Not just their leader, early christians were violently prosecuted, they turned their symbol of oppression into the symbol of their faith in an ultimate act of defiance as well as love and forgiveness.

Sacrifice is a big thing in Christianity, the cross is the symbol of the biggest sacrifice that God did for us, on Christianity canon.

The core of Christianity is originally the redemption, not the threat that necessitates it and often is more prominent.

The cross is a symbol of the sacrifice made to redeem people from the threat of hell. More relevant here is that sin separates humans from God, and through that sacrifice, the connection is restored. It is a catalyst of redemption and reunion. In that sense, they don't so much pray towards an implement of torture as an implement of liberation, salvation and mercy.

Given that those are hard things to put in a visual, tangible form and that humans tend to place a lot of value in visual, tangible representations, it's basically the simplest symbol you could come up with as a nascent cult.

It's not the only symbol, and particularly during the rise of the Roman church, you'll note that icons of saints become very common too. Some places will even have the Crucifix feature the crucified Jesus as well, to drive home the point about sacrifice and gratitude.

Protestants later held that the worship of saints was tantamount to idolatry and did away with them again, leaving just the core of the message of redemption. There was in some places a conscious choice to pick the "empty" cross rather than the crucified saviour as a symbol that he is no longer dead.

All in all, given his divine wisdom and love for metaphors and similes, I'd think Jesus would understand the point of the cross...

...then proceed to trash the place out of rage over the waste of money and effort that went into gaudy churches and gold-embroidered robes instead of helping the sick and poor.

As a Christian, I've always found that stupid, so I don't do that and don't attend churches that do. The second commandments says:

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

I'm pretty sure a cross counts here. I also believe Jesus taught a higher law, meaning the 10 commandments are outdated, and the only thing Jesus said to do to remember him is breaking and sharing bread and sharing wine (Communion in many churches). That's it, that and "feed my sheep" (teach and help others).

I don't get where everyone is getting the "wear and rub a crucifix for luck" idea. A silent prayer should be a lot more effective than directly violating the second commandment.

I choose to remember Jesus' life. His death was an event, his life was full of teaching and wisdom, so I focus on how he treated others instead of how others treated him.

I'm not Christian but isn't it just very emblematic of the Christian victim complex? Praying towards the instrument of your faith's victimisation is sort of like taking the power back from that symbol and acknowledging the victimisation your belief system has gone through... As far as I can understand it at least 😂

it makes more sense when Christians were a persecuted minority, executed on sight by the Roman empire. You're sharing in a symbol of sacrifice that could itself get you killed.

But that was 1500 years ago.

Besides what everyone else said it used to be a fish, and the ChiRo (the one that looks like an X and a P) Symbol. It's easy to see the evolution into the cross.

I feel like this was a George Carlin bit or something...