On Palm Sunday I shared my thoughts on the movie "The Passion of the Christ" with you. My final observation being that I found it theologically rather light.

There was no indication in it why Christ's followers loved Him so much; why those in power felt so threatened by Him, and most importantly why His death was so relewvant.

Today I'd like to pick up where Mel gibson left off, and explore beliefs about Jesus death on the Cross. First, back to the movie; in it we experience the last twelve hours of Jesus' life without the benefit of knowing what came before or was to come after the Crucifixion.

So what meaning did people see in Christ's death on that actual day 200 years ago? Bear in mind that only His mother, the disciple John, and Mary Magdeene stayed to the bitter end, the spectators were by and large not His folowers, and what most people saw was the execution of three men who had been condemned under Roman Law.

It may be that some people were aware that one of these three claimed to be a King or Messiah, but I would not assume that very many paid such close attention.

His disciples were for the most part terrified for their own lives, were in hiding, and for them the meaning of that days events was obviously one of danger.

I cannot say for sure that no one was reflecting on the meaning of His death that day; perhaps one of the Marys, or John or the Centurian may have done. The events themselves however and peoples reactions to themsuggest that it was only after the great surprise on Sunday morningthat His followers regrouped and began to think aboput what it all meant. Eventually they wrote down their reflections in what we know as the writings in the New Testament.

The first way to think about Christ's death is to see itas part of His Incarnation. I remember my priest years agopr4eaching that Christ was born in the shadow of the Cross. St Paul's letter to the Phillipians includes an early hymn or poem that says

"Christ Jesus was in the form of God, but He did not cling to equality with God,

He emptied himself, taking the from of a servant, and was born in our human likeness

And being found in inhuman form He humbled Himself, and became obedient to death even death on the Cross."

I know we normally associate the word "Incarnation" with Christmas but the imagery of the poem is that of Christ humbly taking on human flesh, then experiencing a human death, and a humiliating one at that. Christ ahs experienced everything known to humanity which means that when we in the midst of our own sufferings gaze upon Jesus on the Cross we can know that we do not suffer alone. Christ knows our suffering because he has endured like suffering and worse. This of course through the Christ in us allows us in our suffering to in some measure understand the sufferings of many we meet in our daily lives.

A second theology of the Cross is that of Redemption - Jesus' death as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. We say these words so often and I imagine we rarely think deeply about their meaning for us. The New Testament writers certainly described Jesus' death in this way, but in contrast when we need forgiveness we don't sacrifice anything; we simply confess. Our religeous assumptions have changed. It was just not possible,in the ancient world to discuss religon, without talking about sacrifice, so it is understandable that Jesus' death came to be seen in this way.

In speaking of sacrifice however we need to be very careful not to portray the Father as an angry God needing to be appeased through the shedding of innocent blood. God did not need the blood of Jesus, but used the universal language of sacrifice to demonstrate the depth of his love for humankind. John wrote "Grearer love has no one than this - to lay down his life for his friends" It is not what God needed but what we needed that put Christ on the Cross. His death in sacrificial termsis about God's loveand the extent God was willing to go to demonstrate this.

The last theology of the Cross we'll consider is as a symbol for discipleship. Luke quoted Christ as saying - " Whoever does not carry this cross and follow me cannot be my disciple" This does not mean that we are to commit ourselves to a life of misery. Afterall the same Jesus said that hHe came to give us life and life more abundantly. To take up our own Cross means that we are to do spirituallywhatr Jesus did physically - to offer our lives to God.

Jesus said "Those who lose their lives for my sake will find it" This irony but it is how God works in the world. If we try to cling to the control mechanisms of life we will be miserable; in offering our lives to God and living sacrificially our lighter grip on events will bring us God's peace.

Incarnation, Redemption, and Discipleship - three ways to understand the Cross of Jesus. Not an exhaustive list but in seeing Christ's deathin these ways we can understand why his followers were so devoted, why His opponentswere so threatened, and why Jesus the Christ is just as relevant today as He was 2000 years ago.

 

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