Reacting to the cross

This is my 50th post for this blog, and I’ve been hanging out to make it a good one. This year I’ve been a bit conflicted as to exactly how we’re supposed to approach Easter. I know that a lot of bloggers have cried out for the church to learn how to grieve over the cross (Phil’s post over at signposts called “don’t forget to grieve” was a quality, confronting example) but somehow I think my natural reaction is for that type of approach to send me into depression and self-condemnation, which is probably just something that I’m working through.

And our church’s Good Friday and Easter Sunday services seemed to focus on the triumph of the cross, which I think is also good and right but didn’t quite sit with what I thought God was trying to say to me. It just felt like we were missing the confrontation of the cross, and even the foolishness of it. And make no mistake, there is a foolishness in the cross. That the son of God would complete his mission by dying, then rising again. There is a part to the story that you can’t quite reach logically.

Then this evening I saw the picture that I think best summed up what the cross is about for me, right now (it’s hideously self-absorbed that comment isn’t it). Tall Skinny Kiwi linked through to the image below on this post from Emerging City. It doesn’t shy away from what it is that in some ways frightens me the most about the cross. That Christ would do this for those people. For the people over there. For the scum. For the people that good little Christians like us stay away from. The people that infuriate me. The message of the cross is not just about loving the unlovable. But if that’s all you get out of it – you might just be getting closer.