The Holy Week is upon us. It is that time of the year when the story of the crucifixion of Jesus looms large in the consciousness of Christians, and in the consciousness of many non-Christians as well.
What is it that comes to mind when we think of the cross? For many, the cross is a symbol of sacrifice and suffering. It is a horrible picture of undeserved pain. The movie The Passion of the Christ made a very graphic presentation of what Jesus had to go through in the last moments of his earthly life. And many moviegoers could not help but express how they felt pity as they watched a man being brutally beaten and callously nailed to a cross.
This is the picture of the cross. And its significance has tended to be exclusively seen as a symbol of Christian suffering. As Christ suffered on the cross, so too must his followers be ready to suffer for him. And so the cross becomes a call to painful endurance. All that is true. But is the cross a symbol that points only to suffering? Is it a symbol that calls us to an attitude of somber seriousness?
I am not about to suggest that there is no place for the solemn appreciation of what Jesus went through for our sake. But perhaps our understanding of why he did it and what he accomplished should lead us more to celebrate the cross and delight in it.
I’ve been reading about the discipline of celebration. And at its core is the call to “holy delight and joy.” Sadly, delight and joy tend to be overlooked in the pursuit of spiritual maturity. I propose that the cross is exactly the place where Christian delight and celebration should stand.
While Jesus did suffer, the cross is more about his obedience to the Father. The very purpose for which Jesus came was to lay down his life for the salvation of the world. No one took his life. Rather, he gave it of his own free will (John 10.17-18). It was his pleasure to endure the cross in order to accomplish the divine purpose of redemption and give glory to the Father (John 17.3-4; Philippians 2.8). In other words, the cross was the moment of climactic victory for Jesus because the devil could not get him to divert from accomplishing the will of the Father. That is why Christianity has the unique practice of celebrating the death of its Founder and Lord as something good … good news. We do not mourn his death; we celebrate!
So, in the Christian life, we do embrace the cross as a path that involves sacrifice, and even suffering (Luke 9.20-23-24). Yet it also is gospel, a source of joy and delight, for by faith we become participants with Christ in his death and, in so doing, become sharers in his resurrection.
—Keith Y. Jainga