A beautiful hymn to sing as we worship Jesus this Good Friday:

Here are the lyrics of “The Power of the Cross,” words and music by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend:

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow. 

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry. 

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

FINAL CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Son of God—slain for us.
What a love! What a cost! 
We stand forgiven at the cross. 

New Testament professor D.A. Carson on the scandal of the cross (Cross and Christian Ministry):

What would you think if  a woman came to work wearing earrings stamped with an image of the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima?

What would you think of a church buidling adorned with a fresco of the massed graves at Auschwitz?

Both visions are grotesque.  They are not only intrinsically abhorrent, but they are shocking because of powerful cultural associations.

The same sort of shocked horror was associated with the cross and crucifixion in the first century.  Apart from the emperor’ explicit sanction, no Roman citizen could be put to death by this means.  Crucifixion was reserved for slaves, aliens, barbarians.  Many thought it was not something to be talked about in polite company.  Quite apart from the wretched torture inflicted on those who were executed by hanging from a cross, the cultural associations conjured up images of evil, corruption, abysmal rejection.

Yet today, crosses adorn our buildings and letterheads, grace our bishops, shine from lapels, and dangle from our ears–and no one is scandalized.  It is this cultural distance from the first century that makes it so hard for us to feel the compelling irony of 1 Corinthians 1:18: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

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Picture from: http://neatorama.cachefly.net