The Cross and the Lynching Tree

Since Christianity has been part of the mainstream culture and consciousness for the better part of the last two millennia, the paradox of a Roman cross playing such a large part—aesthetically and theologically—of the Christian message can pass by the average person’s notice. The fact that an ancient torture device meant to humiliate and kill its victim while also terrorizing the local populace into submission can be lost. However, as Cone notes: “The cross is a paradoxical religious symbol because it inverts the world’s value system with the news that hope comes by way of defeat” (24). The Jewish community of first-century Palestine expected the eventual advent of their long-awaited Messiah, but they did not expect a messiah in the image of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whom the Christian community of the first century claimed had fulfilled the promises to which Israel had long held.

In the public consciousness of the people of Israel, the Messiah was going to be one who came to liberate them from their political overlords, return them to prominence in the Holy Land—the land that had been promised to the patriarchs, as recorded in the Hebrew Bible—and allow them to flourish like never before.