I prefer the crucifix. (The crucifix is the cross with the body of Jesus on it.) Some prefer the cross. Jesus is risen, they say. Best to keep focused on that. To me, however, the crucifix is a looming contradiction, a contradiction we do well to wrestle with.
When I look at a crucifix, I’m reminded of Jesus. He’s the one who came to teach us how to define power, love, vulnerability, and growth. He’s the one who showed us just how blind, ignorant, and mean we can be. He’s the one who showed us in a graphic way (by rising from the dead) how we are to transcend that blindness, that ignorance, and that meanness both within and outside ourselves.
And here’s the confusing part, the part that seems like a contradiction, the part we must wrestle with. Jesus shows us how to transcend these things not off the cross, but on it.
We expect God to remove suffering. Suffering, I bet, is the number one reason for people leaving God. If God is all-powerful and all-loving, why did He make a world that is so full of suffering? I get this, but I also get the crucifix. What is the message there? Are we too hasty leaving Calvary in our rush for the empty tomb?
Jesus did not come to remove our suffering. He came, in part, to show us that suffering is part of this life of ours. He came, in part, to show us what He can do for us and in us as we suffer. We take Jesus off the cross, and we lose sight of this fact. We lose sight of learning how to meet with Him as we suffer. We lose sight of just what God can do with suffering.
No. Let’s keep the crucifix.
Reflection
How does the image of the crucifix speak to your suffering and the suffering of the world? Are you willing to spend time with this image? If not, why not?
Prayer
Dear God, I’m not all that comfortable contemplating the crucifix. I’m not all that comfortable looking directly at my own and others’ suffering. But if You have something to say within our suffering, well, then, I’m willing to hear. Show me how to stay here with Jesus at Calvary. Show me how what He did with His suffering is meant to impact my own. Help me to see, Lord. Amen.