Because of our Master's sufferings, the cross later became the emblem of Christianity. The theologians of his day, whose superficiality was harassed by the truth Jesus taught, believed that in subjecting him to this dire experience they had proved him to be a malefactor and had removed him from their horizon. They who were not willing to deny the desires of the flesh persecuted him who overcame the flesh. They could not understand his mission; and hating the truth which exposed their worldliness, they undertook to stay the power which destroyed sin, disease, and death. They could not see the divine grace and power which was "to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings," or comprehend the great Teacher's purpose that "through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Of the burden the Master bore our Leader says (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 50): "The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving the purpose of his mission, was a million times sharper than the thorns which pierced his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love."
False theology has distorted the significance of the cross, and in its inability to overcome suffering has taught that God sends suffering for some wise purpose, and that the cross therefore must be taken up and affliction borne from love of Christ. Not so does Christian Science interpret its meaning. Christian Scientists know they must take up the cross, according to the Saviour's injunction. they must seek the Christ-spirit through which the Master faced the dark dream of mortality and overcome the claims of the flesh—the illusion of the senses.
Through the atoning love of the Saviour, as illumined by Christian Science, many are learning that they can be reconciled to God by turning away from material sense and all its sordid claims as unreal, and by proving, step by step, the present redeeming power of the Christ. Jesus' work was to show men the almightiness of God, as Father, divine Love; to show them that in obeying the demands of Spirit they would find their true selfhood and rise above the claims of the flesh.
