word or by fire.

Obj. 2: Further, Damascene says (De Fide Orth. iii) that Christ ought
not to assume "dishonoring afflictions." But death on a cross was
most dishonoring and ignominious; hence it is written (Wis. 2:20):
"Let us condemn Him to a most shameful death." Therefore it seems
that Christ ought not to have undergone the death of the cross.

Obj. 3: Further, it was said of Christ (Matt. 21:9): "Blessed is He
that cometh in the name of the Lord." But death upon the cross was a
death of malediction, as we read Deut. 21:23: "He is accursed of God
that hangeth on a tree." Therefore it does not seem fitting for
Christ to be crucified.

_On the contrary,_ It is written (Phil. 2:8): "He became obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross."

_I answer that,_ It was most fitting that Christ should suffer the
death of the cross.

First of all, as an example of virtue. For Augustine thus writes (QQ.
lxxxiii, qu. 25): "God's Wisdom became man to give us an example in
righteousness of living. But it is part of righteous living not to
stand in fear of things which ought not to be feared. Now there are
some men who, although they do not fear death in itself, are yet
troubled over the manner of their death. In order, then, that no kind
of death should trouble an upright man, the cross of this Man had to
be set before him, because, among all kinds of death, none was more
execrable, more fear-inspiring, than this."

Secondly, because this kind of death was especially suitable in order
to atone for the sin of our first parent, which was the plucking of
the apple from the forbidden tree against God's command. And so, to
atone for that sin, it was fitting that Christ should suffer by being
fastened to a tree, as if restoring what Adam had purloined;
according to Ps. 68:5: "Then did I pay that which I took not away."
Hence Augustine says in a sermon on the Passion [*Cf. Serm. ci De
Tempore]: "Adam despised the command, plucking the apple from the
tree: but all that Adam lost, Christ found upon the cross."

The third reason is because, as Chrysostom says in a sermon on the
Passion (De Cruce et Latrone i, ii): "He suffered upon a high rood
and not under a roof, in order that the nature of the air might be
purified: and the earth felt a like benefit, for it was cleansed by
the flowing of the blood from His side." And on John 3:14: "The Son
of man must be lifted up," Theophylact says: "When you hear that He
was lifted up, un