Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.

• Mark 15:21

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

• Luke 14:27

“ ‘Again, let us consider how many fragments [of the cross] are scattered up and down over the whole globe. A mere enumeration of those of which l have a catalogue would certainly fill a goodly volume. There is no town, however small, which has not some morsel of it. and this not only in the principal cathedral church of the district, but also in parish churches. There is no abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. ln some places, larger fragments exist, as at Paris in the Holy Chapel, at Poitiers and at Rome, where a crucifix of tolerable size is said to be made entirely out of it in short, if all the pieces which could be found were collected into a heap, they would form a good shipload, though the gospel testifies that a single individual was able to carry it. What effrontery then thus to fill the whole world with fragments which it would take more than three hundred men to carry!  Not content with imposing on the rude and ignorant, by displaying a piece of common wood as the wood of the cross, they have declared it every way worthy of adoration. This doctrine is altogether devilish.’ (Treatise on Relics)”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

John Calvin, (1509-1564), was the father of Calvinism if Bucer was not.  Calvin, like Martin Luther, studied to be a lawyer before becoming a servant of God.  He was a French theologian and became a pastor and reformer in Geneva, Switzerland.  He recalled that he had once been devoted to the superstitions of the popery, as he called it.  His Institutes of the Christian Religion was a series of letters written to Francis, king of France.  With proper backing and protection, the Reformation could withstand the counter attacks by the pope.

In this quote above, we see him argue against relics.  Every church had to have some type of relic, but unlike memorabilia today, there was no authentication system.  Too many people had small pieces of wood or entire crosses, all claiming to be at least a fraction of the one that was used to crucify Jesus.  Calvin argues that these pieces, all placed in a pile would fill a ship and that 300 men could not lift it.

Okay, if 300 men could not lift it, and each man could lift 50 pounds, that would be 15,000 pounds or seven and a half tons.  I chose fifty pounds in that most safety rules regarding lifting state that a single person lift should not be more than 50 pounds, but an average man could physically lift more than fifty pounds.

But let’s think of a relic of a piece of wood being the cross.  The cross was the property of the Romans.  They might reuse the cross to crucify the next criminal.  They might use the cross as firewood.  But it is ludicrous to think that an upstart religion could persuade the cross away from the Romans.  And why would the early believers want a piece of the cross where their Savior had been killed.  As I have heard Billy Graham say on numerous occasions, the cross is offensive.  The cross was designed to be offensive to show the conquered people that the Romans were in charge and this is how you die if you challenge Roman authority.  The only noteworthiness of this cross is that people claimed the person who died on the cross had risen three days later.  Would that piece of wood even be in a shape to be turned into a relic or was it thrown out with the trash during that interim period?

So, I do not see the Apostles or church leaders asking for the cross.  I do not see the Romans surrendering the cross.  And then Calvin shows that if everyone who claimed to have a piece of the cross was telling the truth, then the cross, carried by one man, must have weighed several tons.

And how were the relics used?  They were used to show how wonderful this church was over the other churches where the people could attend.  There were more relics than just pieces of the cross.  Thus, John Calvin was more upset with these churches manipulating the poor and uneducated than he was of the falsehoods that were being told.  Yes, it was sinful, but the motivation for the sin showed something sinister behind telling falsehoods about a piece of wood.

As John Calvin concludes, it was devilish.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.