To the people of Corinth, the preaching of the cross was foolishness, nonsense, recalled world renowned evangelist Billy Graham in his Easter message.
Even today, the cross of Jesus Christ continues to stand as a controversial symbol of Christianity. Some even within the Christian community reject the crucifixion and the resurrection that Christians preach as the focal point of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.The Very Rev. Jeffrey John, dean of St. Albans Cathedral in St Albans, England, told listeners on BBC Radio 4 that the crucifixion of Jesus for the sins of the world is "pretty repulsive as well as nonsensical."
"What sort of God was this, getting so angry with the world and the people He created and then, to calm Himself down, demanding the blood of his own son?" he said the night before Good Friday. "And anyway, why should God forgive us through punishing somebody else? It was worse than illogical, it was insane. It made God sound like a psychopath. If any human being behaved like this, we would say they were a monster."
Dr. John Dominic Crossan, former co-chairman of the theologically liberal Jesus Seminar, made a similar comment in October 2000 when he said he finds it "an obscenity" that God had somebody else suffer for our sins and that sacrificing his own son was "a sort of transcendental child abuse."
Many believers would argue with this, however.
"When it comes to God, we've got to use a higher, divine logic in which, yes, it was not child abuse for God to have His son die on behalf of our sins," Dr. Paul L. Maier, professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University, said on Coral Ridge Ministries' "Cross Purposes" TV special.
For Christians, Christ's death justifies all those who believe in him and symbolizes the extent of the love of God.
