. Not only death-but death by crucifixion.

Paul ends the passage with an emphatic declaration-'even death on a cross!'. Why the strong emphasis? Crucifixion was the most humiliating, degrading and torturous form of execution. It would've been more honorable for Jesus to be put to death by stoning-the Jewish method. Instead, he died at the hands of the Gentiles under the most inhumane way possible.

Crucifixion was usually intended to provide a death that was particularly slow, painful, hence the term excruciating, literally "out of crucifying", gruesome and humiliating, using whatever means were most expedient for that goal. These methods were used to dissuade people from committing the crimes punishable by it.

Crucifixion was often done to terrorize onlookers into submission. Victims were left on display after death as warnings. While a crucifixion was an execution, it was also a humiliation by making the condemned as vulnerable as possible.

Although artists have depicted the figure on a cross with a loin cloth, writings by Seneca the Younger suggest that victims were crucified completely nude. When the criminal had to urinate or defecate, they had to do so in the open, in view of everyone, resulting in discomfort and the attraction of insects.

Despite its frequent use by the Romans, the horrors of crucifixion did not escape mention by some of their eminent orators. Cicero for example, in a speech that appears to have been an early bid for its abolishment, described crucifixion as "a most cruel and disgusting punishment", and suggested that, "the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears."

Although such a picture is not easy on our mind's eye, it's necessary if we're going to have a good understanding of what Jesus went through for us. When we put together the contrast of what Jesus had in heaven that he willingly laid aside, verses what he endured here on earth, culminating in his horrific torture and crucifixion, we can gain perspective as to how great his level of love is for us. To do what he did so we could be saved should bring us all to our knees; realizing how unworthy we are to receive such a sacrifice.

Heb. 12:1-3, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."