The Politics of the Message, Part 8 - The Cross
November 14th, 2007 by Sean
In order to start talking about the cross we must go back in time before rappers starting wearing cross necklaces, before contemporary songs about the cross became popular on Christian radio, before the great hymns about the blood were composed, before the crusaders used it as a standard in their “holy wars,” before the churches began to see it as a symbol God’s love towards humanity, back to the time of Jesus when the cross already had a meaning attached to it. “As everyone in the Roman world knew well, the cross already had a clear symbolic meaning; it meant that Caesar ruled the world, with cruel death as his ultimate, and regular, weapon” (Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans, by NT Wright).
The cross was a hated symbol of foreign power. The Romans ruled through raw violent force. In fact, there were over a dozen would-be messiahs that began movements around the time of Jesus of Nazareth. The regular punishment for anyone who sought to rebel from the imperial authority was to be crucified. This was a public demonstration and deterrent which humiliated the so-called messiah and struck fear and nausea into all passers by. As we have seen in earlier posts on this topic, the Roman Empire was not a place where religion was separated from politics. The various forms of polytheism at the time had no trouble incorporating Caesar as a god or as a son of God. Thus, the cross, as the symbolism (and means) of Caesar to use his power made both a political and religious statement.
So when Jesus of Nazareth went up on the cross with the sign “King of the Jews” posted above his head (in three languages) it becomes clear that he was being executed for political reasons. He is a claimant to the Jewish throne (an idea that is at once very religious and very political). From the perspective of the public, or better yet from the perspective of the soldiers at the base of the cross, Jesus of Nazareth is just another would-be messiah who was foolish enough to buck the system and has justly suffered the wrath of the rightful “Lord and Savior,” the true “Son of God”–Caesar.
Yet, there is another perspective that needs considering–the divine one. Through this one horrendous, unjust event everything got flipped upside-down. In competition with the raw power of violence symbolized in the Roman cross is the raw power of love that permeated Jesus even while being tortured. The cross was used by God to accomplish the greatest act of love in recorded human history. Through the powerlessness of Jesus’ crucifixion all the power of Rome was broken and a new way emerged. God had destroyed the fear of the cross through Jesus to such a degree that the followers of Jesus would later face inconceivably brutal tortures and death fearlessly. The prime symbol of mortality which said to the world “life is cheap” was changed by God into a symbol of immortality which now said to the world “life is of infinite value.” Through the weapon of Caesar to defeat, Caesar was defeated by the rightful “Lord and Savior” the true “Son of God” who was shown to be triumphant in his resurrection three days later.
I think we can easily see that “flip” today. When anyone sees a cross - instantly we think of Jesus / Christianity. That is a total co-opt of a previous logo. As Sean stated the cross meant brutal death at the hands of Rome as a criminal. That intense change of meaning is practically unheard of. It would be like taking the Nike “swoosh” logo and making it the brand image for Martha Stewart’s home and garden. Just a total change. Now the cross means life and salvation (albeit through the death of one).
And that is one of the revolutionary aspects of God. He is entirely capable of working through any circumstances to get the results he desires. He works through a torture and killing device in the life of Jesus to grant forgiveness and promises to the world that isn’t even looking for it.
Because it is one of the revolutionary aspects of God, it became one of the aspects of his new people “Christians”. They gladly accepted torture and death as witnesses - because it made them more like the Messiah that conquered through death. It meant that they too would rise to life as he did, that they would overcome - even through death.
Today death is still considered the final arbiter of men. The game ends when you die. Yet, Christians have let the truth of the crucifixion of the Messiah change their view about death, because now there is something beyond death for them. And now life means something entirely new as well. Because we aren’t living in light of a coming death, but in light of a coming life.
“That intense change of meaning is practically unheard of. It would be like taking the Nike “swoosh” logo and making it the brand image for Martha Stewart’s home and garden.”
Or like taking a sacred symbol and turning it into the symbol of fascism and mass death.
Good point, Karen. Yet it is easier to spoil a sacred symbol than it is to make sacred a spoiled symbol and that is exactly what God did. It kind of speaks to his limitless power.
Indeed. I was at the Princeton Art Museum today, and saw a remarkable painting by Ilya Repin, a Russian late 19th and early 20th c. artist, called ‘Golgotha’. (I can’t find a picture of it online, or I’d provide a link.) It showed two crosses with men hung on them, far up at the top of a large canvas. Across the bottom of the canvas lay a third cross, on the ground, with the inscriptions still attached. There was no Jesus, just blood stains on the cross and a pool of blood on the ground. There were three feral dogs, drawn to the blood. In the background was a building in the mist, with a single lamp burning in its entryway, the only visible source of light in the painting (of course representing the light of the world). Seeing that cross on the ground was stunning: it was an incredibly powerful and moving work of art.