The Clean Cross

I was very disappointed in pre-Easter blogging. While I took a blog fast at my other blog, I did blog here. I have over 200 blogs on my Bloglines account. Christmas got a whole month of preparation and blogging about the said preparation from about 80% of the blogs I read. I did it too.

Easter got a couple days of bunnies, candy, flowers, baby chicks and “Oh yeah…Jesus is risen, by the way.” I was amazed to read some people glad the whole thing was over so they could go back to regular life.

Now in all fairness about 25% of the bloggers I read blogged through Lent and about the journey (or fasted—maybe that was some of the issue, but I was familiar with who a lot of the fasting bloggers were.) The ones who did blog the journey or even just the week before blessed me unbelievably. But I was surprised at so many of the so called “Christian” bloggers who just posted an “Alleluia” on Sunday and called it good.

Sorry…

“We interrupt your comfortable existence to remember that Jesus, Christ the King, Emmanuel, The LORD of Lords, the Prince of Peace, Yeshua ha Mashiach’s pain and suffering, subsequent death and resurrection occurred. We are sorry to disturb the beauty of your Spring celebrations to show you upsetting and messy visuals of what it was like.”

Often it seems the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism is the difference between a cross and the Crucifix.

I wasn’t going to write that because it sounds harsh and somewhat like “fighting words.” But they aren’t. It is just the truth. I’ve never seen Jesus on the Cross in a non-liturgical church. I’ve witnessed some good sermons and seen some powerful movies, but I’ve never seen a Crucifix elsewhere.

I’ve never fasted through Lent & wept through Holy Week outside of the Catholic Church–although I am sure I would during Orthodox Great Lent & Pascha and probably if I visited Anglican churches. I’ve not been blessed to share those services with them.

Yes, I get that Jesus is no longer on the cross. Yes, I get that He no longer must pay the price. But the clean Cross has become a trendy little symbol and more a piece of jewelry. We dress it up with jewels & gems, we make it gold or silver, we carve it–artsy and sculptural, heck we even turn it into a Precious Moments cartoonish thing.

It is easy with the distance of over 2000 years to forget that it is a torture and execution device of the worst kind; the stake of death that God’s own Son willingly chose to die on…for us, for you, for me.

I think it is easy to become desensitized to the messiness of Christianity. We are too near being lulled into a false sense of security. Martyrs are not people we are aware of often enough—although there still are many today.

I don’t mind “crosses,” in fact I have them. My children have them. They can be an item of witness to an empty and needy world. But during my 20-odd years away from the Church I almost came to the point of thinking we shouldn’t have the Cross in church. We were led by a young pastor who wanted to take the Cross out of his church. He didn’t like the symbolism. He wanted to focus on only the Resurrection. I almost agreed.

Six years later I am glad I didn’t. In fact I would rather be disturbed by a Crucifix than see a “clean” Cross.

~ by throughadarkglass on April 8, 2008.