In the coming months, Jesus will be crucified afresh in America as a man is executed by a firing squad and his death is livestreamed for the world to watch.
We so often get hung up on the cross as a theological statement of salvation that we miss everything else God intended to highlight through it. By taking the brutality of capital punishment upon himself, Jesus exposed the darkness of our hearts and our governments and put it on display for all to see. It’s as though his outstretched arms say, “Look at all the darkness this world is capable of. Are you willing to be a part of these horrors?”
The answer for many, some two thousand years later, is still, “Yes.”
The mockery Jesus endured while bleeding out on the cross will be found in the mockery of countless heartless comments across social media.
The chief priest’s proclamation that there is no king but the emperor will be heard as many endorse the government’s decision.
Many will join in unison with the crowd that killed Jesus, saying, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!”
Will Jesus not feel the PTSD in his very body as he watches the crowd rise up again? Will he suddenly be hyperfocused on the scars on his hands?
It doesn’t matter that Jesus was innocent and that this man has done horrendous evil. This is about the evil that we are capable of. You don’t overcome a force that kills and destroys by killing and destroying. You don’t heal broken lives by taking lives. Vengeance doesn’t work because “one cannot satisfy thirst by drinking seawater.” More crucifixion cannot and does not honor the most famous crucified man of all time. We are not to nail people to crosses any more than we are to load nails into guns.
The God of the living, the Son of the resurrection, and the Spirit of healing have a different way of dealing with the sins of the world. The only blood Jesus sheds is his own. He is a God of transfusion, not of spilling. He doesn’t cut pieces off people, but puts them back on. And he doesn’t only do this for his friends, but for his enemies as well.
And if we are to follow his example, then we must learn how to do the same.
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