In the name of the Crucified God. Amen.
One
recent theologian, when writing on the Crucifixion has written “The cross must
always be interpreted and re-placed at the center of Christian faith. There is
a centrifugal force at work in human nature; we want to spin out and away from
the offense of the cross.” And she’s correct – all you have to do is compare
Good Friday attendance to Easter Sunday attendance to see that the Cross is a
challenge. Another theologian has said “The Cross is not and cannot be loved.”
The Cross is bloody, it is repulsive, it is a disgusting instrument of
violence. And yet, St. Paul is able to say “For I decided to know nothing among
you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The Cross really is at the crux of
our Christian faith.
My
advice for this day is to approach the Cross with your heart, not your head.
Don’t worry about understanding how the Cross “works,” rather trust that it
does. I’m currently about half-way through a book called The Crucifixion by Fleming Rutledge. It’s a 700-page book, which
despite its length, I cannot recommend highly enough. But I’ll tell you that
I’m no closer to understanding what the Cross is all about from having read the
book. Rather, what happens when we focus on the Cross, either by reading about
it, by gazing at our Crucifix, or through our Good Friday liturgy is that we
come to appreciate the Cross. Even if we do not understand it, we can value Jesus’
death for us and the sins of the whole world.
If
you’re interested in reading about the Cross but aren’t sure that you can
commit to 700 pages, then I’d recommend The
Sign and the Sacrifice by Rowan Williams. At only 100 pages, it’s a more
manageable read. Today as we reflect on the Cross, I’ll use these title of that
book as a way of appreciating what the Cross is about.
So
first, the Cross is a sign. The Cross is the fullest revelation of God in
Christ Jesus. While some complain that the Nicene Creed only mentions Jesus’
Crucifixion and Resurrection as it ignores his birth, teachings, and ministry,
there is a deep wisdom in this sole focus on the Cross. The Cross is the
epitome of Jesus’ mission – as it is a sign for all that Jesus did in his
ministry and service to God.
In
Israel during the time of the Roman Empire, crucifixion was extremely painful,
humiliating, and disgraceful. In fact, in Deuteronomy it states “For anyone
hung on a tree is under God’s curse.” Even within Jewish understandings, being
crucified was a sign that you had been cursed by God, that you were
Godforsaken. Yet, in John we read of Cross as the glorification of Jesus – the
event where God’s glory is most clearly seen in Jesus.
So
what is it that we see in the Cross? What glory is there to be found is such a
repugnant sign? It is this: that the love of God will not be defeated, scared
off, or minimized by anything that we can do. The chief priests and Pharisees,
and Pontus Pilate pushed Jesus to edge. But Jesus pushed back by doing what he
did throughout his life: forgiving, healing, loving. The Cross is a sign of
God’s ultimate freedom – that nothing we can do is going to make God stop doing
what God does. No sin of ours will change God’s mind, no obscenity of ours will
make God retreat, not even our murder of God will diminish God’s love. God will
save us, and there is nothing that we can or must do in order to deserve it or
receive it.
The Cross is a sign that
shows and points us towards something – namely the possibility of our
reconciliation to God. The effects of sin, death, and fear, while still being
very present, are no longer obstacles. The Cross gives us the possibility of a
radically different sort of relationship with God – one of unconditional love.
It is a love that is intended by God to transform our world, to transform our
relationships, to transform our soul.
In his book, Rowan
Williams tells the following story: In 19th century France, a young
soldier makes a bet with some of his colleagues that he’d be able to get some
sort of reaction out of a priest. So he goes to Confession and pours out every
sin that he can think of in the most vivid and detailed of terms. This solider
thought he was quite clever and expected to get some sort of reaction out of
the priest. But there was a silent pause after his Confession. The priest then
said “Now, my son, I want you to go to the middle of the church and stand in
front of that large Crucifix and say to Jesus ‘You died for all of those sins,
and I don’t give a damn.’ And I want you to keep saying it as many times as you
can.” So the young soldier went out to Crucifix and looked up at it and started
to open his mouth. But as he looked upon the Crucified Jesus, he couldn’t
muster a word. He then left the military and joined a monastery. This story
exemplifies the power of the sign of the Cross.
On the Cross, Jesus made
himself a symbol, a communication, of God’s love. If we can dare to look at the
Cross, we too can be transformed. As the great hymn proclaims “When I survey
the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count
but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Were the whole realm of nature
mine, that were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my
soul, my life, my all.” The Cross is a sign of this love so amazing.
In addition to being a
sign, the Cross is also a sacrifice. By sacrifice, I mean that it did something,
that it was more than just a senseless murder. I realize that in many circles,
there has been a deemphasizing of sacrificial language when it comes to the
Cross. But to ignore the sacrifice of the Cross is to ignore most of Scripture.
Throughout the Old Testament, we can read about the practice of making
sacrifices to restore the relationship to God. Not only did these animals
sacrifices have an element of forgiveness, but in a very practical way, they
provided meat for the community to eat in a shared meal. Is this not what the
Eucharist proclaims – that through Jesus’ death we have been reconciled to God
and have fellowship with one another?
So as the faithful Jewish
followers of Jesus struggled to comprehend the notion of a crucified Messiah,
they could not help but see Jesus’ death as analogous to their religious
traditions which provided both forgiveness and sustenance. Jesus’ death was a
sacrifice in that it broke the chain of consequences between evil actions and
evil consequences. Certainly, torturing someone to death on a cross is evil.
And yet, what comes out of Jesus’ death is not more evil, but the salvation of
the world.
What the sacrifice of
Jesus does is to do what we ourselves cannot do. Because we are captive to the
realities of Sin and Death, we can never be fully obedient to God. But Jesus,
as perfectly human and perfectly divine, could. Jesus’ obedience to the Father
opens up what had become closed off because of Sin. Jesus’ life of obedience to
God and ultimate sacrifice remakes what it means to be a human, it reframes
what is possible, it gives us a new possibility. This is what we read today in
Hebrews, that the sacrifice led to “the new and living way that Jesus opened
for us.”
Even if we find the
imagery of sacrifice and bloodshed to be archaic and offensive, nevertheless,
Jesus’ death did something – namely giving us a bridge to God that crosses the
chasm of Sin and Death that we ourselves cannot cross by ourselves. The ancient
Church Father, Gregory of Nazianzus wrote “For that which He has not assumed He
has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved.” In
other words, because Jesus sacrificed his life to God in the face of the
powers-that-be, because Jesus went all the way down into the depravity of human
sin, into the God-forsakenness of crucifixion, into the darkness of death, then
we are raised with him all the way back up into the glory of God..
Now you might wonder –
what difference does this sacrifice mean for me? When I think of the “so what”
of Jesus’ Crucifixion, I think of the saints of the Church. There have been
people who have lived their lives in the glory of the Cross. Being aware of
God’s all-surpassing love they have become unafraid of Death and resolute in
standing up against Sin. I think of people who risk their lives to save others.
I think of people who have died for their faith. I think of people who have
dared to stand up against injustice, people like Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela,
Martin Luther King, St. Teresa, St. Perpetua, St. Stephen, St. Alban. Their
ministry was enabled by the sign and sacrifice of the Cross.
One of most over-used and
misapplied Biblical passages comes from Philippians – “I can do all things
through him who strengthens me.” It doesn’t mean that you can throw touchdowns,
pass a test, or anything like that. Rather, it means that because of Christ’s
sacrifice and beating down of Sin and Death, that we can partake of that new
and redeemed way of life.
And that is why the Cross
matters and why, as gruesome as it is, that it must be at the foundation of our
faith. The Cross is a sign, showing us of God’s deep and abiding love. The
Cross is a sacrifice, restoring us to the full stature of our humanity. The
Cross is not to be understood, it to be appreciated. May the love of the Cross
transform your soul and our world. Amen.
