Wearing a Cross As Jewelry

“It would have been unthinkable in Jesus’ day to wear a cross as a piece of jewelry.  It would have been like wearing a miniature electric chair or lynching rope.” John Piper

The cross was used for only one purpose: execution.

Jesus called for us to take up our own cross and follow Him.   What is being executed?  Our self-centeredness, our insistence that we are in control, our self-justification that we are not “that bad.”

When we choose to follow Jesus and take up the cross, it can mean much more.  The world did not like Jesus and it will not like us, regardless of what it may say.  We may, in some countries, be guaranteed freedom of religious choice.  That will not prevent us from being considered odd or peculiar when we insist on choices other than those of the larger culture.  Social disapproval can be quite uncomfortable. (Hebrews 13:12-13)

AND, there is always the possibility, even in the most “enlightened” cultures, that we may be forced into a situation where we must choose between betraying the Lord or facing death.  At such a time, we are called to be witnesses.  Witness, μάρτυρας in Greek, from which we derive our English word “martyr.”