Apostles' Creed: He Suffered Under Pontius Pilate // Rev. Matt Kennedy // July 6 2025

Despite the fact that the Greeks and the Romans used crucifixion on thousands of criminals and insurgents, the Romans rarely wrote about crucifixion and crosses appear almost nowhere in Greco-Roman sculpture, painting, or mosaics. Why? The cross was one of the most sordid, disturbing, and taboo objects in antiquity. It was the most humiliating and degrading experience in the culture of the ancient world. Think then of what it means for Christianity to make the cross the central symbol of the church! A crucified God is one of the most profound inversions of thinking to occur in human history.Two thousand years later we still wrestle with the meaning of the cross. What does it mean that salvation came by way of humiliation? What does it mean that suffering can bring redemption? Our human instincts are to deny death and avoid suffering, but the gospel invites us into a different way, This week our sermon series in the Apostle's Creed continues as we examine what it means to confess that Jesus, "suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead, and buried.".