In the March 27, 2000 issue of Newsweek, Kenneth L. Woodward, former religion editor, makes the case in his article The Other Jesus that most religions of the world believe that Jesus lived and perhaps that he was a great teacher or a prophet.  But the cross is a stumbling block for them in believing that Jesus is God.  He writes “Clearly the cross is what separates the Christ of Christianity from every other Jesus.  In Judaism, there is no precedent for a Messiah who dies, much less as a criminal as Jesus did.  In Islam, the story of Jesus’ death is rejected as an affront to Allah himself.  Hindus can accept only a Jesus who passes into peaceful samadhi, a yogi who escapes the degradation of death.  ‘The figure of the crucified Christ,’ says Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, ‘is a painful image to me.  It does not contain joy or peace and this does not do justice to Jesus.’”

To Christians the cross of Christ is essential doctrine, essential to our salvation from sin and eternal union with God, essential to our understanding of the church, the body of Christ in the world, essential to the reconciling of all creation to Himself.

“And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” Colossians 2:18-20