Cicero, the ancient Roman statesman, lawyer and academic skeptic depicted punishment by crucifixion as the most horrifying, demeaning and disgusting form of execution of state’s justice. In ancient Rome, this capital punishment was reserved for the lowliest class in the social hierarchy; the pariahs and scums of the earth. A slow bleeding and painful death awaited the criminals crucified. It was customary to have a public exhibition of the victim and often abandoned the corpse on the cross itself to be devoured by wild animals. The cross was a symbol of brute power of the tyrannical Roman kingdom, a grim reminder that anyone who wishes “to cross with Rome” will hang humiliatingly on the cross.

Another cross was lifted up at the Mount of Calvary with Jesus nailed to it at the climax of his earthly life. Strikingly and contrastingly, He took all the permutations and combinations of evil, the moral depravity and dysfunctionality of sin, the wickedness, shame, hatred, enmity, inferiority and injustice of the world unto himself, which, apostle Peter confirms in his epistle, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness”. Through this divine exchange, He liberated humanity from the depths of degeneracy and corruption ever since its assent to sin and disobedience. His battle with evil is unprecedented in the history of the world. His formidable weapons were non-violence and forgiveness of the oppressors and persecutors of the world.

Amidst the gross injustice of a sentencing for an ignominious death on the cross, amidst the excruciating pain of His hands and toes pierced by iron nails, amidst the razor-sharp desert thorns crowned on His head, writhing in agony and pain He cried out as faithfully recorded by Luke’s gospel 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”. He invited man to redefine his thoughts, alter his biological instincts for vengeance and thus thwarting social laws and traditions of retributive justice in the form of ‘eye for an eye” or “tooth for a tooth”. He abhorred conventional methods of fighting evil and exhorted his disciples to exercise restraint in Matthew 26:52, “Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

In the history of civilizations, there was never a paradigm shift in the relationship between violence and order. In all warring societies whether in ancient, medieval or contemporary world order were the byproducts of violence. Bloodshed was the norm, whether restoring order were between individuals, tribes or nations. For millennia it held true from the epic of Mahabharata to the raid of the Vikings to the warmongering Franks, Normans, Mongols, Aztecs, Mayans to the 21st century war in Ukraine. Weapons were forged, armies were raised and humans clashed with each other in battlefields and playgrounds spilling rivers of blood for peace to reign. Jesus turned everything on its heels when He replaced violence with non-violence, hatred with love and vengeance with forgiveness. He was a living witness to the divine order of combating evil and unconditional Agape love was His overriding theme. The Book of Romans affirms this divine love in chapter 5, verse 8, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

St. Paul, the persecutor of early Christians when he was Saul, bore testimony of this everlasting love post-conversion of his revelatory encounter with Jesus Christ on the ‘Road to Damascus’, which he passionately scripted in Letter to the Romans, 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord”. The realization of such transcending love is reserved for personal experiences with Christ which is at once all encompassing and exclusive to the recipient. Such love had prompted St. Paul with unprecedented audacity to declare that “Christ is the lord”, which, is a sedition in Roman kingdom. He ministered publicly with gusto, “Kyrios Lesous” (Jesus is Lord) instead of “Kaiser Kurious” (Caesar is Lord) earning the wrath of Roman authorities that often led to his incarceration. For St. Paul, Caesar stood puny and insignificant before the towering Christ who despite being hideously tortured, mutilated and suffered death was resurrected by the power of the Spirit, disseminated the language of love and forgiveness and thus annexing the hearts of men across time and space. Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte vouched for this seeping all pervasive love in one of his famous letters during his exile to the island of St. Helena, “Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love, and at this hour millions of men will die for Him”.

The history of early Christianity is written in the blood of martyrs. When innocents were thrown to the lions in the Colosseum of Rome, those hapless screams drowned by the jubilant frenzies of the spectators, when early disciples were burnt alive, thrown into jars of boiling oil, crucified upside down, stoned and tortured, they never flinched since they “knew of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” as in Ephesians 3:19 and embraced death by running into the unfailing love of the resurrected Jesus. To the skeptics and New Age atheists who propose a Jesus myth theory should do some soul-searching into the universal tendencies of human behavior. While myths are archetypal abstractions of reality, about nature, society and the universe, men are less likely to die for Norse and Roman mythical gods of Thor, Odin, Dionysius, Zeus or Osiris. All the apostles of Christ, except for St. John died as martyrs. These men who deserted Jesus and fled for safety on Good Friday, were transformed into brave and courageous men on Easter Day, when the resurrected Christ appeared to them. His first words to the petrified disciples were “Shalom” (Peace) and not instigating them to raise an army to avenge His death. When God incarnate was mercilessly murdered, He returned with an all forgiving love for His creation.

Part of the cross He demands his followers to carry is emulation of this attitude to violence and evil. When people suffer unjustly, when they are victimized and incriminated, rejected and discriminated in family and community, due to color, race and ethnicity, He assures us that the divine model of response of forgiveness is the most feasible and least malevolent. Men who changed the course of history in the likes of Martin Luther King, Gandhi, John Paul II and Bishop Desmond Tutu were all inspired by Jesus Christ’s teachings on non-violent means in the face of brutal oppression to achieve revolutionary ends. Resurrection of Christ offers hope and promise for a humanity teetering on the brink of self-destruction, besotted with malice, rancor, enmity, bigotry, wars and ruin. If only they imbibe His timeless message of love and forgiveness and trusting the Divine Mercy to re-establish order in a chaotic world.

The iconic words of ancient Roman poet encapsulate the eternal quality of love when he wrote in Latin, “Amor vincit omnia, et nos cedamus amori” translated as “Love conquers all things, so we too shall yield to love”. This is the deeper meaning and essence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.