Why follow Jesus Christ? The answer is in the cross on which he suffered and died. John the Baptist of the first century, famed for prophetic influence, is quoted as calling Jesus the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He did not live long enough to see the crucifixion of Jesus event, except for what he saw of it prophetically, but his preaching explained it as a sacrifice for the sins of others, and this makes sense when you see that Jesus died at Passover, when a lamb sacrifice was central to the commemorative feast. Why a cross? Why crucifixion? The cross did from ancient times and even now today symbolise healing, just as it is used widely to symbolise medical services, such as ambulances, hospitals, medications, and the like. Even in Ancient Greek medical practices there was a symbol of a snake or two snakes on a pole. The snake is lifted up on the pole like a cross emblem, and the symbolic cross is for hope of the healing of those who regard it meaningfully. It is a symbol like the siren of the ambulance. That siren might serve practical purposes of encouraging anyone blocking the ambulance path to move aside, but it also encourages hope by those needing the ambulance and hearing its siren. Symbols in medicine and health ministries act as encouragement of hope for healing and salvation of imperilled life. The cross symbol originating in the ancient written languages of Sumerian and Akkadian, is associated since ancient times with the healing ministry, but also priesthood, mediation with God, and the intersection of humanity and divinity. It effectively points at its ultimate level to the ministry of the Messiah. (Mashiach, Semitic form of word for Messiah, might even be linked to this cross symbol since it was called MASH in Sumerian script, although it is not a widely recognised association.) In this Messiahship, Jesus is designated and authorised for it by the highest God, who Jesus called the Father. If you recognise this Messiahship in Jesus you recognise the holy authorisation by God. If you follow this Jesus as Messiah, as the true Christ, you follow God, the One who sent him. You reap the benefits of the cross sacrifice too, if you make it a turning point for leaving sinful, notorious living, believing the Christ died for you. God raised him from the dead, so his sacrifice for sin was regarded by God as truly finished, successful, and complete, meeting God’s righteous requirements for the sin sacrifice. Words of spirit, understood in the sense of the true gist of them, coming through Jesus Christ, are the words to which to hold, in faith, in order to truly follow him. It leads to eternal life.
