I spend time in an Abbey and I have visited cathedrals and churches across the world. Of course, the cross is everywhere. Well, not in the Hindu temple, the synagogue, or the mosque, but you get the idea. All of my life I have heard how the cross was and is the answer to our sins. That it is an implement of death. I get that, but what if that is not quite accurate?
Here is what I mean and please, leave the heretic part out until you think about this. We have been told in church that blood had to be shed to forgive our sins. But the Psalms are clear, that is not what God wants from us. It did not work for the Israelites did it? They made sacrifices, a lot of them, and still Jesus had to come and show a “more excellent way”. I know the old hymn, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood”. I have always hated it because it is not good theology. It is old theology that did not work for the Jews and does not work for us.
What if the point of the Cross was and is to remind us that a Son of God chose to ignore his own ego, his own desires, his own fears and let the authorities take his life. What if the point of the Cross was to show us all that death is not the last word, but love. You see, we are all the children of the Eternal, we all are Beloved. If we are all Beloved, then we will all be resurrected. The Cross is not the end, it is the beginning. Until we understand that we start with the Cross, we will never understand hope.
Christ in you, the hope of Glory. That is the New Testament. That is hope, that we will all be resurrected. The Cross is not about nailing our sins to “the tree”. No, it is about knowing that in spite of what we think of ourselves, what we think we deserve, the Eternal God says no, not even a cross will stop My love for you. It is not the sacrifice we should meditate on, it is the act of pure, selfless Love.
When I survey the wondrous cross. That begins another old hymn and that is a good thought. Why do we wear a cross (yes I do)? My daughter thinks of it as an implement of torture and I get that. I have come to realize it is the emblem of Hope. I wear it because I want to be reminded that nothing can hold me back from God’s Eternal love!
TMM