“... so much American Christianity today comes packaged as inspirational uplift—sunlit, backlit, or candlelit. Furthermore, we are so accustomed to seeing the cross functioning as decoration that we can scarcely imagine it as an object of shame and scandal unless it is burned on someone’s lawn. It requires a considerable effort of the imagination to enter into the first century world of the Roman Empire so as to understand the degree of offensiveness attached to crucifixion as a method of execution. ... There were many thousands of crucifixions in Roman times, but only the crucifixion of Jesus is remembered as having any significance at all, let alone world-transforming significance.”
— Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ