64 Sermon Illustrations on Cross of Christ

Nearly one-third of the four Gospels is devoted to accounts of the death of Christ, the incidents leading up to it and following it. A writer has reminded us that the other two-thirds of the four Gospels are given up to a preparation for the account of Christ's death. If the men who gave us the record of Jesus' life thought His death was an event of such importance as to justify giving it so large a portion of their attention, is it not possible that we have erred in understanding the comparative importance of the cross?

My friends, there is one spot on earth where the fear of death, of Sin, and of Judgment, need never trouble us, the only safe spot on earth where the sinner can stand--Calvary. Out in our western country, in the autumn, when men go hunting, and there has not been rain for many months, sometimes the prairie grass catches fire. Sometimes, when the wind is strong, the flames may be seen rolling along, twenty feet high, destroying man and beast in their onward rush. When the frontiersmen see what is coming, what do they do to escape? They know they cannot run as fast as that fire can run. Not the fleetest horse can escape it. They just take a match and light the grass around them. The flames sweep onwards; they take their stand in the burnt district and are safe. They hear the flames roar as they come along; they see death bearing down upon them with resistless fury, but they do not fear. They do not even tremble as the ocean of flame surges around them, for over the place where they stand the fire has already past and there is no danger. There is nothing for fire to burn. And there is one spot on earth that God has swept over. Eighteen hundred years ago the storm burst on Calvary; the Son of God took it into his own bosom, and now, if we take our stand by the Cross, we are safe for time and eternity.

Christopher's. There was once a mighty giant named Arprobus, — a tall, broad-shouldered, powerful man. He wished to offer his services to some one worthy of employing a servant so capable and strong. He desired for his master one that had no superior, and feared no other person in the world. He heard of a very powerful king, and at once travelled to his country, and stood in the hall of his palace, offering to him the great gifts of strength with which he had been endowed; and was accepted. Arprobus served faithfully the king, until, one day, his Majesty, falling sick, was in mortal terror at the thought of death. The powerful servant asked him why he feared, a great king as he was? The trembling king told his servant that he was afraid of the Devil, into whose hands he might fall if he died. "Then there is one stronger than you?" said Arprobus, looking in disappointment upon the shivering monarch. "Oh, yes!" said the king. "The Devil is stronger than I am." — "Then you are his servant," said the giant, "and I only serve a prince who has no superior." Then Arprobus entered into the service of the Devil. It was not long, before, passing by a cross that had been erected by the wayside, Arprobus noticed that the Devil shuddered as he looked upon it. "Why do you tremble?" asked he. "What is that?" — "It is the cross." — "Sure! But why does that terrify you?" — "I fear Christ, who once hung upon it." — "Then he is mightier than you?" — "Yes: he is my foe!" — "And you are, after all, his servant, if you fear him. Farewell! I only serve the Master who has no superior." Again the giant wandered forth, inquiring for Christ, whom even the Devil feared. Some one told him, that, by doing Christ's work, he would become his servant, and some time meet the great Master himself, and receive his approving words and welcome. Wherever Arprobus heard of a laborer that needed aid, a sufferer that he could relieve, there he hurried, offering aid, and constantly calling upon the Master, whom he had not seen, but already began to love, for a vision of his blessed face. Although he was baffled in his great desire, Arprobus never was happier. Under the blessing of those "ready to perish," his great heart swelled with exceeding joy, and his eyes melted with refreshing tears. He raised his cabin by a stream, over which the pilgrims passed to the Holy Land, and remained there, assisting the faint and weary as they crossed it. One night, when a dreadful storm was beating upon his roof, howling through the forest, tossing up the waters of the swift river into ridges of foam, he heard a child's voice upon the banks, calling in touching tones, "Oh! come, carry me over the river." He rose at once, wondering that a child should be by the river-side at such an hour. He bowed his rugged shoulders, and placed the child carefully upon them. Now he entered the dark waters, and pressed on towards the farther shore. But what could it mean? Certainly he had raised a child upon his arm; but a weight now pressed down upon him like a mountain. It bowed him to the waves. He struggled with all the force of his mighty strength and mightier will. In vain were his efforts. The sweat started from every pore. As he was just ready to sink under his burden, he cried out in astonishment and in fear, "Who art thou, wonderful child?" In that moment, the child that he bore seemed to grasp him in his arms, and at once placed him upon the river-bank. The storm was over. A glorious vision stood before him. "I am Christ, whom thou hast faithfully served, unseen: 'inasmuch as you have done it unto these my servants, you have done it unto me.'" Down at his feet, humbled to the dust, Arprobus fell and worshipped. "No longer," said the Master, "shalt thou be called Arprobus, but Christopheros (Christ-bearer); for thou hast borne Christ." Ever after, the happy servant sought to bear, for the Master's sake, whatever burden he pleased to place upon him.

CROS of Constantine Philostorgius, a writer of the fifth century, speaks of the cross, which he represents as appearing in the sky in the very midst of the battle with Maxentius; and says that a circle of stars ranged around it like a rainbow, forming the letters of the words, "By this thou shalt conquer." Suidas sums up the whole legend thus: "He saw in the sky a column of light, forming a cross, and bearing, 'By this conquer;' and he became a Christian."

In the year of our Lord 326, Helena, mother of Constantine the Great, when seventy-nine years of age, was induced by the warmth of her piety to visit the places rendered sacred by the Saviour's presence and sufferings. The hatred of the heathen had led them to obliterate as much as possible all traces of the memorable events which the life and death of Jesus had hallowed, and to cover Mount Calvary with stones and earth, and raise thereon a temple to the goddess Venus. A Jew, however, had treasured up what traditions he could gather, and was thus enabled to point out to Helena the spot where our Lord had been buried. The place being excavated, three crosses were # CROSS.

at the preaching of the first crusade, was besieging a castle in Terra di Lavora with Roger his uncle. No sooner did he receive the first news of it than he was seized with such a pious rage, that he cut his coat of arms into pieces, and made them into crosses; and, taking one himself, he distributed the remainder among his principal officers, and set off to join the crusaders. A similar story is told of St. Bernard, who went to Lewis to preach the second crusade. The pope gave him some consecrated crosses to be distributed amongst the multitude; but so great was the number of those who wished to join the new expedition, that the saint soon found that he had not nearly sufficient. He therefore cut his garment into small crosses, and gave them to all who asked him. The different European nations were distinguished by crosses of various colors; and the cross soon became, and has continued, the badge of nearly every order of knighthood.

Damascen likened the cross of Christ to a key of gold which opens paradise for us; but, if unaccepted, it becomes an iron key, and opens the gates of hell before us.

A heathen ruler, who had heard the story of the cross, and desired to know its power, was sick unto death. To one of his attendants he said, "Make a cross, and lay it down in front of my door." When this was done, he said, "Take me, now, and lay me on the cross. Extend my hands and feet, and let me die." As he lay there dying, he laid hold on the blood of Christ, and said, "It lifts me up; it lifts me; it lifts me; it lifts me!"

In the type of the brazen serpent, as well as in the divine ordinances respecting One that was hanged on a tree, the clearest light is thrown on the horrible cross which the Son of God is carrying to Calvary. Those beams evidently form the stake upon which, according to the promise, the storm of divine judgment should be discharged. It is the scaffold, where, according to Rom. iii. 25, God resolved to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; the Moriah, where, for the benefit of a sinful world, the curse pronounced in paradise is endured in the sacred humanity of the great Surety. The altar of burnt-offering, on which the Lamb of God submitted to the sum-total of that punishment which ought in justice to have fallen upon me; and the dying bed, where Death, over which Satan has power, and to which I was subject by a sentence of the supreme tribunal, — is permitted to seize upon and slay another in order that he might forever lose his claim upon me. Such is the mysterious cross which you see borne towards Calvary. It is the sepulchre of a world; for the innumerable host of those that are saved, died, in the eye of God, with Christ upon it. It is the conductor which carries off the destroying flash from our race by his attracting it upon himself; the tree of life, the leaves of which are for the healing of the nations.

— Krummacher

As it is a thing very commendable and worthy of praise, to ever bear about him the signs and badges of his captain, that it may appear to whom he belongeth; so it is no little honor to a true Christian man to pass through many dangers, and to be experienced in many troubles, and to endure many afflictions, for his Captain, Christ's sake; for sorrows, vexations, and tribulations are the armor and badges of Christ.

— Cawdray

Theresa had received a present, — a little ebony cross. At one time, the cross-piece became loose; and she begged her father to repair the cross. "That I will do very willingly," said her father; "and, by means of it, will try to teach you a lesson how you may live in this world, and no affliction or duty prove a cross to you. See! without this cross-piece, the longer piece is not a cross; only when the cross-piece is added is a cross formed. So it is in every trial which we call a cross. The longer piece represents God's will: our will, which always desires to cross God's will, is represented by the cross-piece. Each cross you are called upon to bear, take from it the cross-piece (your will), and it will no longer prove a cross to you."

Christ and his cross are not separable in this life, howbeit Christ and his cross part at heaven's door; for there is no house-room for crosses in heaven. One tear, one sigh, one sad heart, one loss, one thought of trouble, cannot find lodging there. They are but the marks of our Lord Jesus down in this wide inn and stormy country on this side death. Sorrow and the saints are not married together; or, suppose it were so, heaven would make a divorce. Rutherford.

When his people cannot have a Providence of silk and roses, they must be content with such a one as he carveth out to them. You would not go to heaven, but with company; and you may perceive that the way of those who went before you was through blood, sufferings, and many afflictions; nay, Christ the Captain went in over the door-threshold of paradise, bleeding to death. Rutherford.

A little girl in a mission-school sat on the front seat; and, when the superintendent was telling about how they hanged Jesus on the cross, the tears came to her eyes, and she had to get up and go out. In the afternoon, she came back, smiling; and the superintendent asked her, "Mary, where did you go this morning?" And she said, "O teacher! I could not stand it when you spoke to us about Jesus being nailed on the cross; for I felt just as if I helped to pound the nails in; and I went off a little piece from the school, and got down on my knees, and told Jesus that my sins helped to hang him on the cross; and I asked him to please forgive me for helping to kill him; that I was so sorry I but now I feel so happy!"

Like as when Mahomet, the second of that name, besieged Belgrade in Servia, one of his captains at length got up upon the wall of the city, with banner displayed; another Bohemian, espying this, ran to the captain, and, clasping him fast about the middle, asked one Capistranus, standing beneath, whether it would be any danger of damnation to his soul if he should cast himself down headlong with that dog (so he termed the Turk), to be slain with him. Capistranus answering that it was no danger at all to his soul, the Bohemian forthwith tumbled himself down, with the Turk in his arms; and so by his own death only saved the life of all the city: even such an exploit was this of Christ. The Devil, like the great Turk, besieging not only one city, but even all mankind, Christ alone, like this noble Bohemian, encountered him; and seeing the case was so, that this dog, the Devil, could not be killed stark dead except he died also, therefore he made no reckoning of his life, but gave himself to death for us, that he only dying for all the people, by his death our deadly enemy might forever be destroyed. Cawdray.

Somewhere in the East, there is said to be a tree which is a non-conductor of electricity. The people know it; and, when a storm comes, they flee towards it for safety. Beautiful picture of the Saviour!—beautiful emblem of the tree on Calvary! It is a non-conductor of wrath.

— Rev. Thomas Jones

Illustrated by the pillar of cloud to the Israelites. It was the foundation of peace for believers but sealed the condemnation of the enemies of God

One day as Bunyan was traveling in the country, musing on the wickedness of his heart, and considering the enmity that was in it toward God, the Scripture came to his mind which declares that Christ “made peace through the blood of His cross.”

The cross is all I want for security and joy. Truly, this bed is long enough for a man to stretch himself upon. The cross is a chariot of salvation, wherein we travel the high road of life without fear. The pillow of atonement heals the head that aches with anguish. Beneath the shadow of the cross I sit down with great delight, and its fruit is sweet unto my taste. I have no impatience even to haste to heaven while resting beneath the cross, for our hymn truly says,—

The love of the Church extends beyond the person of the Bridegroom and reaches to everything connected with Him. "All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad." His very vestments are precious in her esteem. She rejoices to sing of Him in His priestly garments.

An old legend tells that Adam lay buried on the very spot on which the cross of Christ was planted and that a drop of blood trickling down touched him instantly starting him into life. It is in allusion to this curious legend that in very old paintings of the crucifixion a skull is introduced. (Text.)

One of the modern masters, touched by the ancient spirit of

religious art, has given us the interior of the Carpenter's house at

Nazareth when the hour is "toward evening and the day is far spent."

The mellow light of the setting sun floods the workshop, bringing into

relief every shaving on the floor and the rough tools hanging on the

wall, and softens the distant blue seen through an open window. The

Carpenter has had a long day and after many hours of striving and

toiling is wearily stretching himself in the doorway. Standing at

full height, with upturned face and extended arms, his form casts a

shadow across the poor room, and a woman kneeling in a corner

recognizes the ominous outlines of the Cross and the Crucified Man.

In this picture art has represented with much insight that feature of

Jesus life which distinguishes it from every other and has invested it

with a lonely, unapproachable sadness. It was not a life which

happened to end on a Cross, a woeful tragedy; it was a life

perpetually under the shadow of a Cross. - {John Watson}

- Charles Wallis, {The Minister's Manual for 1974} (New York:

Harper & Row Publishers, 1973) 33

The cross consisted of a perpendicular stake with a crossbeam

either at the top of the stake of shortly below the top. The

height of the stake was usually little more than the height of a

man. A block or a pin was sometimes driven into the stake to

serve as a seat for the condemned person, giving partial support

to his body. Sometimes also a step for the feet was fixed to the

stake.

Victims of crucifixion did not usually die for 2 or 3 days. But

this was determined by the presence or absence of the seat and the

foot rest, for a person suspended by his hands lost

blood pressure quickly, and the pulse rate was increased.

Usually the victim had been severely scourged before crucifixion

took place. Total collapse through insufficient blood

circulation to the brain and the heart would follow shortly. If the

victim could ease his body by supporting himself with the

seat and footrest, the blood could be returned to some degree of

circulation in the upper part of his body.

To fix the hands to the cross beam either cords or nails and cords

were used; sometimes the feet were nailed also. When it was desired

to bring the torture to an end, the victim's legs were broken below

the knees with a club. It was then no longer possible for him to ease

his weight, and the loss of blood circulation was accentuated.

Coronary insufficiency followed shortly. The victim's offense was

usually published by a crier who preceded him to the place of

execution. Sometimes it was written on a tablet which was carried by

the condemned man himself.

The ground is level at the foot of the cross. This is an old

saying, but still, when it comes mankind's universal need for

salvation, it is true: At an evangelistic service conducted in London

by Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, a hardened criminal came forward to

the altar seeking salvation. Dr. Morgan knelt beside him and pointed

him to Jesus the Lamb of God who could cleanse him from all his sins,

and he who had been a great sinner believed and was converted.

Then Dr. Morgan saw the Mayor of the city, a man of high morals and

greatly respected, kneeling at the same altar, and to him, as to the

criminal, he pointed out the Lamb of God who alone could take away

sins. In humble self-surrender, the Mayor, too, accepted Jesus as his

Saviour. A short time before this, the Mayor had sentenced the

criminal to imprisonment; and there at the altar the two shook hands

while tears of joy ran down their cheeks. For the worst of sinners and

the best of moralists there is the same Saviour. In none other is

there salvation, for "there is none other name under heaven given

among men, whereby we must be saved."

Dr. Joseph Parker, on one occasion, referred to the Unitarian concept of Jesus Christ as a great example only, and then went on to say: “We have been to hear Paderewski play. It was wonderful, superb, magnificent. Then we went home and looked at the piano. We would have sold it to the first man who would have been fool enough to buy it. That is the effect of your great examples upon us. I want not only a great example, but a great Saviour, one who can deliver me from my weakness and my sins.”

To follow a good example in the future will not blot out the black record of the past; we need the blood of Christ's atoning sacrifice to accomplish that. To hear a Paderewski play will not make us like a Paderewski. Could a Paderewski incarnate himself within one, he could play like himself. So the Christian life is not Christ and I, but Christ in me. We need the Christ from within to live the Christ without.

__________

Moody Monthly

*

While taking a prisoner from a Guelph, Ontario, correctional

center to be arraigned on charges of attempted armed robbery,

police constable John Bolton noticed a cross around the neck of

the convict. Knowing the man was not religious, he took a closer

look. The prisoner attempted to conceal something protruding

from the top of the cross. When questioned, he said it was a

good luck charm designed to look like a spoon for sniffing

cocaine. But Constable Bolton was sure it looked like a

handcuff key. By experimentation he found that the protuberance

would open most handcuffs. The discovery led to the exposure of

an attempt by prisoners in the correctional center to make a

number of these cross-keys. There is a cross that sets men

free, free from the bondage of the law, and that cross is the

cross of Calvary. Unfortunately many are more concerned about

freedom for the body than they are about freedom for the soul.

Whether inside or outside prison, all men need the cross that

sets us free.