Find strength and hope in the cross

It is difficult as we kneel before the cross to hear the voice of the gospel. We might imagine that it waits for us at Eastertide, that tonight the law says its peace and come Sunday the gospel will finally win the day, but that is not so. The gospel spells freedom for those held captive to sin. The resurrection only matters for those who know they are dead.

We, who are both saints and sinners, kneel before the cross today or tonight and hear it speaking to us as both verdict and promise. It is true… each of us is guilty of our participation in the world’s suffering. We, each bearing the image and likeness of God in our very skin, do not respect that image in one another, much less the world we inhabit, God’s good garden.

We do not respect God’s creations—one another, or the world we live in. We put one another on the crosses at which Jesus now joins us. We must admit this or there is no need for the salvation Christ brings. We must admit we are in bondage to these patterns of human violence and environmental degradation before we can be liberated from them.

This is the promise of Good Friday… we will be liberated from these crosses—the ones we hang on and the ones on which we hang one another. These crosses, at once symbols of the divisions between us and a symbol of the end to all divisions, promise that God will not abandon us in our suffering. God comes to us just like this, just as we are, but God does not leave us this way. This is the cross—evidence of our sin, and sign of God’s love.