In her book, The Crucifixion, Fleming Rutledge writes:
“Susan Sontag, who suffered for years from the cancer that eventually killed her, wrote this: ‘It is not suffering as such that is most deeply feared but suffering that degrades.’ Here in a few words is a fundamental insight with which to view the crucifixion. If Jesus’ demise is construed merely as a death – even as a painful, tortured death – the crucial point will be lost. Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point…”
This is deeply disturbing to me as I reflect on these words during this Holy Week and in light of Paul’s description of the cross as being, “the wisdom and power of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:23-24) How can the degradation of the cross be both God’s wisdom and power? Paul answers by saying that while, “the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, to us who are being saved it is the power of God…For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach (a crucified Savior) to save those who believe.”
The Gospel is that on the cross Jesus, the Son of God, willingly, voluntarily, and purposefully absorbed all the diabolical hatred of every human heart who has ever lived, including yours and mine.
There is a green hill far away,
Without a city wall,
Where the dear Lord was crucified,
Who died to save us all. pic.twitter.com/MV7PPs9C4e— Holy Trinity Geneva (@GenevaAnglican) April 15, 2022