17 Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18 Here they crucified him, and with him two others--one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
The cross – an instrument of the most dreadful and agonizing torture, commonly used among the Romans for slaves and criminals. Persons sentenced to crucifixion were first scourged, as Jesus, and then compelled to bear their own cross to the place of execution, just as our Lord. This showed the depth of humiliation to which Christ submitted as our substitute. Our Lord typified Isaac bearing the wood for the sacrifice on Moriah in which He Himself was to be the victim as well as typifying the brazen serpent which Moses lifted up in the wilderness that all who looked upon would live. Jesus states earlier in John:
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. John 3:14-15 (NIV)
Our Lord’s crucifixion was also a striking fulfillment of the Mosaic Law whereby the sin offering had to be carried outside the camp.
27 The bull and the goat for the sin offerings, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; their hides, flesh and offal are to be burned up. Lev 16:26-27 (NIV)
Crucifixion was reserved for the worst and most hardened of the criminals - the punishment imposed on the vilest of felons. A sign was usually placed on the chest of or over the head of the one being executed. Jesus was reckoned a sinner and counted a curse for our sakes – He was the mightiest sin offering ever to be seen – bearing our disgrace “without the camp” as Hebrews attests – the minutest details of our Lord’s passion all carrying deep meaning:
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. Heb 13:11-13 (NIV)
We must choose to follow Jesus regardless of the humiliation or suffering that being His disciple might entail. To bear the cross is to wear the crown. We may be stretched past our “safe” confinements of traditions and ceremonies or friends and family or location and lands. We may be deserted by all – save Jesus – persecuted for our doctrine and practice and yet be willing to stand alone. It would do us well to always remember that it is the way of the cross that leads us home. As we, like He, carry our crosses, we readily admit His right over our lives and in so doing take hold of the life that is truly life. Whatever cross He calls us to bear at any time, it behooves us to dwell on the fact that He bore the cross first. He died among the criminals fulfilling yet another prophecy found in Isaiah:
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 (NIV)
Clearly in the gospels Jesus states the priority of His followers taking up their crosses - continually reminding us that the way of the cross leads us home:
37 “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matt 10:37-39 (NIV)
“To know the fellowship of His sufferings, to be made conformable to His death, to have crucified affections, and live crucified lives – all this needs self-denial and Christians of this stamp are few and far between.” John Charles Ryle
Selflessness does not mean thinking less of self rather thinking of self less – just as Jesus. Remember, it is God’s to exalt. Paul’s words to the Philippians come to mind:
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Phil 2:5-11 (NIV)
“The only ground on which God can forgive our sin and reinstate us to His favor is through the Cross of Christ. There is no other way! Forgiveness, which is so easy for us to accept, cost the agony at Calvary. We should never take the forgiveness of sin, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and our sanctification in simple faith, and then forget the enormous cost to God that made all of this ours. Forgiveness is the divine miracle of grace. The cost to God was the Cross of Christ. To forgive sin, while remaining a holy God, this price had to be paid. Never accept a view of the fatherhood of God if it blots out the atonement. The revealed truth of God is that without the atonement He cannot forgive – He would contradict His nature if He did. The only way we can be forgiven is by being brought back to God through the atonement of the Cross. God’s forgiveness is possible only in the supernatural realm...Once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held as in a vise, constrained by the love of God.” Oswald Chambers
And the way of the cross leads us home.