Crosses are lovely. They adorn the shirts on our backs and the bumpers on our cars. They can be bought in gold or silver and placed on chains to be worn proudly or, more probably, as a means to accessorize. Either way the cross (at least in America) is generally something associated with that which is good and beautiful. In one sense this is true but only a small part of what is true. See, the cross is not lovely and certainly was not thought to be such in Jesus' day. It was a cruel and horrific instrument of death that brought shame to all associated with it. The Apostle Paul means what he says in his first letter to Corinth when he states that "the word of the cross is foolishness..." (1:18). This term translated "foolishness" is moria in the original language Paul would have spoken. We might not speak his language anymore but we have borrowed words and roots of words from his language. So it should not come as a surprise that moria is not all that far off from our English term moron. You see, folly not beauty was the order of the day for anyone even remotely associated with a cross. Now, one may respond: "I have heard this before. So what is the big deal?" The big deal is very simply this: By losing the 1st Century understanding of the cross we have lost all understanding in the 21st Century of what it means to come behind a cruciform Christ who asks us to take up our own crosses as we follow Him (Matthew 16:24). The utter foolishness of Christ's cross becomes hard to understand and even harder to embrace in our own lives when the shallow depth of our comprehension of the cross is limited to pretty jewelry and cool shirts. Make no mistake: Satan and the forces of darkness like it this way. As long as the cross is beautiful and comfortable, then it could not possibly be terrible and costly. I mean, how can you and I really live the cruciform lives scripture calls us to unless we recover the cross and all the hatred, ridiculousness, loneliness, and suffering that accompanied it. The obvious and true answer is that we can't and so we who would follow Jesus have much work to do.
But I am not quite done. After all the post is entitled "On Crosses AND Slaves". You see, we have not only lost the essence of a biblical and historical understanding of the cross but we have also lost a biblical and historical understanding of the term "slave". If you were to open your Bible to one of Paul's letters and look at the way in which he greeted the churches or individuals he wrote to, you would see him refering to himself as a "servant" or "bondservant", depending on your translation. The problem, however, is simply this. Did Paul really intend to call himself "servant" or "bondservant" or something entirely different? The word Paul uses here is not "bondservant" or a "servant" but rather "slave". Of course, saying such a thing (particularly in America) is not popular and would probably be met with a great deal of opposition, but it does not change the fact that the word meant that in Paul's day. We want to be gentler with the term so as not to offend but the problem is that we always do more harm than good when we change the very simple meaning of God's word, even if for a reason we deem acceptable. A whole series of posts could be written on the nature of being a "slave of Christ" rather than a "servant of Christ" but that is not my intent in this post. I simply want to call attention to some radically important realities that have not only been neglected but to some degree intentially sabotaged.
It is my hope and prayer that we would begin to recover the dangerous but true essence of the cross and the counter-cultural but legit role of Christians as slaves of Christ Jesus. Neither goal will be easy but recovering truth never has been and never will be.
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