The True Public Spectacle of the Cross
By Michael Kelley
Roman crucifixion remains the most brutal form of execution devised by humankind. It was long. It was bloody. It was humiliating. It was excruciatingly painful. And it was public.
When someone was crucified, they were hung on a cross along the busiest roads just outside the city gates. The Romans wanted maximum foot traffic and visibility; they wanted travelers, merchants, and families to lay eyes on what was happening. They wanted them to see the sweat and gore and hear the screams. It was, in all ways possible, a public spectacle. But in the case of Jesus’ crucifixion, there was a different kind of spectacle happening at the same time. According to Paul:
He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him (Colossians 2:14-15).
The word translated here as “certificate of debt” refers to an IOU - it is a note that acknowledges the obligation to pay a debt. IOU or a promissory note. Not only that, it was a debt note written in the debtor's own handwriting or signed by them. By writing it, the debtor officially acknowledged their liability and signed away their freedom until the debt was paid. And we do owe a debt.
Paul would write in Romans 6 that the wages of sin - that which we earn because of our rebellion - is death. We owe a debt that is going to come due. What’s more, it’s a debt we can’t hide from; indeed, we admit to it with our own hand. It is indisputable. But Christ did something with that certificate of debt. He took it, and He nailed it to the cross.
Let’s go back again to the subject of crucifixion, and remember how it happened for Jesus. He went through the beatings, the mockings, and the kangaroo courts, and was eventually led away to Golgotha. John writes:
Carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called Place of the Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him and two others with him, one on either side, with Jesus in the middle. Pilate also had a sign made and put on the cross. It said: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek (John 19:17-20).
There was a practice at that time of affixing the charge against the criminal to His cross. That’s because crucifixion was never just about executing a criminal; it was designed as a deterrent. That was the big reason for the spectable. By nailing the explicit crime directly above the victim's head, Roman authorities sent an unmistakable warning to the thousands of people walking past the execution site. It visually communicated: "If you commit this exact crime, this will happen to you."
So Paul is saying in Colossians 2 that your IOU was not just shoved aside or thrown away - it was paid for in Christ’s death. That’s what was affixed to His cross - the crimes of which you and I are guilty, ones written by our own hand. In reflecting on this text, Charles Spurgeon said this:
“Think of that handwriting of ordinances which was against us! It was a long bill, a heavy indictment, a terrible catalog of crimes... But my Lord took the long roll, and He gathered it up in His hands, and He nailed it to His cross, so that no one can ever read it now. It is canceled, it is done away with, it is torn to pieces, it is fastened to the tree where He bled, and it is gone forever!”
But that’s not all. Jesus was dragged through the city, stripped naked, held up to contempt, and nailed to the cross along with the charge against Him. But the ironic thing is that God was actually doing the same thing to all the rulers and authorities arrayed against Him.
They thought they were mocking Jesus; God was mocking them.
They thought they were making a spectacle of Jesus; God was exposing them.
They thought they were defeating Jesus; God was defeating them.
Jesus was put to death, and no one knew that through that death, God was making a public spectacle of how helpless any power is to try and deter His love and forgiveness and power that raises the dead.
Michael Kelley is a husband, father of three, author, and speaker from Nashville, TN. His latest book is a year-long family devotional guide called The Whole Story for the Whole Family. Find his personal blog at michaelkelley.co.
