Crucifixion in the Jewish Mind
March 2, 2008
Views of the Cross: Jewish
Understanding the Cross is vital to understanding Christ. Understanding Christ is vital to following Him. Following Him is vital to the life of a Christian. Basically if you truly want to be a Christian…you have to understand the cross of Christ. We have a limited view of the cross. Our 21st century thinking does not give us adequate understanding of such an important thing. We have looked at the Roman perspective of the Cross and seen the shame, and the offensiveness, and their reason for the use of the cross. To the Romans the cross was a means for pacifying politically rebellious groups. To the Jews however, the cross was seen in a very different light.
At this time Rome had conquered much of the known world which included Judea. Rome employed crucifixion as a tool for maintaining social order within the empire. Yet despite their military use of this tool it was widely considered to be offensive and shameful. Now you can imagine if those who inflict the crucifixion on others find it so distasteful, that those who have crucifixion inflicted on them would find it all the more revolting.
To understand the Jewish view of the cross we have to understand the position they were in during the Biblical period. Basically we have to see their history. The Jewish people had been set apart by God, they were His chosen people and they felt that it was their right as God’s chosen people to govern themselves. The existence of an outside ruler was interpreted by the Jews to be a form of punishment from God for their failure to follow Him. They had been taken time and time again into captivity as a result of their unfaithfulness. So the Jewish people had been conditioned to believe outside rule meant punishment. At this particular juncture a group of Jewish leaders known as the Pharisees had began to work on fixing the Jewish nation. They believed that if they could get the Jewish people to follow the law correctly then God would cease to punish them. Perhaps when they had done this well enough, God would then send His messiah to deliver them from their captivity. Let’s look backstage:
The Jews had been struggling for the independence for many years. In 167 B.C after about 500 years of subjugation, the Syrians in control of Judea tried to destroy the Jewish religion. They erected a statue of Zeus in the most Holy place and tried to force the priests to sacrifice a pig in the temple. That is not very kosher. This resulted in a massive revolt lead by Mattathias the Hasmonean and carried on by his son Judah Maccabee which interestingly means ‘the hammer’. The Maccabean revolutionaries were made famous for their use of guerilla warfare. The fought masterfully and won many victories. The Maccabean brothers were not just incredible fighters but brilliant leaders. At first they succeeded in winning religious freedom from the Syrians, but later they would win complete political independence that would last for 100 years.
It is during this time of independence that we see the earliest Jewish encounters with the cross. A Hasmonean leader named Alexander Jannaeus became king of Judea in 103 B.C. During his reign made himself high priest. Due to his warmongering and the fact that he was responsible for the deaths of over 50,000 Jews Alexander faced opposition from a group of religious leaders who held popular support with the people known as the Pharisees. Alexander turned for aid to another group of the Jewish aristocracy known as the Sadducees. The Pharisees turned to Syria to try and overthrow their monarch believing that a foreign rule with political freedom was better than independence under such a man as Alexander. When Alexander proved the victor he displayed his ruthlessness in rare form. He had 800 of the Pharisees that had opposed him crucified in a single day.
Just over 20 years later Judea had been undergoing a civil war. Two brothers Hyrcanus and Aristobulus were fighting for power. Pompey, a Roman general moved in siding with Hyrcanus and conquered Jerusalem establishing it as part of the Roman empire around 63 B.C. Caesar then installed Antipater as Procurator of Judea…When Antipater died, his son Herod took over. After the death of Herod the Great in 4 B.C many of the Jewish people revolted thinking they could seize the opportunity to earn their independence. A Roman General under Augustus named Varus came in with his armies recaptured Jerusalem and crucified 2000 of the Jewish rebels.
This would not be the first, or the last time the Jewish people had been forced to endure the cross. The cross to them was not just a source of shame, or pain, or death, or offensiveness, it was a constant reminder of their failure. To the Jews the cross reminded them that they were not free and if they tried to fight to earn their freedom they could see their own end. The cross was a symbol of their failure…and a reminder of the captivity.
While the Romans found the cross to be utterly offensive…the Jews found it to be completely repulsive. The Cross was viewed as a terrible thing by the Romans…but to the Jews it was far far worse. At least for the Romans the cross was the end. It meant they had won, they had put down the uprising, they could relax for a little while because certainly no one was going to riot having just seen the suffering of the last guys who rioted. For the Jews however, the cross was not only terrible it was a reminder of their defeat…
But there is more. The cross also invoked a sense of fear on the Jewish people. In their efforts to maintain order within the empire governors would crucify not just lawbreakers, but their sympathizers as well. It was not only the criminals who were put to death, but anyone who felt the criminal was justified.
There are few things as offensive and scandalous to a Jew as the implication of a cross. They had been persecuted, tortured, and killed through this sadistic object. Yet even in the suffering they could not find joy. Because of the nature of the cross there was no silver lining, no redeemable value. With the frequency of crucifixion by the Romans as a deterrent for Jewish nationalism it would make sense for the Jews to adopt this symbol of pain and suffering with pride as a symbol for martyrdom. Yet in addition to all the suffering and humiliation the cross caused it was made worse by it was made worse in the religious obstacle that it created. The Jews could not even turn the cross into a symbol of their suffering because to them to be put to death on a cross was not just scandalous, shameful, offensive, and painful thing that was reminiscent of their failure…it was a sign that they were cursed. That comes straight from the Law of Moses:
Dt 21:22 If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, Dt 21:23 you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.
Or as Paul will say:
Gal 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
To be crucified in Jewish thinking was to be under a curse of God. This is not something that can be celebrated. This is not something that can be accepted. This means that all of those patriots, who loved Israel so much as to fight for her freedom and lost, are not just shamed, they are cursed. They are cursed by the very God that they thought they were trying to serve. No matter how clever the tactic of the cross was in putting down rebellion, the Romans could have had no way of knowing just how detrimental this would be to the Jews. While the Romans could find some use for the cross…the Jews had none. It was a terrible, offensive thing to them. Nothing was so scandalous to a Jew…as death on a cross.
Do you see? The cross…is so much more than we think it to be. The cross is not some beautiful image to be made of gold, or silver and worn as jewelry. It is not some glorious, splendid thing…it is vile and revolting in every way…The cross is a stumbling block…it is foolishness…
1Co 1:22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,
To the Jews the cross is a stumbling block because of Mosaic law. If everyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse there is nothing noble about it. The Jewish people could not accept the cross as a symbol of persecution, but they certainly could not accept a Messiah who was crucified. The cross is a stumbling block to them. They expected the Messiah to come bringing: freedom, joy, independence, unity, and glory back to the Jewish people…but they knew all to well that there is not joy in the cross. Any man who was crucified could not under any circumstances be Messiah. The cross offends every sense that a Jewish man has…the Messiah cannot endure that. It is an oxymoron. Messiah means: God’s anointed. How can God’s anointed be cursed by God, that doesn’t make any sense. It is a paradox. The very fact that Jesus was crucified means that whatever revolution He might have brought had already failed. How then could a failed revolutionary be the source of their deliverance? Do you see how difficult it would be for a Jew to accept Christ? Even if he wanted to accept Christ, the Cross would be an obstacle to doing so. You see how incomplete our view of the cross is?
Despite the fact that is the Roman who would carry out the crucifixion, the Gospel writers place the blame not on them, but on the Jewish leadership. Pilate in fact is shown by the Gospel accounts to declare Jesus innocent on three separate occasions. He even tried to wash his hands of the blood of Jesus. Herod also confirmed that Jesus was innocent. The Gospel writers place most of the guilt on the Jewish people for the death of Christ. They orchestrated it. Even with how terrible and offensive they believed the cross to be, they still pressured Pilate to crucify Jesus.
What a strange thing it is that we decorate our churches with such a symbol as the cross. What an odd twist that has brought victory out of defeat, that brings honor out of shame. We live in an upside down kingdom where an instrument that is designed to bring death gives life, where that which is shameful is made honorable, where that which is painful brings joy, where we boast in that which is offensive. Paul says in Galatians 6
Gal 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
Do you see…do you see how strange it is that the cross is the focal point of our religion? How odd it is to focus on such a terrible thing? Yet we boast in the cross. We take pride in it, for in the cross our sins are covered. In the cross our transgressions are wiped away. By the very nature of the cross, it is repulsive but that fact that it has been turned into our primary symbol for our faith just goes to show how sovereign our God really is. God in all of His glory, and splendor and might can take even the foulest, vilest, and cruelest inventions of man and make them beautiful.
In fact the cross itself is a depiction of what God does with us. We are vile and wicked and dirty. We are corrupt and disgusting. We are offensive, and scandalous, and full of shame…through the power of the cross we are made beautiful in God’s sight. We are made like His children.
Can you see how powerful the love of God is? Not only did God send His only Son to earth to endure the shame of the shame of the cross, not only did He allow His only Son to die. He allowed His Son to die so that we might be saved, so that we might be able to enter into a relationship with Him. God sent His Son to this world to be our savior. While the Jews could not see the savior when He was right in front of them, while their perspective of the cross hinders their acceptance of Christ, they understand one thing far better than we do: the cross is not a decoration…it is a shameful death that implicitly means the victim who was rebelling has failed.
You want to follow Christ…you want to call yourself a Christian…Jesus will tell you how: take up your cross daily, and follow Him. Follow Him down the Via Dolorosa, the way of shame to the place of your own death. The cross of Christ achieves it purpose in our lives when a willingness to die for Him joins an insatiable desire to live for Him. The cross achieves its purpose in us when it puts our old self to death and we are made into a new creation through its redemptive power. The cross achieves its purpose in us when we put ourselves to death. When we put ourselves under the authority of Christ and live for Him. The cross achieves its purpose in us when we carry out that which we were commissioned to do.
The cross is a symbol of death, pain, and suffering. The cross is not something to be taken lightly. And if you think that Jesus came to this earth living behind the glory of Heaven to die on a cross for nothing, you are grossly mistaken. If you think that all He cares about is saving you…you are wrong. The Risen Lord, our savior has given us a commission. He played His part…He died for the sins of the world, now it is our turn. It is our time to carry the message of the cross to the world. It is our time to share the name of Jesus with everyone we meet. It is our time to proclaim the death of Christ until everyone on this earth has heard His name.
Jesus died on the cross so that all men might be saved…and the fact is they aren’t. Some will reject Him no matter what we say. Some will reject Him no matter what we do but there are so many who are perishing simply because we have not done our job. We have been commanded by Our Lord and Savior to tell the world about Him. We have been commissioned to share the message of the cross with everyone…and we haven’t done it. In fact…if we were honest…some of us have never really told anyone about Christ. Now you might think that it is hard to share your faith…that you are not really gifted at telling people about Jesus…do you really think that justifies not doing it? Do you really think when you stand before the king of kings and Lord of Lords and He asks you: “Why didn’t you tell people about me?” And you say: “It’s hard…I am not good at it…” Do you really think that is acceptable? To the man who endured such terrible pain for you…do you think He will be content with your saying… “I didn’t say anything because I did not know how. Evangelism just isn’t my thing”
You may not be gifted with evangelism…but evangelism is not a Spiritual gift, it is a discipline…it is a skill…and like anything else, if you want to be good at it….you have to practice. An athlete doesn’t just show up to compete at something he has never done…he practices to improve himself so he will be ready for the competition. A musician doesn’t just pick up an instrument at a concert and play it, he practices so that he will be able to play in front of others. You don’t just wake up one day and become an amazing evangelist…you have to practice…you have to prepare…you have to train…but make no mistake…you have to do it.
The only command that Jesus gives after the resurrection, is to tell the world about Him. The only thing the Lord commands we do after the resurrection is to go out and make disciples of all nations. What this Jewish view of the cross should show us, is that there is no reason that anything should keep us from sharing the message of Christ with the world. We have already embraced the most shameful of objects in the cross…what further shaming should we fear?
