Weekly Rector's Message

August 10, 2024

Dear friends,

My wife Ruth was reading our three year old granddaughter a story, when the granddaughter noticed the cross which Ruth was wearing.

“What is this?” she asked.

Ruth replied, “It’s a cross.”

“What does it do?”

Before I share with you the answer that Ruth gave, I want to commend to your attention the wonderful theological question just posed by a three year old. I don’t recall ever hearing this question before, not even at seminary, but it strikes me as an obvious and essential one. The cross: what does it do?

Ruth answered, “it reminds me of God’s love for me”. Behind that truth lies a powerful story of death and transformation. The cross, as it was used in Roman times, was a means of execution. Everyone in first century Palestine knew exactly what the cross could do. After the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, however, the cross could do something else. It became a symbol of love.

I say love, and not life. The cross has never lost its original meaning and intention. Love and death both emanate from the cross. For the disciples, the death of Jesus on the cross was the end of a dream. The dark sky which hung over Jesus on the day of crucifixion continued to brood in the disciples’ hearts in the following days. 

Three days after the crucifixion, Jesus was raised from the dead. The power of the cross was suddenly overtaken by the power of resurrection. In light of the resurrection, we may ask the same question, “what does the cross do?” The cross killed Jesus, but not forever. Ultimately, the cross failed in what it was meant to do. 

The cross which we wear as a symbol of our Lord is a sign of God’s victory over death, which he won through suffering and self sacrifice. Through this supreme act of love, Jesus has transformed the cross into a sign of love, thereby robbing it of its human power over us. The human shaped cross, the feared means of death, has become the symbol of God’s love and reconciliation. 

I leave you with another question, (although not as profound as the one my granddaughter asked). What does the cross mean to you?

In the joy and love of resurrection,

Father David