10 Sermon Illustrations on The 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?

As sentence was pronounced, “Thou shalt becrucified, “the person was stripped and fastened to a post, about as high as the waist, and was then scourged with rods or whips made of leather strips armed with small bits of lead or bone. After the scourging, the person was compelled to bear his own cross to the place of execution. The cross was so fixed into the earth that the feet of the sufferer were usually about two feet from the ground. In or near the middle of the upright post was a projection, to which he was raised by cords, and, being previously divested of his clothing, he was first bound to the cross-beam, and then nailed by his hands with spikes. In order to lessen the pain, it is said, wine medicated with myrrh, and sometimes vinegar, was given. This draught Jesus refused, choosing to suffer to the full extent the pains of the terrible death. The Jews ended the sufferings of the victim before sundown. This was done sometimes by building a fire at the foot of the cross, or by breaking the limbs with a hammer, or by piercing the body with a spear.

In Hunt’s picture, “The Light of the World,” is represented an august person standing with a lamp in his hands under a midnight sky, on the outside of a walled enclosure, the entrance gate of which is barred. He stands as one who has knocked over and over and over again, and received no answer; and you observe that the wild vine and bramble have grown over the gate, showing how long and resolutely it has been closed.

As Constantine, in his dream, saw the cross, and took it for his emblem, with the motto, "By this sign I conquer," so today our only hope of victory for the gospel is that the cross of Christ displays it, and the name of Jesus is in it. His name is named on us, and in His name we will cast out devils, and do many mighty works, till His name shall be known and honored wherever the sun pursues his course, or the moon cheers the watches of the night.

Overbeck, the celebrated German painter, in one of his immortal canvases, represents the child Jesus at play in Joseph’s workshop. He is fashioning sticks and blocks into the shape of a cross, as if anticipating and rehearsing in his tender years the tragedy of Calvary. Child as he is, even in his play the serious work of his life looms up before Him.