He’s Still On The Cross?

This post was edited to correct a mistake I made on originally posting it. 11/16/10

When I was still attending Calvary Chapel (an Fundamentalist type church) I would often hear how wrong it was to portray Jesus as still on the cross, as found on crucifixes. The pastor would always say, “He is risen and no longer on the cross! They don’t get that. They are so focused on His suffering, they do not live the Resurrection life!” or something to that effect. We prided ourselves on being people who understood that Christ has risen, and will come again some day. We live in hope, while “those people” lived in legalism and despair, because “their Christ” is still on the cross.

Such an understanding is first arrogant, but also fails to understand a great many other things. Father Stephen Freeman has excellent teachings about the error of viewing the Cross as a past event, and the Second Coming as sometime in the future. You can access his blog via the blogroll under “Glory To God For All Things” or his podcasts on Ancient Faith Radio. Excellent reflections that will give you hours of stuff to meditate on, in just a few minutes.

In learning about the teachings of the Fathers, Traditions and prayers of the Church, my former Dispensational understanding of the Bible and eschatology has slowly been broken down, and washed away. In its place is growing the understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven as now. In its place is growing the true understanding of the divinity of Christ.

One of the hymns of the Church declares that while Christ was on the Cross, He was also in paradise with the thief, in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and harrowing Hades. Basically the hymn is declaring the omnipresence of Christ as God, even while He was incarnate. If you think about it, it makes sense. In Revelation we see that Christ appears at the end of all things as a “Lamb having been slain” (literally just slain), and yet He was crucified before the foundation of the world. There is something beyond our comprehension that is the mystery of the Cross. When we unite ourselves to Christ in baptism, we unite to all of Him. His Incarnation, His Crucifixion and His Resurrection. That union is eternal, even here in time (from our perspective).

Note: The above reference is not a hymn, it is one of the prayers said by the priest during the Divine Liturgy. After the Great Entrance (procession with the bread and wine/Gifts) and the Litany, the priest sets down the Gifts and prays silently, while the choir sings. This is the part of the prayer I referred to above: “In the Grave with the body, but in Hades with the soul, as God; in Paradise with the Thief, and on the Throne with the Father and the Spirit wast Thou, O Christ, filling all things, Thyself uncircumscribed.” Powerful!

So while I can say Christ “was” born, slain and resurrected from our linear vantage-point, in reality those things are not merely past events which we remember. They are present realities we live in Him. I have come to understand that limiting these events to our temporal, linear understanding falls miserably short of the reality that is our salvation.

When I am in the Divine Liturgy, I am beginning to understand that I am not attending a service of “remembering” the crucifixion of Christ, and definitely not “re-crucifying” Him. God Forbid! That is biblically unthinkable. When I stand in the Nave of the Church in the Divine Service, I am experiencing the actual Crucifixion, in a mystery. As St Symeon proclaims, “O Awesome wonder!” For this reason I have no problem seeing Jesus depicted on the cross.

Lastly, I have come to learn that Jesus was not some kind of cosmic scapegoat that suffered at the hands of the Father, taking our punishment. He did in fact suffer our penalty of Death, but it was not wrath that He suffered. That cross, while it was a shame, it was also an open victory over and throwing down of the enemies of God. The Crucifixion went far beyond suffering, as a thing to sorrow over. While we do sorrow for our sins, and at the thought of the Pure One of God dying on our behalf, we see the Cross of Christ as His victory over death. His resurrection is the ultimate culmination of that victory, but He triumphed on the Cross too. So for that reason also, I do not see a problem with having Christ depicted as on the Cross.

No, it is not a failure to understand the Resurrected Christ, it is the fullest understanding of Him. If I was so qualified (which I am not) and had all the space in the world to write, I could not begin to touch on the mystery of the cross. As I grow along this journey, I continue to find new joys and wonders that are the Orthodox Christian Faith. If anyone knows the actual hymn reference that I mentioned above about Christ omnipresence, please let me know what it is, and where I can find it. Thanks