Why Crucifixion?

[truefiction1]

Why was crucifixion the chosen vehicle of God for His entrance into death?

 

[Shieldmaiden4Christ]

IIRC from history class, crucifixion was one of the most common forms of Roman death penalty.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I've heard many reasons ... Not sure how accurate which ones are.

I like the point made that it was through a tree (the tree of knowledge of good and evil) that the curse entered, and through a tree (the Cross) that the power of the curse was abolished.

 

[ArmyMatt]

one reason, according to Fr Hopko, is that when you love someone you identify with them on his lowest level. for a first century Jew, there is nothing lower than to be denied by your people falsely, beaten, mocked, spat upon, and hung from a tree outside of the Holy City by Gentiles, especially in the prime of life with no children or posessions.

 

[Shieldmaiden4Christ]

So far, I think these are all valid reasons.

 

[truefiction1]

I think these are all good reasons. What I'm getting is that the cross is somehow symbolic in way that is essential to us.

 

[~Anastasia~]

I think these are all good reasons. What I'm getting is that the cross is somehow symbolic in way that is essential to us.

Hmmmmmm ........

 

[gurneyhalleck1]

Human beings, in order to come to the Lord, must learn sacrifice and humility. I can think of other ways God could've chosen to demonstrate those with His Sacrifice, but none better than the Cross. Our Lord is humiliated and truly 100% becomes one with the commoner, his suffering, and the lowest part of our society. The Cross represents humility at its highest level. I agree with Kylissa's post that it is a redemption of the Fallen Tree as well. Insightful. Likewise we see the Cross in the desert with Moses and healing takes place. The Cross of Christ is a NT parallel. For every OT phenomenon, there is a parallel of it in the NT.

The Cross also has rich symbolism in that it's something we must "take up" and grab rather than run away from. The little measly problems (crosses) the Lord asks us to take up on a day to day basis are tiny, silly, minuscule crosses in comparison to Our Lord's awful suffering, but important nevertheless. We don't run from our Crosses, but embrace them to grow, as miserable as they are.

 

[Cappadocious]

A couple thoughts beyond what has already been stated:

One is lifted up on the cross, which calls to mind "he who humbles himself will be exalted" because we see lifting up in humility.

Furthermore the arms are outstretched on the cross which is both vulnerable and welcoming in reconciliation.

 

[truefiction1]

Thanks for your continued replies. I'm seeing even more the rich symbolic value that the cross supplies within our Tradition. But for all who are made uncomfortable by language that differs radically from language typical of the fathers, please disregard the following:

All symbols are natural human productions, resulting from this unusual creature's capacity and propensity for producing them. This capacity is from within us, and so a consistent recurrence of a particular symbolic form throughout human history, such as we find in the case of the cross, suggests that the symbol is an outward manifestation of a collective, unconscious, intuitive knowledge of some aspect of our own physical/psychological construction. The cross symbol long predates Christianity, and has been found as a symbol within the cultures of practically every society throughout recorded history. This is the will of God, no doubt, and almost certainly has something to do with the cross being the chosen instrument of our redemption.

The point of this shared anthropological perspective: certain symbols are extremely powerful because of the strong effects they produce within us, often times without our conscious understanding of how they accomplish this. They invoke deeply meaningful feelings where mere words usually fail. The Church (Orthodox) is the most symbolically powerful Christian culture left in the world today. This is the doing of the Lord Who is the Holy Spirit. Give glory to God for His great mercy through the continued preservation of the Church.

 

[Wryetui]

Not to forget the universality of the cross. The cross wasn't chose just for the reasons mentioned above, but because it theologically implied all the dimensions of our salvation, the right, the left, the below and the above, all the Creation, everything that exists was penetrated by the power of the life-giving cross, there was nothing in this universe that wasn't pierced by it since everything was pointed by the cross when Christ our God died on it.

 

[truefiction1]

Not to forget the universality of the cross. The cross wasn't chose just for the reasons mentioned above, but because it theologically implied all the dimensions of our salvation, the right, the left, the below and the above, all the Creation, everything that exists was penetrated by the power of the life-giving cross, there was nothing in this universe that wasn't pierced by it since everything was pointed by the cross when Christ our God died on it.

Good find. I believe that the sheer geometry of the cross has important implications, as pointed out here: where the vertical axis is sometimes thought to symbolize heaven intersecting with the created world (horizontal axis).

 

[ArmyMatt]

Also, since Christ is the Word, when His arms are outstretched, the Book is truly open to us

 

[Amphibalus]

I like also how the cross can easily be replicated at any place with minimal tools and parts, a simple junction of twigs, or even fingers and eh voila! This makes it readily accessible symbol at all times and places.

The cross is human in form and emphasises the incarnation more so than say a pill, gun, or spear may do.

The cross is similar in form to the Egyptian 'Ankh' and so would have been accessible to those people as an image of life in a pre-Christian sense.

I am really enjoying the prior comments/reflections; the tree of Paradise is a lovely image.

 

[prodromos]

I remember a story about a woman in Communist Russia stating publicly that she had a cross and no one could remove it. Soldiers searched her house and literally tore it apart without finding anything, after which the woman again said, "I have a cross and no one can take it away.", all the while making the sign of the cross on her body with her right hand