The Offensiveness of a Crucified Messiah

Good Friday has me reflecting on the crucifixion of Jesus. I was thinking of how common the crucifixion has become for us. We hear about Christ being crucified so often that it has become commonplace to us.

But for people in the first century this was not the case. The idea of the Messiah, God’s chosen representative, suffering and dying at the hands of the Roman oppressors was incredibly offensive. The idea of the Messiah being crucified was anything but commonplace in the first century.

There are many passages in the New Testament that speak of how hard it was for people to understand a Messiah who died. 1 Cor 1:18-25 exemplifies this well:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 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 to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

To come to grips with this idea of the supposed Messiah suffering and dying some people came up with philosophies such as Docetism or Gnosticism. These ideas claimed that the divine Jesus only seemed to have a physical body or that the divine being left the earthly Jesus during the crucifixion. These philosophies were created in part to deal with the idea of the Messiah being crucified.

The Messiah was not supposed to be crucified. A crucified Messiah is a failed Messiah. That was not how it was supposed to be. A crucified Messiah could not be a part of God’s plan.

But somehow God did use a Messiah who was crucified. A suffering Messiah who sacrificed himself for the good of the world was actually central to God’s plan.This Messiah who was crucified showed us that the kingdom of God will be ushered in not in some display of earthly power or might, but it will be ushered in with a man beaten, bloody and naked on a Roman cross dying even for his enemies. This crucified Messiah who had suffered greatly displayed God’s love for the world.

The crucifixion of Jesus is just another reminder that God works in ways that we don’t understand or expect. The crucifixion is about God shattering all of our preconceived notions about how God is supposed to work. God has a plan and is working toward it. Praise God that the crucifixion and the subsequent resurrection of Jesus testify to this.