The Hidden Story of the Cross

We usually think of the cross of Christ beginning after the crowd cried: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

A crown of thorns is pressed upon his head. A rough beam is laid upon his shoulders. Soldiers march him through the streets of Jerusalem. Nails are driven into his flesh. Darkness falls and the tomb is sealed.

For most of us, that is how the story begins.

But perhaps the story of the cross began much earlier — a story hidden beneath the details found in the gospel accounts.

Before There Was A Cross

Long before there was a cross, there was a seed in the ground. The Lord was its creator, for nothing exists apart from him (Jn. 1.3; Col. 1.16).

In time, that seed took root and began to grow into a tree. Decade after decade, through years of sunshine and rain, the Lord sustained the tree until it grew to maturity (Heb. 1.3; Col. 1.17). Then, at last, men cut down the tree and fashioned it into an instrument of torture.

Long before there was a cross, iron lay hidden in the earth. The Lord created the ore and ordained where it would be deposited. Through centuries of history, he preserved the ore until the day men would dig it up, refine it in fire, and shape it into spikes to be driven into human flesh.

Long before there was a cross, there were men. The Lord formed them in their mothers' wombs. He gave them life, strength, and every breath they would ever draw. Their hearts beat because he sustained them. Their muscles moved because he supplied their strength.

Then the Hour Arrived

At last, centuries of preparation converged on a single hour.

The tree, which he had carefully created and sustained, was now being used against him in the most gruesome of ways.

The iron ore he had hidden in the earth was driven into the very hands of the one who formed it.

The men he had cared for so thoughtfully now raised their hands against him. Even on the day of his crucifixion, as they mocked him, scourged him, and nailed him to the cross, their very lives were being sustained by the one they were putting to death. Every breath they took was his gift; every heartbeat, upheld by his power; every moment of their existence depended upon him.

As he hung upon the cross, he could have spoken a word and the tree would have fragmented into sawdust; the nails would have melted into a pool of useless metal; the soldiers would have collapsed to the ground.

Yet he endured the cross. The giver of life endured death at the hands of those to whom he had given life. The sustainer allowed himself to be killed by that which he sustained.

And he did it all willingly. “No one” took his life, Jesus explained, but “I lay it down of Myself” (Jn. 10.18).

The hidden story of the cross is this: Long before Calvary — and even as he suffered on that cruel wooden structure — Jesus Christ was sustaining the very tree, the very nails, and the very men that were torturing him to death, all for the sake of our redemption.

Such is the wonder of his love! Such is the greatness of our Savior!