Cross

– 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.