Peri and I are on our way tospeak at the Christ at theCheckpoint conference in

Bethlehem and we’re spending afew days in Florence, Italyexploring the cradle of theRenaissance.

Visiting the museumsand art galleries, I’ve seenhundreds of crucifixionpaintings, and I’ve triedto view each one with areverent eye. I never lookat depictions of Christcrucified with ajaundiced eye. Theirreligious nature andubiquitous presence mayillicit a yawn from thesecular cynic, but notfrom me—I’m anincorrigible Christian.

I believe the cross iswhere Christ saves theworld. Looking at thecross with the right eye,the reverent eye of

human history. How manybillions of crucifixes have beenformed, fashioned, carved, andpainted over the past twomillennia? And yet what is it

that is being depicted inthese billions of crucifixes?On a purely objective level,it is the torture and murderof an innocent man at thehands of those who run theworld by the means ofviolent power. Thecrucifixion is the damningindictment of the world as ithas been arranged.

The cross tells us thatwhen the Son of Godentered our world—theworld created by Cain andall the kings who followedin his bloody wake—oursystems of violent empireand sacrificial religionnailed him to a tree. This isthe moment when theprincipalities and powers

The Sign that Saves the WorldBrian Zahnd

humble faith, is the locus ofsalvation. The cross is the signthat saves the world.

The crucifixion of Jesus iseasily the most depicted event in

are not robots—God has not rigged the finaloutcome of our lives. To cite C.S. Lewis,

God created things which had free will. Thatmeans creatures which can go either wrong orright… free will, though it makes evil possible, is alsothe only thing that makes possible any love orgoodness or joy worth having. A world of … creaturesthat worked like machines would hardly be worthhaving.

The happiness which God designs for all of hiscreatures is the happiness of being freely, voluntarilyunited to him and to each other in an ecstasy of love

and delight compared with which the mostrapturous love between a man and a woman on thisearth is mere milk and water. And for that they must be free.

When we are truly free in Christ, weindividually admit and accept responsibility forthe consequences of our actions, we surrenderour condemnation of others and we certainly donot blame God as the cause of suffering andmisery. q

Greg Albrecht is the President of Plain TruthMinistries.

APRIL 2019 9

Coptic cross in the Temple of Isis, Philae, Egypt

Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth!—Isaiah 45:22 —

10 CWRm

who run the world were put toopen shame and their claim ofbeing wise and just was shown tobe nothing but an empty sham.What they called wisdom andjustice was nothing more than acheap disguise to hide theirnaked lust for wealth and power.Paul says the rulers andauthorities were shamed by thetriumphant truth-telling of thecross.

Every crucifixreminds us thatour systems ofcivilization, builtaround an axis ofpower enforced byviolence, are notto be trusted.

The myths,monuments,anthems, andmemorials ofevery empire aredesigned tocleverly hide thebodies of the weakwho have beentrodden down bythe mighty intheir march to“greatness.”

The cross is theunveiling. Thecross is the greattruth-telling. Thecross is the guiltyverdict handeddown uponempire. The crossis the eternal monument to theUnknown Victim. Yes, the cross iswhere the world is forgiven, butnot before the world is foundguilty.

But trite and tidy answersabout the meaning of Good

Friday are how we domesticatethe cross. This is the bane ofatonement theories. Instead ofthe crucifixion remaining thepivotal event in a compellingstory, it’s turned into a sterileformula. The cross is diminishedto one of the Four Spiritual Lawsor a waypoint on the RomanRoad. This is how the cross issanitized and made mechanical.

The storyline is lost and thescandal is swept aside.

I’m not sure why Protestantsabandoned crucifixes for emptycrosses, but I think it was amistake. I know that Protestantsoften argue that Jesus didn’t

remain on the cross, but he didn’tremain in the manger either, andProtestants don’t seem to have anobjection to Nativity scenes.

The truth is, Jesus was crucifiedand this is the epicenter of thegospel. Paul tells the Galatians, “Itwas before your eyes that JesusChrist was publicly portrayed ascrucified” (Galatians 3:1).

A crucifix replaced with anabstract symbolremoves thecrucifixion fromthe story and seemsto indicate a moveto reduce the crossto a kind ofmathematical signor theologicalequation. This givesrise to palliddescriptions of thecross like, “Godturning our minusinto a plus.”

Once we do thatwe can easily losesight of the scandalof the cross. And thecross is a scandal!

For Christiansliving at such a farremove from thefirst century, thedepth of thisscandal may behard to grasp, butyour hero beingcrucified would bethe last thing a Jewor a Roman living

in antiquity would boast about. Yet the early Christians did

boast about it. Paul readilyadmitted that this wasfoolishness to Romans andoffensive to Jews.

(continued on page 13)

Ethiopian Crucifix

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human justice. What hashappened in their hearts and inthe hearts of many of theirvictims is true justice.

It is firm-handed love thatseeks the wholeness of allinvolved. It requires forgiveness,confession, repentance, theowning of both the wrongs andthe self-righteous judgments. Inour punitive vengeance, havewe also not become perpetratorsourselves? Who among iswithout sin and has the right tocast the first stone? If Jesusrefuses, where does that leaveus? Jesus lives in them, and theState with the support ofReligion will crucify him again,and again, and again.

For three hours, we toldstories, cried, hugged and finallystood in a circle, holding hands.Each of us has a date with death,it’s just a matter of time. Themen pray, profound prayers oftrust and hope and forgivenessand kind blessing for those whohave chosen to be their enemies.

Our hearts break and inresponse, our eyes leak as Abu,an elderly dignified man whohas travelled the road frommental illness, to Islam and toJesus, lifts up his powerful voiceembedded with the resonanceof a life of loss and love, andslowly sings our commonlanguage:Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound,That Saved a Wretch Like Me. I Once was LostBut now Am Found, was Blind But Now I See. q

Wm. Paul Young is author ofThe Shack and Lies We BelieveAbout God.

THE SIGN THAT SAVES THEWORLD by BRIAN ZAHND (continued from page 10)

But Paul also said it was thepower and wisdom of God,contending that “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength”(1 Cor. 1:25). Paul doesn’t mean that when

God is weak, God is still strongerthan humans. That wouldn’t bescandalous, that would be just atypical boast about conventionalpower. Rather Paul is saying thatGod’s power is weakness! Thinkabout that for a moment and youwill realize that such an assertionis still scandalous today.

We are fascinated byconventional power—power topurchase, power to enforce ourwill, power to kill—and we are putoff by any form of powerlessness.

But it is precisely thepowerlessness of God enacted byJesus on the cross that somehowsaves the world. Look long anddeeply at the cross and you maycatch a glimpse of the greatestmystery of all.

Today, about an hour before Isaw Fra Angelico’s Crucifixion, Isaw Michelangelo’s David. Nodoubt Michelangelo’s marblemasterpiece is impressive and thecrowds who stood around ittaking pictures knew it was amonumental artisticachievement—the iconicembodiment of the Renaissance.

But what moved me most todaywas standing alone before amonk’s fresco painted above ahumble door in a medievalmonastery.

David impresses me, but theCrucifixion saves me. q

Brian Zahnd is the pastor ofWord of Life Church in St. Joseph,Missouri.

our next breath we mutter, “IfYou aren’t capable of vengeance,we certainly are. Step aside andwe will crucify him.”

The incarnation of God inJesus, in part, was to accomplishthis: God becomes fully whatwe are in order to, as us, absorbour diabolical thirst forvengeance, our twisted andperverted sense of justice, andby becoming our scapegoat andsacrifice, destroy the power andfalse promises of death. This isso we might learn to live withresurrection life, so we wouldnever need to kill anotherhuman being again.

Prisons ought not be places ofretributive vengeance, butplaces that create boundariesand discipline for the purposeand intention of healing andrestoration. Reconciliation andrehabilitation in the best sense.Every judge and lawyer oughtalways to have in their heartsand actions the desire to bringhealing to every person andsituation they serve and protect,not simply be enforcers of Stateor Religious law.

The world says of these menwhom I love, “these are beyondredemption”—therefore, theyare dead to us. But it takes timeto go through the necessaryhoops to sanitize our decisionand make it palatable, to baptizeit in our Religious/Statelanguage so that these killingswill be sanctioned andacceptable. And again, here isthe exposure and why DeathRow becomes an expression ofback-handed grace; these menlove each other, love God andlove humanity. God did thismiracle of restoration in spite of