Jesus has been preaching, teaching, casting out demons and healing broken lives throughout the region of Galilee. It\u2019s a place broken by many divisions. In Galilee there are rich people who enjoy fabulous luxury; there are poor people literally starving. In Galilee there are devout Jews but there are many Gentile settlers as well. There are farmers but also manufacturers, weavers and potters and metal smiths. In Galilee Roman and Palestinian and Jew and many others as well live side by side and not always peacefully. There are slaves, citizens, outcasts and many people just trying to get through the day, to put bread on the table, raise their children, take care of their parents, and wondering if there isn\u2019t something they are missing. It is in Galilee that Jesus first turns to his disciples to ask, \u201cWho do people say I am?\u201d and then, \u201cWho do you say I am?\u201d It is there that Peter exclaims, \u201cYou are the Christ, the anointed one of God\u201d. And it is in Galilee that Jesus first speaks of the cross to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is the cross? What does it mean to pick up your cross? What does it mean to follow Jesus with your cross? It\u2019s difficult to extract the cross from the overlay of lore and tradition which surround it. It\u2019s difficult to separate it from the meanings we have thrust upon it. Like an old piece of furniture finished and refinished and painted over, it takes careful effort to strip off all the surface layers and see the cross for itself, for what it truly is, and not mistake it for the decorations we have applied. Today crosses come in all shapes and sizes; they come in all kinds of materials. For us the cross is principally jewelry. It\u2019s an ear ring, a pendant, a lapel pin. Clergy wear pectoral crosses: big ones that sit on the chest, perhaps hoping people will assume the bigger the cross, the more faithful the minister. For us the cross is pretty and empty and we put it on or take it off like a name tag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the first century knew the cross for what it was: an image of death, a symbol of execution. The Jewish historian Josephus who lived in that time tells of thousands of crucifixions in the area of Jerusalem. Two thousand were crucified by the general Varius about the time of Jesus\u2019 birth and five hundred a day for weeks were crucified by Titus in 70 AD during the Jewish war. In June 1968, the skeleton of a crucified man from the period was found in northeastern Jerusalem. He had died with his arms tied to a crossbar, with a foot nailed on either side of the upright, with legs unbroken and he was found with an iron nail still impaled in his right heel. Death for a crucified person does not come from the trauma of the nails; it comes from asphyxiation. The unsupported position of the body strains the diaphragm and eventually the person is unable to breathe. It is a long, painful death designed to terrify all who see it. The public nature of crucifixion was its essence. Crosses were guarded by the Romans to make sure that the victim was not rescued by friends or family. For a Jew, death on a cross carried an additional stigma. Deuteronomy provided that a man who was hung on a tree was cursed. So a crucified Jew was not only dead but cast out as well from the covenant of Abraham. It was a spiritual death as well as a physical death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the meaning we must extract from the cross. The cross is about death and degradation. It is the stripping away of dignity, it is the denial of humanness as well as the extinguishing of life. This is the cross; this is what it means. This is why Peter and the others reacted so strongly when Jesus said he was going to a cross; they were scared to death. No one had to tell anyone in the first century about the meaning of the cross. Crucifixions were common; all they had to do was walk out in a public place to see them, to hear the gasps of the victims and feel an involuntary prayer forming: \u201cThank God it\u2019s not me\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cross is terrifying. So terrifying that other generations couldn\u2019t stand to think about it. In the centuries after Jesus, crosses became more and more elaborate and more and more beautiful. The high art of the Middle Ages found its expression in the production of crucifixes and the working and reworking of the cross in gold and silver and with inlaid jewels. By the 1600s when a longing to return to the deeper, simpler, purer meaning of Christian faith swept England and our fathers and mothers in the faith, the early Reformed Christians, rode to war against the Church of England, they made a thorough going attempt to destroy these pretty crosses. All over England they melted them down, broke them apart, and closed the chapels which had housed them. No pretty gold or silver or brass cross ever adorned a Reformed communion table. Today we are reluctant to speak of this period; we don\u2019t like to remember there were religious wars or that people died to free themselves from the dead hands of kings and popes and bishops. But we shouldn\u2019t forget it; we should remember what they did and celebrate it. Every cross they destroyed, every pretty, jeweled, precious cross shaped artifact they destroyed was one step closer to recovering the bright hard light of the cross experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the cross is not an object but an experience. The cross you wear is not the true cross: the cross on the table here is not the true cross. The true cross is our fear; the true cross is our excuse. The cross is what holds us back from God, the ultimate barrier to living as a covenant partner in the kingdom of God. Jesus and his first followers certainly knew this even if we do not. To them crosses weren\u2019t beautiful; they were frightening. The call to carry a cross was a call to faith in the midst of fear, a call to bring even fear to God faithfully. The text of Jesus\u2019 first prediction of his death contains this experience. Peter is basking in getting the right answer when Jesus speaks of the cross and he tries to argue with Jesus. Peter is scared! But Jesus tells him to get behind him, that is, not to be a barrier. The call to the kingdom of God is not all comfort; it is a call to face the threat of death. It is the call to a faith in life and the life giving power of God so complete that death\u2014and the cross\u2014lose their power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the cross is life and death. Jesus knows this: Jesus speaks of it. He says, \u201cWhoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it\u201d There is the choice: to hang on to your own life with your own two hands as hard and tight as you can, grasping and scratching with all your might what you will lose in the end\u2014or to let go and believe you can live in the hands of God. To come to the cross, to the real cross, is to to face our own death, our own suffering, our own fear and embrace them; to believe that even there, God is present, to believe it even when there is no feeling of presence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cross was not beautiful to Jesus or his followers. It was not a symbol of life, it was a concrete reminder of death. But it reminded them as well that even there, on a cross, on that symbol of the greatest, most violent, ultimate worldly power of their time, God was alive: God was present. The cross was not powerful because of its beauty; it became beautiful because they remembered the power of God had overcome it. There, faithful even to death, Jesus embraced God. To follow Jesus is to let go of the charm bracelet cross, the ear ring cross, the pectoral cross, the brass table cross and pick up a real one. It is to frankly and faithfully face fear and failure, accept what you cannot change not in despair but in faith that God can work even there. It is to accept your death but even more to offer your life to the transforming energy of God\u2019s love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the true cross. It exists in only one place: the hearts of faithful Christians. We see its shadow from time to time. I see it in hospital rooms the night before an operation. I see it in the lives of people living their faith. The true cross is not pretty and does not hang on ears or walls; it does not sit on shelves or tables; it burns in the hearts of men and women who are being transformed because they are faithfully seeking to live the gospel. It is not the triumphant signal of victory; it is the last exit before the Kingdom. And when we have passed it, tthen we know that we are home with God where we belong, for as Paul said, if we have died with Christ, we shall certainly live with him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Cross
\nA Sermon for the Salem United Church of Christ of Harrisburg, PA
\nby Rev. James Eaton, Interim Pastor \u00a9 2026
\nGood Friday\/A \u2022 April 3, 2026
\nMatthew 27:32-44<\/p>\n
Jesus has been preaching, teaching, casting out demons and healing broken lives throughout the region of Galilee. It\u2019s a place broken by many divisions. In Galilee there are rich people who enjoy fabulous luxury; there are poor people literally starving. In Galilee there are devout Jews but there are many Gentile settlers as well. There are farmers but also manufacturers, weavers and potters and metal smiths. In Galilee Roman and Palestinian and Jew and many others as well live side by side and not always peacefully. There are slaves, citizens, outcasts and many people just trying to get through the day, to put bread on the table, raise their children, take care of their parents, and wondering if there isn\u2019t something they are missing. It is in Galilee that Jesus first turns to his disciples to ask, \u201cWho do people say I am?\u201d and then, \u201cWho do you say I am?\u201d It is there that Peter exclaims, \u201cYou are the Christ, the anointed one of God\u201d. And it is in Galilee that Jesus first speaks of the cross to come.
\nWhat is the cross? What does it mean to pick up your cross? What does it mean to follow Jesus with your cross? It\u2019s difficult to extract the cross from the overlay of lore and tradition which surround it. It\u2019s difficult to separate it from the meanings we have thrust upon it. Like an old piece of furniture finished and refinished and painted over, it takes careful effort to strip off all the surface layers and see the cross for itself, for what it truly is, and not mistake it for the decorations we have applied. Today crosses come in all shapes and sizes; they come in all kinds of materials. For us the cross is principally jewelry. It\u2019s an ear ring, a pendant, a lapel pin. Clergy wear pectoral crosses: big ones that sit on the chest, perhaps hoping people will assume the bigger the cross, the more faithful the minister. For us the cross is pretty and empty and we put it on or take it off like a name tag.
\n\fBut the first century knew the cross for what it was: an image of death, a symbol of execution. The Jewish historian Josephus who lived in that time tells of thousands of crucifixions in the area of Jerusalem. Two thousand were crucified by the general Varius about the time of Jesus\u2019 birth and five hundred a day for weeks were crucified by Titus in 70 AD during the Jewish war. In June 1968, the skeleton of a crucified man from the period was found in northeastern Jerusalem. He had died with his arms tied to a crossbar, with a foot nailed on either side of the upright, with legs unbroken and he was found with an iron nail still impaled in his right heel. Death for a crucified person does not come from the trauma of the nails; it comes from asphyxiation. The unsupported position of the body strains the diaphragm and eventually the person is unable to breathe. It is a long, painful death designed to terrify all who see it. The public nature of crucifixion was its essence. Crosses were guarded by the Romans to make sure that the victim was not rescued by friends or family. For a Jew, death on a cross carried an additional stigma. Deuteronomy provided that a man who was hung on a tree was cursed. So a crucified Jew was not only dead but cast out as well from the covenant of Abraham. It was a spiritual death as well as a physical death.
\nThis is the meaning we must extract from the cross. The cross is about death and degradation. It is the stripping away of dignity, it is the denial of humanness as well as the extinguishing of life. This is the cross; this is what it means. This is why Peter and the others reacted so strongly when Jesus said he was going to a cross; they were scared to death. No one had to tell anyone in the first century about the meaning of the cross. Crucifixions were common; all they had to do was walk out in a public place to see them, to hear the gasps of the victims and feel an involuntary prayer forming: \u201cThank God it\u2019s not me\u201d!
\n\fThe cross is terrifying. So terrifying that other generations couldn\u2019t stand to think about it. In the centuries after Jesus, crosses became more and more elaborate and more and more beautiful. The high art of the Middle Ages found its expression in the production of crucifixes and the working and reworking of the cross in gold and silver and with inlaid jewels. By the 1600s when a longing to return to the deeper, simpler, purer meaning of Christian faith swept England and our fathers and mothers in the faith, the early Reformed Christians, rode to war against the Church of England, they made a thorough going attempt to destroy these pretty crosses. All over England they melted them down, broke them apart, and closed the chapels which had housed them. No pretty gold or silver or brass cross ever adorned a Reformed communion table. Today we are reluctant to speak of this period; we don\u2019t like to remember there were religious wars or that people died to free themselves from the dead hands of kings and popes and bishops. But we shouldn\u2019t forget it; we should remember what they did and celebrate it. Every cross they destroyed, every pretty, jeweled, precious cross shaped artifact they destroyed was one step closer to recovering the bright hard light of the cross experience.
\nFor the cross is not an object but an experience. The cross you wear is not the true cross: the cross on the table here is not the true cross. The true cross is our fear; the true cross is our excuse. The cross is what holds us back from God, the ultimate barrier to living as a covenant partner in the kingdom of God. Jesus and his first followers certainly knew this even if we do not. To them crosses weren\u2019t beautiful; they were frightening. The call to carry a cross was a call to faith in the midst of fear, a call to bring even fear to God faithfully. The text of Jesus\u2019 first prediction of his death contains this experience. Peter is basking in getting the right answer when Jesus speaks of the cross and he tries to argue with Jesus. Peter is scared! But Jesus tells him to get behind him, that is, not to be a barrier. The call to the kingdom of God is not all comfort; it is a call to face the threat of death. It is the call to a faith in life and the life giving power of God so complete that death\u2014and the cross\u2014lose their power.
\n\fFor the cross is life and death. Jesus knows this: Jesus speaks of it. He says, \u201cWhoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it\u201d There is the choice: to hang on to your own life with your own two hands as hard and tight as you can, grasping and scratching with all your might what you will lose in the end\u2014or to let go and believe you can live in the hands of God. To come to the cross, to the real cross, is to to face our own death, our own suffering, our own fear and embrace them; to believe that even there, God is present, to believe it even when there is no feeling of presence.
\nThe cross was not beautiful to Jesus or his followers. It was not a symbol of life, it was a concrete reminder of death. But it reminded them as well that even there, on a cross, on that symbol of the greatest, most violent, ultimate worldly power of their time, God was alive: God was present. The cross was not powerful because of its beauty; it became beautiful because they remembered the power of God had overcome it. There, faithful even to death, Jesus embraced God. To follow Jesus is to let go of the charm bracelet cross, the ear ring cross, the pectoral cross, the brass table cross and pick up a real one. It is to frankly and faithfully face fear and failure, accept what you cannot change not in despair but in faith that God can work even there. It is to accept your death but even more to offer your life to the transforming energy of God\u2019s love.
\nThis is the true cross. It exists in only one place: the hearts of faithful Christians. We see its shadow from time to time. I see it in hospital rooms the night before an operation. I see it in the lives of people living their faith. The true cross is not pretty and does not hang on ears or walls; it does not sit on shelves or tables; it burns in the hearts of men and women who are being transformed because they are faithfully seeking to live the gospel. It is not the triumphant signal of victory; it is the last exit before the Kingdom. And when we have passed it, tthen we know that we are home with God where we belong, for as Paul said, if we have died with Christ, we shall certainly live with him.
\nAmen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,109],"tags":[267,421,237,67],"class_list":["post-2041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exegesis","category-matthew","tag-cross","tag-good-friday","tag-grace","tag-jesus"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2041"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2042,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2041\/revisions\/2042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}