At the Cross

Monday, April 14, 2025

Happy Monday, my friends! Yesterday, we celebrated the beginning of Holy Week during which we commemorate and celebrate the Last Supper, the arrest and interrogation of Jesus before both the religious and governmental authorities, Jesus’ passion and death on a cross, his burial, and finally his resurrection. It’s a rollercoaster of emotions packed into only a special few days, but it’s not without some significant pitfalls and moments when we have to be careful with our language. For one particular example, we have to carefully separate the intentions and fears of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time and place from the members of their community in first century Roman Palestine and from their religious descendants more than two thousand years later. Far too often, Christians have used the events of this week to accuse the entirety of Judaism of “killing Christ.” Yet, the Gospels make it clear that those involved were the leaders of the Jewish community (see Matthew 27:15-23). Their reasons were diverse, yet their primary motivation was fear. They feared losing their influence over their community and they feared that Jesus’ radical message would turn Roman favor against them. Remember, they were still expecting a messiah who would upend the social and political landscape. In short, the Jews both of first century Palestine and the Jews of the 21st century bear no more responsibility for the death of Jesus than residents of 21st century Rome.

Another physical and theological place where Christians often get lost is at the cross. Theology often refers to the “scandal of the cross” because something which was the most feared, terrible, and shameful form of state-sponsored capital punishment became the site of salvation. But the cross and Jesus’ death on the cross have been used as a locus for control by church leaders for centuries. The church has positioned itself as a gatekeeper to the salvation offered through Jesus’ sacrifice and have used our sins to say that we, the people of God, bear a responsibility for “putting Jesus on the cross” or, even worse, for “killing Jesus.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

As a Christian Universalist, the cross remains a theological obstacle for me. Inasmuch as I believe that humanity needed a savior and liberator to come and save us from our sins and from ourselves, I can accept that Jesus accomplished this by his death on the cross. That said, I reject the logic God required Jesus—who is God—to die to appease God’s wrath towards humanity. My perspective on Jesus’ death is twofold and, I concede, still fluid. First, Jesus died to give us an example of what moral courage is and how we can and should stand squarely in our convictions, values, and character even to the point of death. Second, Jesus died to liberate us from the bondage of death. In order to demonstrate that, despite being formed from the earth, we belong to God and death has no dominion over us, Jesus had to die and then return from the dead. Though humans still die, we die knowing that we will be united with God.

Call it a scandal, a theological quandary, or the source and summit of your salvation, we can all stand in awe of the enduring enigma of the cross and how Jesus transformed the cross from a symbol of death to a symbol of life and love.

What are you looking forward to this Holy Week? What about Holy Week conflicts you?

In lieu of a prayer today, I offer you the lyrics from Chris Tomlin’s “At the Cross” which inspired today’s reflection.

There's a place

Where mercy reigns

And never dies

There's a place

Where streams of grace

Flow deep and wide

Where all the love

I've ever found

Comes like a flood

Comes flowing down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of You

Where Your love ran red

And my sin washed white

I owe all to YouI owe all to You Jesus

There's a place

Where sin and shame

Are powerless

Where my heart

Has peace with God

And forgiveness

Where all the love

I've ever found

Comes like a flood

Comes flowing down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of You

Where Your love ran red

And my sin washed white

I owe all to You

Here my hope is found

Here on holy ground

Here I bow down

Here arms open wide

Here You save my life

Here I bow down

At the cross, at the cross

I surrender my life

I'm in awe of You

Where Your love ran red

And my sin washed white

I owe all to You

Jesus

Where Your love ran red

Your love ran red.

Blessings on your weeks, my friends! Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you.

Faithfully,

Ben

At the Cross

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