{"id":3742,"date":"2024-06-14T07:35:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T11:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=3742"},"modified":"2024-06-14T07:35:44","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T11:35:44","slug":"a-symbol-like-no-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/a-symbol-like-no-other\/","title":{"rendered":"A Symbol Like No Other"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

The world\u2019s most powerful brands, as represented by their familiar logos, are famously effective at influencing our thoughts.

When I see the stylized words \u201cCoca-Cola\u201d \u2013 white on a sea of red or red on a sea of white \u2013 I imagine popping the top on a chilled soda can. When I catch sight of the Golden Arches, I can almost taste the fries. If I pick up a piece of technology with the Apple logo, I automatically assume it will work. When I encounter apparel with the Nike swoosh, I irrationally believe it must be well made, and that now I can \u201cjust do it\u201d \u2013 although probably with less grace than Michael Jordan.

Great symbols are considered great<\/em> because they are so effective. They stir something within us.\u00a0

That might be an invitation, a reassurance, or an association. Try this and you\u2019ll be happy. Buy this as a way to demonstrate you\u2019re a smart person. Wear this as your \u201ccool group\u201d membership badge.

Which brings us to what everyone \u2013 believers and skeptics alike \u2013 agree is the most powerful symbol in the world.

That would be the cross.\u00a0

When you see a cross, what are you inspired to think, feel, or do?

Let\u2019s begin by affirming that the cross is not a marketing symbol for Christianity that appeared on the scene only recently. There are strong reasons to believe it was front and center from day one. The apostle Paul declared, \u201cMay I never boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world\u201d (Galatians 6:14). Historians agree that Paul wrote those words to the Galatians no more than 20 years after Jesus\u2019 death.

In the first century, the cross was not the way to identify a church building (there were no such things), nor was it a shiny piece of personal jewelry.

It was an instrument of public torture and humiliation. It was Rome\u2019s way of saying, \u201cWe win and you lose. We have the power to take everything away from you, slowly and painfully.\u201d Crucifixion was reserved for slaves and traitors \u2013 those deserving the most intense shame and suffering. By law, no Roman citizen could be executed in such a manner.

Crucifixion became a way to express tyrannical power. At one point the Romans crucified more than 10,000 rebellious Jews, lining Israel\u2019s highways and byways with their crosses.

From the Jewish perspective, every crucified wannabe Messiah \u2013 and we know of at least a dozen such individuals prior to Jesus \u2013 was automatically assigned the status of Failure. If your candidate ended up on a cross, it meant you had backed the wrong horse. It was assumed God\u2019s Chosen One could never die, let alone by such horrific means.

No wonder Jesus\u2019 disciples fled the scene of Jesus\u2019 death. They had apparently been wrong about him, and now everyone knew it. And if they displayed so much as a shred of sympathy or outrage, they just might end up crosses, too.\u00a0

So put yourself in the sandals of someone living in the Mediterranean world at that time. Here comes this Jewish teacher named Paul who is saying, \u201cI\u2019m representing the most important person who has ever lived. He died just a few years ago. On a cross.\u201d\u00a0

Let the laughter begin.

As Bible scholar N.T. Wright puts it, \u201cAny self-respecting Greek or Roman with even a smattering of the noble philosophical traditions would be horrified at the idea that the ultimate revelation of the one true God might be the judicial lynching of a young Jew.\u201d

From the beginning, the symbol of the cross was a tough sell. As Paul told the young believers in Corinth, \u201cJews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles\u201d (I Corinthians 1:22-23).

Over time, the cross became a way to say, \u201cJesus took the worst the world could ever throw at someone. Yet he prevailed. God won his greatest victory by walking the lowest road.\u201d

That\u2019s why the cross stirs within us such extraordinary associations: God\u2019s love, God\u2019s sacrifice, God\u2019s victory. There is hope for all those who suffer and grieve in this world, for God doesn\u2019t sit on the sidelines and observe human pain with detachment. He knows and shares our pain from personal experience.

There is nothing quite like this in any other religion.

Christianity is at its worst when the cross is co-opted as a symbol of ecclesiastical power \u2013 as when medieval crusaders wore the sign of the cross on their way into what they regarded as \u201cthe Lord\u2019s battles.\u201d Jesus made it clear that God doesn\u2019t fight evil that way. Such conflicts only turn us into agents of evil and suffering, too.

Instead, the cross should remind us of the words Jesus directed toward his torturers: \u201cFather, forgive them, for they don\u2019t know what they are doing.\u201d

The cross is likewise a not-so-subtle reminder that the Lord is calling each of us to a kind of living death. \u201dThen Jesus told his disciples,\u00a0\u2018If anyone would come after me, let him\u00a0deny himself and\u00a0take up his cross and follow me\u2019\u201d (Matthew 16:24).

This is not \u201cseeker-sensitive\u201d evangelism. This is insane. Imagine the impact that statement must have had on Jesus\u2019 original audience. The only people in Israel lugging around crossbeams were on their way to capital punishment. Their own<\/em>. Yet Jesus promises that crucifying our present lives \u2013 ruthlessly surrendering our \u201cright\u201d to always get our own way, choosing God\u2019s ways instead \u2013 will allow us to enter what can only be described as Real Life.

Even though the cross is humanity\u2019s most powerful symbol, it\u2019s all too easy to transform it into a personal good luck charm \u2013 something to which we can assign our own meanings.

I might wear a cross as a private decoration. Or something that says, \u201cI am spiritual,\u201d or \u201cI have values,\u201d or \u201cI go to church,\u201d or \u201cI vote for a certain political party.\u201d

By all means, if you feel so led, wear a cross. But let it represent the richness of its original significance. Jesus\u2019 cross is where evil did its worst \u2013 while at the same moment God was doing his best.

The late philosopher Dallas Willard suggested that we all have two choices. We can either define God according to our view of evil \u2013 which is likely to make us think God is an uncaring, unfeeling, faraway Deity, or perhaps even a monster. Or we can define evil according to our view of God \u2013 which, if our understanding of God aligns with the God of the Bible, will lead us to see evil as a defeated enemy.

Defeated on the cross.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>

One day, at the end of history, that victory will be complete. Every wound will be healed, and every wrong will be made right.

Until then, we get to join God in what he is doing every day by living a cross-shaped, cross-defined, cross-blessed life.

No wonder those two wooden beams have become the world\u2019s most powerful symbol.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here The world\u2019s most powerful brands, as represented by their familiar logos, are famously effective at influencing our thoughts. When I see the stylized words \u201cCoca-Cola\u201d \u2013 white on a sea of red or red on a sea of white \u2013 I imagine popping the top on a chilled soda can. When… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[749,208,750],"class_list":["post-3742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cross","tag-sacrifice","tag-symbols"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3744,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3742\/revisions\/3744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}