229. Why Christ had to die on the Cross
229. WHY CHRIST HAD TO DIE ON THE CROSS
Was even the specific mode of Christ’s suffering and death—crucifixion, the most agonizing and feared punishment in the world—part of the divine strategy and plan?
It was most fitting that Christ should suffer the death of the cross.
First of all, as an example of virtue. For Augustine thus writes. . . it is part of righteous living not to stand in fear of things which ought not to be feared. . . . In order, then, that no kind of death should trouble an upright man, the cross of this Man had to be set before him because, among all kinds of death, none was more execrable, more fear-inspiring, than this.
Secondly, because this kind of death was especially suitable in order to atone for the sin of our first parent, which was the plucking of the apple from the forbidden tree against God’s command. And so to atone for that sin it was fitting that Christ should suffer by being fastened to a tree, as if restoring what Adam had purloined. . . .
The third reason is because, as Chrysostom says in a sermon on the Passion, He suffered upon a high rood and not under a roof in order that the nature of the air might be purified; and the earth felt a like benefit, for it was cleansed by the flowing of the blood from his side. . . . (This was shown graphically in the movie “The Greatest Story Ever Told” and also in “The Passion of the Christ,” in which His blood ran down His legs, down the Cross, over the ground, into the rivulets and rivers and oceans of the whole earth, purifying them.)
The fourth reason is because by dying on it, He prepares for us an ascent into heaven . . . Hence it is that He says in John 12:32: If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself.
The fifth reason is because it is befitting the universal salvation of the entire world. Hence Gregory of Nyssa observes that the shape of the cross, extending out into four extremes from their central point of contact, denote the power and the providence diffused everywhere of Him Who hung upon it. Chrysostom also says that upon the cross He dies with outstretched hands in order to draw with one hand the people of old and with the other those who spring from the Gentiles.
The sixth reason is because . . . this kind of death responds to very many figures. For as Augustine says in a sermon on the Passion, an ark of wood preserved the human race from the waters of the deluge; and the exodus of God’s people from Egypt, Moses with a rod divided the sea, overthrew Pharoah, and saved the people of God; the same Moses dipped his rod into the water, changing it from bitter to sweet; at the touch of a wooden rod a salutary spring gushed forth from a spiritual rock; likewise, in order to overcome Amalec, Moses stretched forth his arms with rod in hand; lastly, God’s law is entrusted to the wooden Ark of the Covenant, all of which are like steps by which we mount to the wood of the cross (III,46,4).
Few modern theologians would dare to be so polyvalent and so specific! St. Thomas finds six simple, clear, specific, beautiful, and inspiring reasons, not just one (and six Biblical examples of the sixth reason!); and surely there are many more, if we had only the eyes of a saint as well as of a theologian.
The sixth reason should inspire all carpenters to new respect for their holy medium.
The fifth reason should inspire all global, cosmopolitan, cross-cultural outreaches, which run the danger of getting lost in thin universal abstractions instead of this most concrete source of unity.
The fourth reason should inspire the dying.
The third reason should inspire all naturalists and ecologists.
The second reason should inspire all grocers, fruit growers, arborists, and herbalists.
The first reason should inspire all warriors (and we are all spiritual warriors) to fearlessness.