Jesus’ crucifixion is the greatest compliment, though not everyone thinks so…
One of the things I most appreciate about my Muslim friends is the high regard they have for Jesus: they honor him as a great prophet. This is one reason why many Muslims (though not all) claim that Jesus was delivered from being crucified. How could a true prophet of God die such a shameful death? Surely God would have delivered him from the cross.
As much as I appreciate my Muslim friends’ high regard for Jesus, I find the claim that Jesus died on a cross historically accurate (Refer here, here and here). Not only that, but paradoxically speaking, the cross pays Jesus and all creation the greatest honor or compliment. Lesslie Newbigin puts the matter this way:
If it were true, as the Qur’an affirms, that Jesus was not crucified, then indeed he would simply be one of the messengers in the series that culminates in Muhammad. But the earthly mission of Jesus ended on a cross. The corn of wheat had to fall onto the ground and die. The new reality born of that dying, the new creation of which the risen body of Jesus is the foretaste, is of a different nature. It is not simply a prolongation of the life of Jesus. It is the beginning of a new epoch in human history in which the guiding clue is held in trust for all by that community which lives by the life of the crucified and risen Jesus.[1]
No doubt, Newbigin had the Apostle Paul in mind when he penned these words. Paul writes, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17; ESV). Jesus had to bring an end to the old fallen order through dying and taking the former epoch down with him to the grave as the ultimate image of humanity (Colossians 1:15). As the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation and the firstborn from the dead (See Colossians 1:15, 18), Jesus brings an end to the old order of being and brings about the new order of creation.
Together with the resurrection, which Christians celebrate on Easter Sunday, the crucifixion pays Jesus, in fact, all humanity, the greatest compliment. We all may participate experientially in the reality of this new order of being, this new creation, simply through trusting in Jesus. As John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16; ESV). God demonstrates his love for us through Jesus dying for us (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). If God gave us his one and only Son, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things that we need for the abundant life we share in and through him? (Romans 8:32)
Years ago, when I was going through a very difficult season, one of my professors comforted and encouraged me to look to Jesus hanging on the tree. My teacher said that sometimes when encountering sorrow and tragedy, the only apparent sign of God’s love for us is Jesus’ outstretched arms on the cross.
Jesus demonstrated his glorious love, as John’s Gospel indicates (See John 11, 12 and 13), through his humble and humiliating passion, death, as well as resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), who bears much fruit as the kernel of wheat that falls to the ground and dies (John 12:24), and who shows his followers the full extent of his love, even by laying aside his garments and washing their feet (John 13:1-5; see also John 15:13).
As you reflect today on Jesus’ crucifixion, may God reveal to you how good this Friday truly is. On this day, celebrate how God pays you the greatest compliment of his undying love in Jesus’ death and approaching resurrection.
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[1]Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), page 145.
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