Today, Good Friday, our thoughts turn to the cross and the utter ugliness contained in this horrific image. How can we possibly meditate upon it at any length? I mean a whole-hearted meditation? It’s too demonic to behold for for very long. Could we look at a “Gerber baby” nailed there, the iron ripping its soft, pink flesh? Is Jesus less innocent than a baby?
There is, however, something that turns this image on its head and, indeed, draws us to it. If our vision is only of the cross, it is the ultimate depressing thought. Nevertheless, the cross comes to “hold a wondrous attraction” for us when we see its connection to another realm. And we see that in two ways. Firstly, we can behold heaven breaking through this hideous spectacle when we consider the “overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God” behind it. In seeing Christ descend to the uttermost depths of pain, suffering and hell to reach even terrorists who kill the innocent and child molesters who defile them, love from another world confronts us, a world we know not of–a transcendent world, heaven.
Secondly, when we gaze at the cross we need to keep in mind the magnificent power of God displayed in the resurrection which follows it. The cross is only the first stage of the Passion drama. It climaxes in power, light and glory as Jesus bursts through the tomb.
But let us not get too far ahead and leave Good Friday behind too soon. We do need to appreciate all that he suffered for us–the beating, the whipping, the being spat upon, the nails ripping flesh and bone, ultimately death and descent into hell. As we try to absorb this tragedy, however, may there also be a counterpoint to the spectacle we see. For in the midst of the depths of malevolence, pain and torment, we witness the greatest display of the glory of God ever seen by human beings (John 7:39;12:23,27-28;13:31-32;17:1).
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