When was the last time you contemplated the cross of Christ? We love to think about and glory in the resurrection of Jesus and all that it implies, but we are less comfortable thinking about the cross. Of course, there could have been no resurrection except for the cross. Our sanitized Sunday School versions of Christ’s death tend to hide the horrors of the crucifixion.
On top of the slow suffocation of hanging nailed to a tree, Jesus first suffered an intense and brutal beating at the hands of men trained to keep someone a breath away from their death. The horror of the beatings and crucifixion of Christ are but a shadow of the pain we cause our holy God every time we sin against Him.