Imagine you get a new neighbor. You watch them unload their possessions from the moving truck into the home. Wanting to make a good first impression, you bring them a “Welcome to the Neighborhood” gift basket the next day. There on their front porch as you are chatting, you notice they have a cross tattoo on their arm.
You wonder about the story of the tattoo, so you ask them about it. “I like your cross tattoo. Can you please tell me the story of it?” They go on to talk about how their mother died suddenly a few years ago, and the tattoo honors her memory. You think to yourself, that is very nice. You also think about Jesus. You wonder if they know the story of Jesus on the cross.
It’s the very first time you’re meeting and talking with them, and they’ve just told you their tattoo honors their deceased mother, so you think it wise to bring up Jesus in the near future. Wise move. You don’t want them to feel as though you were being opportunistic or using the memory of their mother. But it gets you thinking. When you do bring it up, how will you talk about Jesus on the cross? What will you say?
What does the Bible say? There are so many biblical passages that talk about the crucifixion. Here are a few:
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins.”
Then there is this tidbit in Romans 3:25, “God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness.”
The writer of Hebrews adds, “Unlike the other high priests, [Jesus] does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.” (Hebrews 7:27)
John describes it this way, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:2)
We could go on and on listing numerous Scripture passages. Do any of those passages sound confusing? If so, you’re not alone. Theologians have been writing theories about the meaning of Jesus’ death for centuries. There are loads of theories.
This week, then, as we study John 19, which is John’s description of the crucifixion, we’re going to figure out everything about the crucifixion once and for all. Just kidding! There’s no way we can figure out everything there is to know about the significance of the crucifixion in 5 blog posts. But we will have time to survey why the crucifixion continues to be so deeply important and meaningful. The death of Jesus, by crucifixion, is momentous. But what does it mean? How does this event, now nearly 2000 years old, relate to us? And what you might say, if you had the chance, to the neighbor with the tattoo.
Join us on the blog next week as we study John 19.
Photo by Richard Jaimes on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 