– Horrible instrument of torture, the most infamous for the Latins, reserved for slaves and non-Romans, prefigured in the AT:
Gen 22:6 : Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac.
Ex 17,12 : But as if Moses’ arms were tired, they put a stone under him and he sat on it.
Leviticus 6:17-18 : It will be sacrificed before the Lord, in the place where the victim of the burnt offering is sacrificed.
Num 21,8 : Make yourself a fiery serpent and put it on a pole.
Jn 3:14 : As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Wis 10,4 : Wisdom again saved him, leading the righteous on a worthless tree.
Wis 14:7: For blessed is the tree by which justice is wrought.
– Cursed instrument:
Deut 21,22-23 : For the one who is hanged is an object of divine curse.
Gal 3:13 : Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Dt 21:23).
– On a cross Christ gave his life to the Father:
Mt 27,22-44 : They found a man from Cyrene named Simon, whom they forced to carry the cross of Jesus.
Mk 15,13-32 : May the Christ, King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe!
Lk 23:21-43 : “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” And having said this, he expired.
Jn 19 in full: When Jesus had taken some of the vinegar, he said: “It is finished”. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Col 1:20 : Through him who, at the price of his own blood on the cross, restored peace.
Col 2:14 : He abolished it definitively by nailing it to the cross.
Phil 2 :8 : He humbled himself even more, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
– The cross, whose transverse beam was carried by Christ, is a sign of redemption:
Mt 16:24 : If anyone wants to come with me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Mt 27,32-33 : They found a man from Cyrene named Simon, whom they forced to carry the cross of Jesus.
Mk 15:21 : They forced him to carry the cross.
Jo 19,17 : He himself carried his cross out of the city, towards the place called Calvary.
– St. Paul presents the cross as a scandal for the Jews, a madness for the pagans:
1Cor 1:23 : But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.
– And consolation for Christians:
Gal 5:11 : Thus the scandal of the cross would have ceased!
Gl 6,12.14 : Only to not be persecuted because of the cross of Christ.
Phil 3:18 : Now I say it weeping, who act as enemies of the cross of Christ.
Heb 12:2 : Instead of the joy offered to him, he endured the cross and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
– On it was nailed:
Acts 2:23 : According to the determined design and foreknowledge of God, you killed him, crucifying him by the hands of the wicked.
Jo 20,27 : Insert your finger here, and see my hands. Put your hand on my side.
– It was lifted to a pole already planted in the ground:
Jn 8:28 : When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know who I am.
– Jesus predicted his death:
Mt 16:21 : He would be killed and raised on the third day.
Mt 17,22-23 : “They will kill him, but on the third day he will rise again.” And they were deeply troubled.
Mt 20,17-18 : The Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn you to death.
Mk 8:31 : And be killed, but rise again after three days.
Mk 9:31 : The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and he will rise three days after his death.
Mark 10:32 : And taking the Twelve to himself again, he began to tell them the things that were to happen to him.
Lc 9,22.44 : It is necessary that he be put to death and that he rises on the third day.
Lk 18:31 : All that was written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled.
Jn 2:19 : Jesus answered them: “I destroyed this temple, and I will raise it up in three days”.
Jn 12:24 : Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; if it dies, it bears much fruit.
– He accepted it to attract everyone to him:
Jn 3:14 : As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Jn 10,17-18 : Nobody takes it from me, but I give it of myself and I have the power to give it.
Jn 12,32-33 : And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself.
Jo 19,37 : And the Scripture says elsewhere: They will look at the one they pierced (Zc 12,10).
– And with obedience to reconcile the universe:
Romans 8:32 : But since he gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things along with him?
Eph 2:16 : Reconcile them both to God, united in one body by virtue of the cross, annihilating enmity in it.
Phil 2 :8 : He humbled himself even more, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Col 1:20 : At the price of his own blood on the cross, he restored peace to all that exists on earth and in heaven.
Col 2:14 : He abolished it definitively by nailing it to the cross.
Heb 12:2 : Instead of the joy offered to him, he endured the cross and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
1Pt 2,21-24 : He bore our sins in his body on the tree.
– The cross is following image:
Mt 10:38 : Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Mt 16:24 : If anyone wants to come with me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Mk 8:34 : If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.
Lk 9:23 : If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Lk 14:27 : And whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Lc 17,33 : Everyone who tries to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses it will find it.
Jn 12:25 : But whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
– Which imposes decisive choices:
1Cor 1,18 : The language of the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost.
– The cross is the center of Christian preaching:
1Cor 2,1-2 : I thought I should know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified.
Gal 5:11 : If it is true, brothers, that I still preach circumcision, why then am I persecuted?
Gal 6:14 : Except on the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
– Despite sounding crazy:
1Cor 1,18-25 : The language of the cross is foolishness for those who are being lost.
– And reproach:
Heb 13:13 : Let us therefore go out to him outside the entrance, bearing his disgrace.
– In Baptism, our old man is crucified with Christ:
Rom 6:3-4 : Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
– So that the new man may live with him:
Gal 2:19 : Indeed, by faith I died to the Law in order to live for God. I am nailed to the cross of Christ.
– See FOLLOW-UP.
