At one time I had a Celtic cross that I wore around my neck, just for two or three years or so. I remember a college friend asked me that if Jesus had been killed by firing squad, would I then wear a gun around my neck…or an electric chair, or a guillotine or a hangman’s noose…I found the question disturbing and distasteful; but over the years it’s a point well taken. Crucifixion was the punishment practiced by the Roman Empire for seditionists…enemies of the state. It was a particularly gruesome way to die, because it was meant to be observed by the public as a deterrent, lest anyone else got any rebellious ideas. It was terribly painful and the onset of death was a slow asphyxiation as the lungs gradually filled with fluid….and crucifixions occurred outside the walls of the city meant to shame the victim and the victim’s family…It was dehumanizing to say the least.
The saving act of God for the world was not this demeaning and shameful death of God’s son; but that as the raised community of the faithful, and the goodness that we bear as followers, imitators of Jesus…the saving truth is that this goodness can stand against and even overcome such shame and brutality… and must… We stand with our God in a solidarity of non-violence, peace and justice. This goodness, which is the kingdom of God in its very becoming, will transform the brutality and dispossession and shame that surely abounds. Salvation then is living the faith passionately serving the other. The crosses we wear around our necks this Holy Week, whether figuratively or literally, are the outward and visible signs that violence and injustice are ever present….and it is ours to stand against them no matter the cost…It is what we are made for…to make Holy the cross wherever we come upon it.
And let us remember all the crucified…all the shamed and victimized…We as the body of Christ are a living, life giving sacrifice for them…We who are resurrection life…life called forth out of the very darkness itself for the world’s transformation…life that is borne by all of us who stand at the empty tomb…life that raises the world’s dead…Resurrection life is Jesus’ legacy for the church and all people of conscience…and that life is ours to share, for it is real and it is alive, and it will change the world…and it will transform the brutality of the cross into a profound and resilient joy.
