The Cross as A Symbol

Good Friday is a day set aside by many Christians to especially set their minds upon the Cross of Jesus. In the church I currently serve at, we set aside a time on Good Friday (this year 6:30PM) to gather, sing, pray, and listen to God's Word regarding the work of Christ on the cross. 

The cross is a big deal in Christianity. It is often the singular symbol representing Christianity. While there are plenty of other symbols that could and do serve to represent the faith we have in Jesus, the cross is currently the dominant symbol carried through the centuries, across borders, languages, and cultures. The cross of Christ has a shared meaning for believers. It was not always so. Through time in history believers have used art to express their beliefs in many different ways until the cross became the dominant symbol that it is today. John Stott writes the following in his book "The Cross of Christ" after discussing several well-known symbols in world religion and politics:

"Christianity, then, is no exception in having a visual symbol. The cross was not its earliest, however. Because of the wild accusations that were leveled against Christians, and the persecution to which they were exposed, they 'had to be very circumspect and to avoid flaunting their religion. Thus the cross, now the universal symbol of Christianity, was at first avoided, not only for its direct association with Christ, but for its shameful association with the execution of a common criminal also.'(2) So on the walls and ceilings of the catacombs (underground burial places outside Rome, where the persecuted Christians probably hid), the earliest Christian motifs seem to have been either noncommittal paintings of a peacock (supposed to symbolize immortality), a dove, the athlete's victory palm or, in particular, a fish. Only the initiated would know, and nobody else could guess, that ichthys ('fish') was an acronym for Iesus Christos Theou Huios Soter ('Jesus Chris, Son of God, Savior'). But it did not remain the Christian sign, doubtless because the association between Jesus and a fish was purely acronymic (a fortuitous arrangement of letters) and had no visual significance. 

Somewhat later, probably during the second century, the persecuted Christians seem to have preferred to paint biblical themes like Noah's ark, Abraham killing the ram instead of Isaac, Daniel in the lions' den, his three friends in the fiery furnace, Jonah being disgorged by the fish, some baptisms, a shepherd carrying a lamb, the healing of the paralytic, and the raising of Lazarus. All these were symbolic of Christ's redemption, while not being in themselves incriminating, since only the instructed would have been able to interpret their meaning. In addition, the Chi-Rho monogram (the first two letters of the Greek word Christos) was a popular cryptogram, often in the form of a cross, and sometimes with a lamb standing before it, or with a dove. 

A universally acceptable Christian emblem would obviously need to speak of Jesus Christ, but there was a wide range of possibilities. Christians might have chosen the crib or manger in which the baby Jesus was laid, or the carpenter's bench at which he worked as a young man in Nazareth, dignifying manual labor, or the boat from which he taught the crowds in Galilee, or the apron he wore when washing the apostles' feet, which would have spoken of his spirit of humble service. Then there was the stone which, having been rolled from the mouth of Joseph's tomb, would have proclaimed his resurrection. Other possibilities were the throne, symbol of divine sovereignty, which John in his vision of heaven saw that Jesus was sharing, or the dove, symbol of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven on the Day of Pentecost. Any of these seven symbols would have been suitable as a pointer to some aspect of the ministry of the Lord. But instead the chosen symbol came to be a simple cross. Its two bars were already a cosmic symbol from remote antiquity of the axis between heaven and earth. But its choice by Christians had a more specific explanation. They wished to commemorate as central to their understanding of Jesus neither his birth nor his youth, neither his teaching nor his service, neither his resurrection nor his reign, nor his gift of the Spirit, but his death, his crucifixion. The crucifix (that is, a cross to which a figure of Christ is attached) does not appear to have been used before the sixth century."

[(2) The quote that Stott cites in the first paragraph above is from Michael Gough's "The Origins of Christian Art, 1973]

In the local church in which I serve the cross is a common symbol. It is by far the most dominant symbol on our church's property. This week I went on a hunt for all the crosses I could find on display. I took almost 30 pictures of crosses. Including the shape of the cross which our Sanctuary is set up in (I had to get the big ladder to try and photograph the shape of the walkways in our sanctuary). Seemingly every kind of wall decor, painting, quilt pattern, and even angel figurine is fashioned in the shape of the cross! 

Stott has several great quotes in the last pages (48 & 49) of his first chapter regarding how essential the cross is to the faith of those who follow Jesus:

P.T. Forsyth, the English Congregationalist, wrote in The Cruciality of the Cross (1909):'Christ is to us just what his cross is. All that Christ was in heaven or on earth was put into what he did there....Christ, I repeat, is to us just what his cross is. You do not understand Christ till you understand his cross'

And the following year (1910) in The Work of Christ he wrote: 'On this interpretation of the work of Christ [that is, the Pauline doctrine of reconciliation] the whole Church rests. If you move faith from that centre, you have driven the nail into the Church's coffin. The Church is then doomed to death, and it is only a matter of time when she shall expire'

Next, Emil Brunner, the Swiss theologian whose book The Mediator was first published in German in 1927 subtitled A study of the Central Doctrine of the Christian Faith, defended his conviction with these words: 'In Christianity faith in the Mediator is not something optional, not something about which, in the last resort, it is possible to hold different opinions, if we are only united on the "main point." For faith in the Mediator - in the event which took place once for all, a revealed atonement - is the Christian religion itself; it is the "main point"; it is not something alongside of the centre; it is the substance and kernel, not the husk. This is so true that we may even say: in distinction from all other forms of religion, the Christian religion is faith in the one Mediator....And there is no other possibility of being a Christian than through faith in that which took place once for all, revelation and atonement through the Mediator'.....

....My final quotation comes from the Anglican scholar Bishop Stephen Neill: 'In the Christian theology of history, the death of Christ is the central point of history; here all the roads of the past converge; hence all the roads of the future diverges'" [End of quotes from Stott's book The Cross of Christ]

This Good Friday it is good to take time to consider the cross. Consider the following questions as you consider Christ on the cross: What did Christ do on the cross? Why is the cross such a big deal? Why does the cross matter for you today?