Recharge | Holy Week 2026: The Offense Of The Cross

The cross is everywhere now, polished into jewelry and framed as tasteful art, but it was never meant to feel safe. During Holy Week, we press into the offense of the cross and ask what we lose when we get too familiar with the most brutal symbol in Christian faith. If you’ve ever wondered why Christians would cherish something so violent, this conversation is an honest place to start.

We talk through what crucifixion was designed to do: maximize pain, prolong suffering, and heap public shame on the victim. That historical reality explains why Rome treated the cross with disgust and why early Christians were mocked for worshiping a crucified Savior. We also connect the dots to the Bible’s own language, including the unsettling phrase “hanging on a tree,” and why the apostles keep using it even when “cross” would sound cleaner.

From Deuteronomy’s declaration that the hanged man is “accursed” to Hebrews 12:2 where Jesus endures the cross and counts its shame as nothing next to the joy ahead, the storyline is both piercing and hopeful. The cross should offend us because it tells the truth about sin and justice, and it comforts us because Jesus steps into the cursed place to bring salvation on the other side.

If this helped you see Good Friday and the crucifixion with fresh clarity, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What part of the cross do you find hardest to sit with today?

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Transcript

Holy Week Focus On The Cross

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, happy Wednesday of Holy Week. This evening I want to I want us to focus on the cross and particularly the offense of the cross. You know, the cross has become so familiar to us that it's lost its ability to be offensive. We see it all the time, right? In jewelry, in art around your house. If you look at this picture, right, we we create beautiful scenery around art. We incorporate our names with it. Okay? The true meaning, though, of the cross is lost in this context. Why? Because the cross in the ancient world was grotesque. It was offensive. It was death. Even torture. Imagine nowadays walking into someone's home and seeing this gigantic piece of art above their couch of an electric chair. Or if someone walked around with jewelry as a noose around their neck. You see, the cross was offensive. Especially to the Romans. It was created as the most brutal, most torturous death possible. Maximum pain. Extend the amount of time of suffering. Be the most cruel and the most disgusting that we possibly can. You see, you beat someone until they are weak. And then you strip them naked, take them to a public place, strip them naked, and nail them to a cross and hang them above. And then you watch them slowly suffocate. I'm not sure if you're aware of the anatomy of the cross. The purpose of the cross, again, is to be maximum torture. They would put the body in an anatomically impossible position. You know, in gym class, you used to have to sit up against the wall and do chair sits. Well, on the cross, a person is crucified, they're nailed to a piece of wood, and their legs are bent at a 45-degree angle. The purpose of that is your muscles can only hold for a very short period of time. Then at that point, once your legs give out, all the weight is pressed on the arms. The shoulders, the elbows, the wrists eventually are dislocated. The arm will stretch nine inches longer than what the arm currently is. Your body hangs in an impossible position where you actually cannot exhale. The only way the body can exhale is to push up off the legs and to exhale. To take in another breath and to slump down. Most often this took days. You say, but why did Jesus only hang for six hours? Well, that's because they beat him so mercilessly. See, the cross was offensive to the Romans. Never could a Roman citizen be crucified. It was only reserved for the worst of the worst. In fact, crux was a curse word, not to ever be used in public in polite company. Here's a quote from Cicero: let the very mention of the cross be far removed, not only from a Roman citizen's body, but from his mind, his eyes, and his ears. You see, since it was so offensive to the Romans, there was this complete breakdown in communication when Christians cherished it. One of the oldest forms of graffiti that's ever been found was in a house. And it is a drawing you can see that depicts a man crucified, but he has the head of a donkey. And then written out in Greek beside it, it says, Alex worships his God. We need to listen to Deuteronomy chapter 20, verse 22 and 23. God's word. This is what God says. If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day. For he who is hanged is accursed of God. But you have to bury him. You see what this text is saying? You have to bury him so as to not defile the land. He has already become a curse. He is accursed from God. Guys, this is why Jesus was crucified outside of the holy city. Because they couldn't allow it inside the city. That would make everything unclean. This is also why the New Testament repeatedly, most of the time, our translations, they switch it over and they insert the word cross. But that is not what the apostles used most way through the New Testament. Look at these verses, Acts 5.30. As they were preaching, the God, this is before the Sanhedrin, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you put to death by hanging him on a tree. And again, we are witnesses of all the things he did, both in the land of the Jews in Jerusalem, that they put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Why is it that the New Testament preachers would repeatedly refer to Jesus hanging on a tree? It is because he had become the curse of God. As he hung on the cross, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? See these two gospel passages. Peter writes, he says, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. And Paul purposely links the exact same thing by making the quotation. As it is written, he's quoting Deuteronomy. Let me be frank. The cross should offend you. Because it says this is what your sins deserve. That even you at your very best, this is what a holy God requires for your shortcomings. But Jesus is the only one who was not offended by the cross. Look at Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2. Jesus was the only one not offended by the cross. And then he tells us something incredibly important about him. Who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. Now I know that's odd terminology for us, and it there's like some double negatives going on, and it's kind of hard for us to sort through. Listen, to despise something means that you do not credit it, you do not count it as anything. Okay? You consider it worthless, not worthy of your attention. You despise it. Jesus says the shame of the cross was not worthy of his attention. Not that there wasn't shame, we've already gone through that. There's lots of shame. But Jesus said that that shame was nothing in comparison to the joy set before him on the other side of the cross. And my friend, what is that joy? That joy is our salvation. That joy is the salvation that he purchases, eternal life with his Father, that he purchases for each and every one of us. That joy is you, my friend. The only one who did not despise, who the only one who did not count the shame of the cross. Will you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father. This holy week, as we remember, God help us to remember what your Son has done for us. Help us to again comprehend. Father, we get so familiar with the whole idea, even of crucifixion. That we we do not even fathom the shame of the cross, the cursedness of the cross, all that Jesus did on our behalf. Father, we do pray that you would prick our hearts, that you would allow us to contemplate deeper still of your love for us because of what you were willing to overcome and endure. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God bless you guys.