The Centrality of The Cross

In the famous 1931 painting, "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dalí, the artist captivated the minds of many with his surreal and thought-provoking imagery. And when I say thought-provoking imagery, I should probably say trippy and far-out imagery! Because as you can see, the painting has literal melting clocks that look like they are about drip right off the canvas! At minimum, the painting is pretty surreal, which is why it got everyone thinking when it came out.

And when it first came out, people thought they had the painting figured out. Upon seeing the melting clocks, they quickly concluded that the painting was about the fluid and flexible nature of time. For example, when you’re young, days feel like months, and when you’re old, months feel like days. They thought they had it all figured out, Or so they thought....

But then, people noticed something that they hadn’t. And maybe you already guessed it, But what they noticed was the ants. Do you see them? Yes, they’re small... But they have a BIG impact upon the meaning of the painting. Which people eventually discovered.

See the ants symbolize decay in the face of striving, They represent the fleeting nature of time and the temporary nature of life. Think about it: Ants strive and strive and strive, and yet time eventually melts them and all of their achievements away! It’s inevitable! And the painting shows that, but only if you keep your eye on the ants, which are the central element of the painting.

Now I’m sure I know what you’re wondering, And what you’re likely wondering is: what do ants and melting clocks have to do with our text this morning....? Well, here’s the point. In our passage this morning, we find the central element of God’s painting. We find the key detail which brings all of the other details together in a way that, if properly understood, RADICALLY changes our perspective and our understanding. And that central element is the cross of Christ.

And yet, we are surrounded by so many people, who have missed the central element of Christianity! And because they miss it, they come to wrong conclusions about Christianity’s meaning and message. How so? Well, they read about the rules in the Bible, and they conclude that’s what it’s all about. Good things plus less bad things = GODLY MAN! And then they read of the heroes of the faith, like David, Abraham, and Moses, and they say: “See, I just have to be like them!” They see the Bible as a moral improvement project.

Or they read about God’s love for the world, and they conclude along with the Beatles: “All You Need is Love!” That's all you need!

Or maybe they conclude that the God of Christianity isn’t a good or loving God at all, In fact, He’s quite the opposite He’s like the kid who likes to burn ants alive with his magnifying glass just for fun.

Either way, all of these perspectives are missing the central element of Christianity, And without that central element, you will completely miss out on seeing and understanding the meaning and message of Christianity. And so we must fix our eyes on Christianity’s central element, And it’s central element is THE CROSS OF CHRIST.

And so with our eyes fixed upon it, as we look to our passage this morning, we see the full nature of 3 things Which are:

1. Our hearts
2. His Heart
3. Redeemed Hearts

1. Our hearts

Have you ever stopped to consider just how strange it is that the central element of our faith invokes the imagery of a cross? We hang it them on our walls, We wear them around our necks, Some of even have tattoos of them. How strange....

I know it’s hard to think of it as being all that strange, especially for those of us who grew up in or familiar with Christianity, But it’s like if a religion made the symbol of a guillotine or a hangman’s noose the symbol of the religion. Can you imagine it: “Oh Hello there, I am a gas-chamber-ine as you can see by the gas chamber necklace I’m wearing around my neck… don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal - we are just all about the gas chamber!” Does that sound like a religion you’d want to sign up for? How about not a million years! But maybe you’re adventurous, so you go their little meeting, and they begin to tell you how their leader was recently killed in a gas chamber, and now he calls all of his followers to pick up their gas chamber and follow him into the gas chamber, so they can die. And at this point, if you have even one sane cell in your brain, you’d quickly come up with any excuse at all to get yourself out of there as quickly as possible. And as you left, you’d think: “These people are nuts!”

And yet here we are Christians, celebrating the cross of Christ and the immense joy that we find in it.

When it comes to the cross, outside of movies and depiction of it in art, we really don’t understand it. After all, how could we? Most of us have only seen death up close and personally when we had to flush Goldy down the toilet. But not so in Jesus’s day, In Jesus’s day, people were very familiar with death, And especially death on a cross via crucifixion.

Make no mistakes, Crucifixion is a nasty way to die. It’s one of, if not THE worst way to die. And in Jesus’s day, that’s exactly what it was considered. It was considered the ultimate form of man’s cruelty and shamewhen it comes to capital punishment.

Originally, crucifixion can be traced back to the Persians and other ancient Near Eastern groups, who would publically humiliate their conquered foes by impaling them on spikes.

Later on, the Carthaginians took this practice and expounded upon it before handing it off to the Romans, who mastered it. See the way crucifixion works, is that the victim wrists were nailed to the sides of the cross before their knees were gently bent and their feet where placed one on top of the other, before a massive nail was driven into them, which would help keep the victim alive.

How so? Because when the beam was dropped into the ground, the person’s entire body would begin to violently spasm, as their breathing would be cut off. And the only way they could breathe, was by pushing up through the pain of their spasm muscles with their nailed feet, which would open their chest cavity, only but for a moment, as they would quickly gasp for breath before collapsing in exhaustion. And as they did, they knew that in a few moments they would have to do it all over again, or else they would suffocate.

And this would go on for hours. Sometimes even days, Where the victims hung there, gasping for breath, while shrieking in agonizing pain as their muscles spasmed and tore with every effort, only to finally find themselves unable to muster anymore energy to push them selves up to breathe, which would lead death overtaking them. and this is the death Jesus suffered for us upon the cross.

And why did they crucify Him? Because of the nature of the human heart, which hates the claims of Christ.

Back in Matthew 26, why did the religious leaders bind Him, blindfold Him, beat him and spit in His face, before calling Him to prophecy who hit Him? Because He claimed to be a prophet? NO! It was because He claimed to be God.

In verses 27-31, why are the Romans mocking him and beating Him? Because He claimed to to be a good teacher? No! It’s because He claimed to be the King of Jesus.

As we examine this passage, do you see all of the claims that infuriated the people?

In verse 39, those who passed by derided Jesus, saying: “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself if you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!” Are they upset that Jesus claimed to be God’s messenger? No They are upset because He claimed to share a special position as God’s only begotten Son, who is co-equal with God, And as God, He claimed He could rebuild His temple, His body, in three days after they tore it down.

And then in verse 42, they shout: “Physician, HEAL THYSELF!” And there weren’t upset because He had healed the multitudes, it was because He claimed to be the supreme Davidic King of Israel to whom all allegiance was due.

And yet did you notice what they shout? “Come down now from the cross, and we will believe!” Which was a lie straight from the hellish pit of their lying hearts. They didn’t need Him to come down in order to finally believe, They had all the evidence and MORE to believe.

Not only had Jesus lived a perfect life, So much so, that they couldn’t find any credible witnesses against Him at His trial before the religious leaders,

Not only had He taught them the truths of heaven in a clear and obvious divine way, Not only had He healed their sick (including lepers!), cast out demons, made the lame to walk and caused the blind to see, But just days before this what else had He done? RAISED THE DEAD! And in John’s gospel, what do these same people say who demand that Jesus come down from the cross so that they may believe? they begin to plot to kill Lazarus too, because they aren’t interested in the truth, they are interested in satisfying the hellish desires of their hearts.

“Oh I never would have done this! Not me!” “If I had seen Jesus do all of these miracles I would have certainly believed” “I never would have reviled and cursed Him” “I never would have abandoned Him like the disciples did.” “I never would have denied Him like Peter did!” And if there is even a whisper of that thinking is in your heart, then you too my friend do not understand the dark and sinful nature of your own heart! For as the prophet Jeremiah said: Jeremiah 17:9

⁹ The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

Or as the Psalmist says:

¹ The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. ² The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. ³ They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.

Psalm 14:1-3 ESV

My friends, make no mistake about it, Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, my heart and yours would have crucified our Lord. We would have spit in His face, We would have mocked Him, We would have reviled Him. And if you think otherwise, I greatly fear than you have not come to understand the nature of your heart, Which means, you cannot see the centrality of the cross! and if you can’t see the centrality of the cross, do you know you’ll do? Sure, you might still claim to be a Christian and come to church, You might serve on the worship team or teach Sunday school, You might even pastor a church, But you’re as lost as the prodigal Son.

And one of the ways you can tell if that’s you, is you’re focused on all of the other elements of the painting! You come to church, but you’re hyper focused on all of the wrong things: So much so, that you’ve got Goldilocks syndrome! The music is too hot, or maybe it’s too cold. The teaching is too cold, or maybe it’s too hot. The fellowship is too bland, and needs more spice!

And if that’s you, it also means you’re like the older brother looking down on the younger brother, who instead of joining in the Father’s celebration upon the prodigal’s return, you stay outside in your grumbling and say:

Luke 15:29-30 (ESV) 29 … ‘[Father] Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’

And why? Because in the hardness of your heart you’ve missed the centrality of the cross, which has thrown your perspective on God’s painting entirely out of whack!

“Come down now from the cross, and we will believe!” NO! Put your eyes upon the cross, and only then you will believe! For when you place your eyes upon Jesus, you will see the beauty of the cross and the nature of Christ’s heart,

The centrality of the cross reveals the nature of:

2. His Heart

After Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate, is scourged nearly to the point of death, He is sentenced to die by crucifixion. But before that, He must suffer at the hands of evil men, just like the Psalmist and the prophet Isaiah predicted.

In verse 27 find Jesus striped, before they begin to dress up as a king to be humiliated. Not only do they put a scarlet robe on him, which would have caused Him immense pain as the cloth rubbed against His torn flesh, But then twisted a crown of thrown together which they violently forced down upon His head. And then placing a reed for a scepter in His right hand, they mockingly bow before Him, saying: “HAIL, THE KING OF THE JEWS!” and as their cruel laughter rang out, they began to strike His head with the reed, while they spat on Him.

And then when they were finished, as the blood and fibers from the scarlet robe began to meld as one, they ripped the robe off of Him, and put His own clothes back on Him, as they led Him away to be crucified.

And then in verse 32, we read of a man from Cyrene, which was a city in North Africa, And this man, named Simon, was commissioned by the Romans to carry Jesus’s cross. Which wouldn’t have been the whole cross, it would have been the beam only upon which His hands would be nailed. and the reason for this, is because at this point after being up all night, beaten, scourged, and beaten again, Jesus’s condition and appearance is barely even human, just as the prophet Isaiah told of.

In Isaiah 53, He prophesies, saying:

² For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. ³ He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. ⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:2-4 ESV

And oh what irony. Do you see all of the irony in this passage? It’s absolutely chalk full of it! Not only is Jesus actually the king of the Jews, just as the sign above His head said, but He’s the King of Kings!

Yes, He’s afflicted and smitten by God, just as the prophet said He would be. But that wasn’t because He wasn’t OF GOD, it was precisely because He was! And ironically, they don’t see it! They don’t see that He’s perfectly capable of coming down from the cross, They think He doesn’t because He’s too weak to, But in fact it was the EXACT OPPOSITE! The reason He doesn’t, isn’t because of weakness, it’s because of IMMENSE STRENGTH! For though He could have stopped it all in a moment, in the greatest and most powerful act in all of human history, HE STAYED! And He stayed, because it was the will of His father to crush Him, Not for His sin, but for ours! Which powerfully shows us the true nature of His heart and love for us!

When Jesus was crucified, they divided His garments up, just as Psalm 22 said they would, and H was then nailed naked to a cross, as His humiliation was put on display for all to see. And as people went by, they looked up and saw the man who had recently just rode into Jerusalem upon a donkey, To Whom the people had shouted: “Hosanna Hosanna” Now being the object of ridicule and shame, as he died the most humiliating of deaths.

In fact, it was such a humiliating death, that Roman citizens weren’t even allowed to be crucified, unless it was ordered by Caesar himself, It was appalling and shameful! So much so, that anyone who was crucified would be forever remembered for being crucified For being humiliated. Which means, not only did they destroy your body, But they destroyed your legacy They destroyed you name! And here we find the Name above all Names, being destroyed so that we might live.

The gospels tell of how Jesus was crucified outside the wall of the city, and the entire Bible has been pointing us to this central element since the book of Genesis. in fact, in the book of Leviticus, we read in chapter 16 of how the Azazel, or the scapegoat, would be slain outside of the city on the day of atonement. And on this day every year the high priest would take the scapegoat, and place his hands upon its head signifying the transfer of the people’s sins onto it, And then the goat would be led outside the camp, away from the people into the wilderness, which foreshadowed what the Christ would one day do, once and for all, As He who knew no sin, became sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God!

I mentioned how this passage is full of irony, So much so that I nearly missed one of the biggest examples of them all with Simon of Cyrene, who carries Christ’s cross. But don’t you see that He’s not carrying Christ’s cross, CHRIST IS CARRYING HIS! and not only is He carrying the cross that Simon of Cyrene deserves But He’s carrying the cross that you and I deserve, which He didn’t deserve! And He’s doing it because His heart is a heart of love. And it’s a love that alone is powerful enough to change depraved human heart to a redeemed heart, Which leads us to our final point.

The centrality of the cross reveals the nature of:

3. Redeemed Hearts

On the cross, we see what sinners like you and I deserve, But instead, we find that a great reversal has happened. Do you see it? On the cross, Jesus took our place, so we can take His place in the heavenly realms On the cross, Jesus hung naked, so we could wear His royal robes! On the cross, Jesus was mocked and humiliated, so we can can be esteemed! On the cross, He who knew no sin, became sin, so we can become the righteousness of God!

And we have NO IDEA what this entails! Not really! But you know what, Ephesians 2 gives us a little glimpse of it. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul tells us how we were once dead in our trespasses and sins, following the course of the world, the flesh, and the devil, Destined for wrath just like the rest of mankind.

BUT... then... GOD, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sin, made us ALIVE TOGETHER WITH CHRIST JESUS! BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED!

But does Paul stop there? No He doesn’t! He keeps going! Look at verse 6

⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:6 ESV

Wait a minute Paul... Did you get your verb tenses wrong here. What do you mean we are raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places? Don’t you mean, we WILL BE? Why are you saying we are already?

Don’t you see it? it’s because in Christ Jesus, RIGHT NOW, TODAY, when God sees us He sees HIs perfectly righteous and one and only Son Whom He loves! And the degree to which you understand that, is the degree to which your heart can flourish as a redeemed son or daughter of the king!

Why do we get so bent-out-of-shape when things don’t go the way we planned or the way we think they should? It’s because we’ve forgotten the centrality of the cross!

Why are we so disheartened when people mistreat us or speak ill of us? It’s because we’ve forgotten the centrality of the cross!

Christian, don’t you see that every problem you face in this life is due to forgetting the centrality of the cross?! Because it is! And with me today, won’t you also fix your eyes back upon the cross, so that everything else might be seen in it’s proper perspective?

What is cancer? Nothing in light of the cross

What is conflict? Nothing in light of the cross As the theologian D A Carson once rightly said: “There is no problem I am currently facing that good ole fashion resurrection can’t fix!” and beloved, that is true! For yes, we are ALREADY seated with Christ in the heavenly realms, but the not yet is coming! And the not yet is to be resurrected just as He was on the third day!

And that future is surely coming for all those who have made the cross the central focus of their gaze!

In Matthew’s account, we read of how the two thieves reviled Jesus. But in the Gospel of Luke, we find something remarkable with one of the thieves, And what find that Jesus’s heart melted his heart of stone, leading him to cry out between gasps: “Jesus… remember me… when… you.... come… into… your… kingdom...” And in excruciating pain, Jesus turned to this sinner, in the midst of his swollen and bloodied eyes, he said: “Today you will be with me paradise!”

Moment before He was mocking, But now He is worshiping, upon seeing the love of Christ for Him upon the cross. And though He’d never step into the door of a church service, and never plunge under the waters of Baptism or take part in communion, that man would hours later enter paradise, because He came to see the centrality of the cross.

By God’s grace, may we too fix our hopes upon the cross and build our lives and our deaths upon it.

Let us pray.

This is the manuscript the sermon was preached from, so the recording may differ in places.