Every year at this time, in San Pedro, Philipines, a bunch of people carry their crosses for a mile or so and then have themselves nailed to the cross to celebrate Easter. They guy in this picture has done this for the last 11 years, I think.
Why?
"to obey is better than sacrifice," says the Lord. A man can't pay for his own sins in the way Jesus did. Jesus paid the price for sin on His sinless body.
At best, this is just a very painful and dangerous wrong-headed way to worship, at worst it is ungrateful blasphemy. Ungrateful? yes. How? Jesus paid for the sins of these men when He was on the cross. They insult His sacrifice and its infinite value by mimicking it. It would be like having a loved one pay for an expensive meal for you and then going back and throwing a penny on the table and saying, "No, I'll pay."
5 comments:
Amen! Jesus paid it ALL. To attempt to add anything to His perfect and forever sacrifice is to insult Him.
Happy Easter--Hallelujah, He is risen! How wonderful that we serve the living God.
The idiots!! They had a lot bigger hammer and nails than this dweeb is useing. This guy needs to step and be a man or just step back
It makes me curious as to what is going through their heads. Do they think they are "paying" for their own sins? Do they think this is worship to Jesus? Jesus is THE great I AM and there is no other. As Mindy said, He paid it ALL!!
What did Paul mean when he said he added to the suffering of Christ that was lacking, for the sake of the body? Col 1:24. I have yet to find a satisfactory explanation other than God allows us to participate in some mystical way by joining our sufferings to His.
Perhaps these folks are attempting to unite their suffering to Christs? I would like to ask them why they do this . I venture to say none would say Christs death wasnt enough! Unless of course you are St. Paul.
Tiber,
Wow, you found an old post.
good comments.
Paul speaks many times of connecting his suffering to JEsus. He speaks of carrying around the "dying of Jesus" in his body.
Christ's death was sufficient to pay for the sins of the world. However, the suffering of His "body" continues as the Church, also referred to allegorically as "His Body" suffers in this time between the times --that is, between the the cross and the coronation, the atonement and the second advent, we wait for the Lord, and we proclaim His death in our worship and in our sorrows.
As for the self-inflicted pain of people who nail themselves to the cross, I am pretty certain that Paul would have had harsh words for the practice. He condemned people who demanded circumcision as a religious practice that brought favor with God!
People who nail themselves to crosses demonstrate that they have no understanding of substitutionary atonement. They make the argument themselves.
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