The crucifixion of a man is a hideous sight and the cross, the gallows of the ancient world, would still be a horrible thing were it not for the fact that in his immeasurable love, God himself was impaled on one to save your soul and mine.  Thus the specific symbol of the Christian Faith is the reverse of comfortable, and it is not surprising that the Christian Faith itself when fully and faithfully presented will always be unpopular.  How could it be otherwise when its Divine Founder, Jesus Christ, was himself so unpopular?

His fellow villagers at Nazareth resented him and were thankful to see the back of him.  The members of the Jewish Government hated him because, so far from toeing the official line, he attacked their avarice and dishonesty and love of power.  The city mob yelled for his crucifixion because they were sick of hearing him preach about the renunciation of self and the Kingdom of God, when the only Kingdom that appealed to them was national independence under which they would never have had it so good.

They did not object when Jesus was the Great Healer, curing their sick and diseased, though even that roused official opposition and envy.  No, it was Jesus the King and Judge, the denouncer of human sins, who roused their hostility and malice; and in the end it was human sin that crucified him – not, mark you, against his will.

For the Crucifixion was what his mission to this sinful world cost him; it was the price which in his love he willingly paid for coming down from Heaven for us men and for our salvation.  So he declared, “…I lay down my life for the sheep…No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (NRSV, John 10:15,18).