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What Happened on the Cross?
What happened on the Cross? How would you answer that question? I imagine most Christians would respond with something along the lines of “Jesus died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). This is certainly true, of course. Yet, if you’re anything like me, I often wonder if such a response really captures the immense richness of the Crucifixion, the central symbol and source of meaning for our faith.
During Lent, the Rev. Wesley Arning and I are exploring the myriad ways the Cross can be understood in a Wayside Podcast series we’re calling “Motifs of the Cross.”[1] Influenced by Fleming Rutledge’s book, “The Crucifixion,” we are unpacking how different ways of understanding God’s work through Jesus Christ on the Cross complement and enrich one another. Thinking about the Cross in this way can feel complicated and, to be sure, it requires a healthy dose of imagination and self-reflection. But what better time than this season of Lent to meditate on such things?
For me, this meditation has meant thinking about how the Cross factored into my early formation as a Christan. In the tradition I was raised, Christ’s work on the Cross was almost exclusively talked about like this: Jesus took my place on the Cross and bore the punishment I deserve. This “motif” is called substitutionary atonement, but what about Christ’s victorious defeat over Sin and Death? What about the blood sacrifice He made of Himself? How do these motifs fit in?
If this series has done anything, it has certainly reaffirmed an indispensable truth – the historic event of the Crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His Resurrection should not be understood in a single, narrow way. Seeing what happened on the Cross in any narrow way is a bit like looking at a beam of light coming through a window and forgetting that within that ray of light is a spectrum full of many colors.
Using the prism of Scripture, enhanced by the light of theology and tradition, what emerges from the singular event of the Cross is a vibrant spectrum of meaning that enriches our understanding of God’s salvific work and, therefore, deepens our relationship with Him. There is no better way to get to know Christ more deeply than exploring what He has done for you and me.
So, what happened on the Cross? More than we can imagine.
[1] https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wayside-podcast/id1648717722
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