The Church: 16. The Church of Christ our Saviour: The Meaning of the Cross
[A reflection for Holy Week]
Introduction
If we had
witnessed Jesus’ week leading up to his crucifixion, we might have seen it as a
week beginning with hope for religious, social, and political change that ended
terribly. His execution would have been
seen as the result of a hasty and unjust verdict by a corrupt judicial system,
as yet one more example of the horrific and violent acts carried out by persons
with power, the fickle views of an ignorant mob seething with anger and eager
for political change, and even an act of betrayal by a friend. If a video camera had recorded the actual
crucifixion, nothing ‘religious’ would have come to mind except, perhaps, the
thought that here was an example of the righteous sufferer of the Psalms—the
problem of evil itself with no apparent resolution as Jesus breathes his last
in utter agony on a Roman cross just a short distance from the Temple of God in
Jerusalem.
What could
make the fact of someone’s death the
most powerful event in human history? The fact of the
cross of Jesus Christ cannot be separated from our interpretation of Jesus’ death. Knowing
who Jesus was makes all the difference. No
single identification could suffice for the early Church, as Jesus filled up
each designation and yet was more. He
was the prophet, the Messiah, the son of David, the Son of God, the servant of
God, the high priest like Melchizedek, righteous sufferer, the Lord worthy of
our worship. He took on the roles of Moses,
Elijah and Elisha, King David, and Israel itself. To see him was to see God himself. To say all this about Jesus and to say that he willingly died upon a
cross requires a fuller understanding of God.
Moreover, the
lenses that make this death different
from all the other unjust trials and sufferings of the human race are the
lenses of the Old Testament writings, of Jesus’ ministry leading up to his
death, of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead three days later, of his several
appearances to many disciples to confirm his resurrection, and of the
countless, transformed lives of those who have put their faith in him through
the centuries. Through these lenses, we
see not just another crucifixion illustrating the problem of evil in our world
but God’s own offer of salvation for that world—our world. Through these lenses we gain a fuller understanding
of the gravity of sin and of the mercy of God.
Jesus’ death
on the cross cannot be explained through a single interpretation. It must be seen in the multiple dimensions of
divine salvation that our lenses of interpretation afford. To contemplate this, imagine an old, stone
chapel with stained glass windows and murals at the top of a hill. Call it ‘The Church of Christ our Saviour,’
or, if this is too traditional for you, ‘Grace Chapel’—but you’ll have to keep
the stained glass and murals. The church
has nine windows on each side. At the
front of the church building hangs a large, wooden cross, with two murals on
each side in the alcove behind the Lord’s Table. Opposite this, at the entrance to the building,
are three windows—one on each side of the wooden doors and one situated above
them. This is the architecture needed to
enable deep reflection on the meaning of the cross.
The Cross
The cross in this imaginary church
building is rugged. It has holes and
blood stains from previous use. But it
is also empty of any form hanging upon it, for no adequate reflection on so
cruel an instrument of torture and death will be adequate or appropriate
without at least the hint of resurrection.
Christ no longer hangs on the cross, and the meaning of the cross must
be seen from the whole narrative of Jesus’ passion, death, resurrection, and
exaltation.
Scenes of Relational Change
The three
windows at the entrance to the church depict the change in relationships that the cross of Jesus Christ brings. The window to the left of the doors depicts repentance and forgiveness with a scene
from John the Baptist’s ministry of a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins. To the right of the doors is a
scene depicting the transfer of a slave from an evil taskmaster to a kind, new
master. It is a scene of liberation, not of the freedom of self
but of the freedom found in life now lived in obedience to God, Maker of the
universe, whose laws are not only the laws of physics but also of moral order
for living the good life as God intended.
The window above the church doors depicts the third change in relationship
found in the cross. It sits exactly
opposite the cross and depicts the love,
peace, and reconciliation between God and others that emerges from Christ’s
bearing of our sins and shame, and his abandonment by God on the cross due to becoming sin for us. The love and peace depicted above the doors
of the church are the pathway for entering into the profound reflection on the
cross that one can only appreciate from within the Church of Christ our
Saviour.
Scenes of Exchange
On the left
wall of the church are nine windows depicting scenes of exchange that interpret the cross of Christ our
Saviour. The first window
depicts the exchange of association. It is a scene of Israel’s liberation from Egypt to become God’s own treasured possession (cf.
Exodus 19.5-6). Combined with this Old
Testament imagery (that might just as well have been illustrated by Abraham’s
departure from Ur) are words from Jesus’ prayer to the Father, ‘They do
not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world’ (John
17.16). The reflective worshiper will
remember that the separation of which Jesus spoke was not a taking of God’s
people out of the world but of keeping them from its evil (v. 15) and was of a
purification that allowed them to undertake an effective mission to the world
(v. 17).
The second window
depicts transference of sins, as when
a person transferred sins to the head of an animal. In this window, the priest of Israel, Aaron,
is shown with his hands on the head of a live goat that is about to be sent
away into the wilderness, bearing away the sins of Israel (Lev. 16.21).
The third
window is a scene of the payment of
ransom. It depicts payment of a
large ransom for a slave, but the circumstance from which the slave is being
ransomed is death itself. On the window
are words from Psalm 49, ‘For the ransom of life is costly’ (Psalm 49.8).
The fourth
window depicts the similar exchange of redemption. Here, joyful exiles are being redeemed from
their captivity by foreign nations and are being returned to dwell in the
Kingdom of God. God is shown as the
‘kinsman redeemer’ in this scene, and words from Isaiah accompany the scene: ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are
mine’ (Isaiah 43.1).
The fifth window offers a depiction of the exchange
of identification. This is the logic of one person identifying
with and playing the role of another person or persons. It entails the notion of one person suffering
for others, or of the many participating in the righteousness of another. As Jesus took on the role of Israel, we, too,
might take on his role by identifying with him, by ‘being in Christ,’ as Paul
phrases this notion of identification or participation with Christ. Jesus, though without sin, entered the waters
of baptism—a baptism for the repentance for the forgiveness of sins—with all
Israel: he took on the role of sinful Israel so that sinners might take on his
righteousness. The scene depicted should
be of Jesus exiting the water of the Jordan River, where John the Baptist
baptized, dripping wet. With this scene
might be the words, ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the righteousness of God’ (2 Corinthians 5.21).
The sixth window of exchange depicts sacrifice, where the blood of the pure
and holy life is shed for the impure and unholy life, the righteousness of the
righteous one is imputed to the unrighteous.
Such a scene should capture the words of Isaiah, ‘But he was wounded for
our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment
that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed’ (Isaiah 53.5).
The seventh window of exchange should capture the
notion of exchange through the imagery of taking
off filthy rags and putting on the clean clothes of righteousness. This can be depicted with the scene of the
return of the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable (Luke 15.21-24). Perhaps the deeper message of this exchange
in Revelation 7.14 could accompany this scene: ‘These are they who have come
out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.’ That, too, could
make an amazing scene: person’s emerging with whitened robes from a pool of
blood at the foot of the altar on which the Lamb of God, Jesus himself, has
been slaughtered.
The eighth window of exchange is that of paying a penalty. It involves the combined image of a free gift and of justification in the law court whereby the debt owed by a sinner is
cleared by another. The scene in this
window involves Jesus’ free gift of his own life and righteousness for the
ungodly before the justice and wrath of God, and the appropriate words from
Romans to capture this theology of the cross might be, ‘God proves his love for
us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely
then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through
him from the wrath of God’ (Romans 5.8-9).
The last window of
exchange on the left side of the Church of Christ our Saviour depicts enrichment of the poor, needy, sinful, and marginalised. This is not to be the heretical teaching of
the Prosperity Gospel but its exact opposite.
It depicts the exchange of Christ himself: ‘For you know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became
poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich’ (2 Corinthians 8.9). The correct theology of this verse involves
understanding this first as metaphorical—wealth is not merely material
wealth. Second, to the extent it might
involve anything material, the notion is that Christ’s example of giving rather than of obtaining, keeping, and enjoying for oneself
is being expressed. Perhaps this
could be captured with a scene of Jesus welcoming to a lavishly prepared dinner
the poor, the little children, the widows and orphans, the Gentiles—a Scythian
slave—the sick, and repentant sinners.
It might even imitate Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Last Supper, but with these disciples, not the traditional twelve,
to make the powerful point of Christ’s enrichment
through his incarnation and death.
Remarkably, the theology of 2 Cor. 8.9 is not that Jesus was rich and
cared for the poor out of his wealth, but that he, by becoming poor, made
others rich. The cross is not
philanthropy—which might be the basis of a Prosperity Gospel. It is rather exchange, taking on the identity
of the poor in order to enrich them according to their needs.
Scenes of Personal and Corporate Change
On the right side
of the Church of Christ our Saviour will be found nine windows depicting the change of personal and corporate relationships
in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The first window will depict the personal and corporate change
symbolized by covenant relationship. The death of Christ, symbolized by the bread
and wine at the Lord’s Table, is the establishment of the new covenant
predicted by Isaiah (59.20-21), Jeremiah (31.33), and Ezekiel (36.26-27). It is the culmination of the previous
covenants of God with Abraham (Genesis 12.1-3) and Moses (Exodus 19-20). While God’s choosing a people to be holy and
blameless in his sight, electing them to fulfill his purposes, and making a
covenant with them is not equivalent to salvation—for, as we learn repeatedly
in the Old Testament, an elect people may turn away from God to idolatry and
other sins—the covenant relationship is the relationship God establishes to
work out his plan of salvation in the world.
One symbol of covenant that depicts both individual and corporate
separation from sin to live in obedience to God is circumcision. While it was a physical sign of the covenant
God made with Abraham and his offspring (Genesis 17.10-14), it became a
metaphor for the circumcision of the heart God expected from his people (Deuteronomy
10.16; 30.6; Jeremiah 4.4; 9.25-26) and that was the hallmark of the new covenant
prophesied by the prophets and established by Jesus through his death and
resurrection. Paul uses the metaphor of
a circumcised heart to explain baptism in Colossians: ‘In him also you were
circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh
in the circumcision of Christ; when you were buried with him in baptism, you
were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him
from the dead. And when you were dead in
trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together
with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood
against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross’
(Colossians 2.11-14). Thus, the first window could depict covenant symbols with
imagery of circumcision, baptism, or the Lord’s Table, with the last of these
being the clearest image (and baptism has already been used) of the new
covenant in Christ’s death. Perhaps the
words of institution for the cup might appear with a depiction of the Last
Supper: ‘Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying,
"Drink from it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is
poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’ (Matthew 26.27-28).
The second window
will depict the change of heart a
believer experiences, not only of belief but also of the moral life. Christ, through his sacrificial death,
established the new covenant of God with his people: ‘But this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I
will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people’ (Jeremiah 31.33). Jesus’ call for a deeper righteousness in
God’s Kingdom was a call for this new covenant morality that was not only a
matter of outward acts but an ethic of the heart, not only righteous deeds
instead of unrighteous deeds but also acts that overcame unrighteousness, not
only practices that brought about personal transformation but ones that also
made possible an end to vicious cycles of sin and brought about social good and
justice, even through sacrifice. Perhaps
the scene to capture this vision of the heart set free from sin, the oversight
of the external Law, and the resultant death from transgressions is Paul’s own
conversion on the road to Damascus.
The third window
depicting change of personal and corporate relationships is the change of mind such that those caught in sin to
the extent of no longer knowing the will of the Creator have their minds
renewed. The two verses in Romans that
capture this theology of the changed mind are Romans 1.28 and 12.1, 2: ‘And
since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased
mind and to things that should not be done…. By the mercies of God… do not be
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so
that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and
perfect.’ The two examples of the
depraved mind Paul offers in Romans 1.18-28 are those of people who have turned
from worshiping the Creator to the worship of idols in the form of what God
created, and of people who have given up natural relations of men with women as
God intended in creation in order to engage in homosexual acts. This perversion of God’s intention in
creation is counter-balanced in Romans 12 with a depiction of restored
fellowship as members of Christ’s church use their God-given gifts for the sake
of the body of believers. Instead of the
distortions of community represented in idolatry and homosexuality is the
restored fellowship and community of believers.
The artist working on this window needs to capture both the depravity
and the change to a restored mind by the mercies of God in Christ Jesus. Paul captures this with the image of
believers presenting their bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to
God (Rom. 12.1). In Ephesians he says, ‘You
were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and
deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds….’
(Ephesians 4.22-23).
The fourth window
of personal change through the cross is the Pauline image of the old man/new man contrast. The passage from Ephesians goes on to speak
of this and also involves the image already mentioned for another window of exchanging
clothes: ‘… and to clothe yourselves with the new self [Greek: ‘new man’],
created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’
(Ephesians 4.24; cf. Col. 3.9-10). This
change takes place through identifying with the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ: ‘We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of
sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin.’
(Romans 6.6-7). Perhaps an alternative
to Michelangelo’s depiction of creation on the front wall of the Sistine Chapel
in Rome would capture this—not God’s first creation of Adam but God’s
recreation, his restoring to new life of an old man burdened by sin and death.
The fifth window
of personal and corporate change might extend the previous image with a
depiction of participation in the death
and resurrection of Jesus. As Paul
says in Romans 6, ‘For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we
will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his’ (Romans 6.5). Paul’s imagery for this participation is our
own baptism, and the baptism of a multitude in waters between the cross and the
empty tomb might be a way of depicting this truth of the cross. The relational change would entail both our
individual relationship to Jesus because of his death and resurrection and our new
relationship to the Church, the body of Christ.
As Paul says in Galatians, ‘As many of you as were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no
longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ,
then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise’ (Galatians
3.27-29).
The sixth window
on this right side of the church building depicting personal and corporate
change would be indicate the cleansing or
purifying work of the outpoured Holy Spirit. Ezekiel’s depiction of the new covenant
entailed the imagery of a valley of dry bones—the exiles of Israel—coming back
to life as the ‘breathe’ or Spirit of God recreated life within them. A scene of the valley of bones coming to life
might be accompanied with Ezekiel 37.14 (ESV): ‘And I will put my Spirit within
you, and you shall live….’ This verse
follows the earlier reference to God’s new covenant: ‘A new heart I will give
you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body
the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within
you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances’
(Ezekiel 36.26-27). This is the basis
for Paul’s teaching on the Holy Spirit, as, for example, in 1 Corinthians 6.11,
where the work of Christ on the cross is combined with the new life of the
Spirit to explain the remarkable personal and corporate change that believers
experience: ‘And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you
were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in
the Spirit of our God.’
The seventh window
depicts repentance and conversion to
capture personal (and corporate) change effected through the cross of Jesus
Christ. Luke offers a powerful story of
personal reception of Jesus’ death (Luke 23.39-43). While one criminal derides Jesus for not
saving himself if he were the Messiah, the other acknowledges the justice of his
own condemnation and pleads for Jesus’ to remember him (save him) when he comes
into his kingdom. Jesus accepts his
words, demonstrating the effect of the cross in bringing forgiveness of sins
even if the words are not explicitly stated here. Yet this incident is nothing different from what
we read in 1 John: ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and
the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just
will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us’ (1 John
1.8-10). Thus, this seventh reflection
on the meaning of the cross for personal change depicts the two criminals
crucified with Jesus while quoting the words we find in 1 John 1.8-10).
The eighth window will
depict the personal and corporate change for believers in terms of making persons righteous. The work of Christ is not just a forgiving
grace, it is also a transforming grace.
There is no logic to sinning so that God’s grace may abound all the more
if the correct theology of the cross is one of both forgiving and transforming
grace. This theology has already been
expressed above in terms of dying and rising with Christ (Romans 6) or being washed,
cleansed, and ‘made righteous’ (as ‘justified’ can be and probably should be translated
in 1 Corinthians 6.11, quoted above, and in Titus 3.7, ‘… having been
justified [made righteous] by his grace, we might become heirs according to the
hope of eternal life’). This theology of
being made righteous through the cross would fit well as the other dimension to
justification, depicted on the opposite side of this church in its eighth
window.
The ninth window
depicts new life and healing. Revelation
offers the picture of a restored Eden for the salvation God extends to his
creation. We read, ‘On either side of
the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its
fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations’
(Revelation 22.2). As the ninth window,
it is opposite the window of exchange that depicts enrichment of the poor,
needy, sinful, and marginalized through Christ’s becoming poor in this age. On the right side of the Church of Christ our
Saviour, where the focus is on imagery that interprets the cross in terms of
personal and corporate change, a picture of the healing of the nations with the
leaves of the tree of life would extend the message from the exchange Jesus
brings to the personal and corporate change in the age to come.
Spiritual and Cosmic Change
The
significance of the cross is not only personal, corporate, and universal. It is also spiritual and cosmic. At the
front of the Church of Christ our Saviour will be four murals. The cross hangs on the middle of five walls
making an alcove behind the Lord’s Table.
To the left of the cross are murals of spiritual change that the cross brings. First, the cross brings a victory over Satan, freedom from demonic
power. This was anticipated in the
disciples’ ministry of the Kingdom of God when, like Jesus, they cast out
demons. Jesus replied to the disciples
ministry report that he saw Satan fall like lightning from the sky (Luke 10.18). A similar vision is captured with reference
to Jesus’ ministry in Revelation, when the dragon is conquered in heaven but
persecutes the church on earth (Revelation 12).
The spiritual victory over evil spiritual powers is stated in
Colossians: ‘He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public
example of them, triumphing over them in it [the cross]’ (Colossians 2.15). Thus, we might combine the passage from Colossians
with the scene from Luke 10 for this first mural capturing the spiritual
significance of the cross.
The second of the two murals depicting the spiritual significance
of the cross would depict the initial
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first believers at Pentecost (Acts 2.1-4). Verse 4 says, ‘All of them were filled with
the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them
ability.’ Believers are not only set
free from spiritual wickedness and Satanic forces but are set free in the
Spirit to live holy and righteous lives as a testimony to the nations by God’s
empowering presence, the Holy Spirit.
Through Christ’s death, God’s mission to the world is inaugurated by the
outpouring of his Holy Spirit on the renewed people of God.
To the right of the cross will be two other murals
depicting the cosmic and creational change effected by the death and
resurrection of Christ. The first would
depict Paul’s Adam/Christ typology,
which he uses explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15 in clarifying the doctrine of the
resurrection and in Romans 5 in contrasting the first Adam’s trespass and the
second Adam’s act of righteousness, with their effects on humanity. Similarly, in Colossians 1.15-20, there is an
implicit contrast of Adam with Christ.
Christ is not the first human creature, as was Adam, but in fact the Creator
and sustainer of the universe. He was
not the first living human being but the firstborn from the dead. Whereas Adam was created in God’s image,
Jesus was always the image of the invisible God in whom all God’s fullness was
pleased to dwell. Along with a mural
depicting Jesus as the second Adam, we might, then, have the full words of this
passage along with a mural of Christ the Lord, conqueror of death: 'He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all
things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created
through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things
hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the
firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in
everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and
through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth
or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross’ (Colossians
1.15-20).
The second mural depicting the cosmic and creational
change effected by the cross would expand the notion of Christ as victor to his
ultimate rule—to the end of the unfolding story. While the risen Christ has been exalted to
heaven and presently rules as Lord,
he will bring his rule to its climax one day when everyone will acknowledge
that he is, indeed, Lord. In fulfillment
of Isaiah 45.23, Paul tells us, at the name of Jesus—his name that identifies
him with the one God (Isaiah 45.22-25)—all will bow: ‘… at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’
(Philippians 2.10-11). With these words
might be depicted a mural of the crucified Christ ruling, perhaps as Revelation
does with the image of a lamb that was slain and yet endowed with authority
(seven horns) and spiritual power (seven eyes) on the throne of God (Revelation
5.6-7). This lamb is able to receive the
scroll with the names of the redeemed and to open its seals because he was
slaughtered—by his blood the saints of God were ransomed (v. 9). The full imagery of this scene would include
the four living creatures, the twenty-four elders, many angels, and peoples
from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation worshiping the Lamb that was slain
and yet, by that victory, reigns upon the throne of God.
Conclusion
No single interpretation of the cross can fulfill its
significance, and each interpretation overlaps with and develops the thought of
another. Attempts to limit the
significance of the cross or to focus on only one or two interpretations of it
are akin to the worship who wishes to sit in the same seat every Sunday. In the imagined Church of Christ our Saviour,
worshippers must move around and reflect on the multiple dimensions of meaning
for the cross of Jesus Christ.
So, for example, the current trend in some halls of
theology is to reject an interpretation of the cross of the ‘imputed
righteousness’ of Christ. This simply
cannot be sustained when contemplating the multiple dimensions of exchange that
interpret the cross, particularly that of sacrifice. Nor can certain theologies who like to diminish
the need to acknowledge our personal sin and the need for personal
transformation and holiness feel comfortable beside depictions of the cross in
terms of personal and corporate change.
Moreover, certain theologies that focus Christ’s death on personal
conversion, while correct, need to be expanded with realizations of the larger
picture of corporate, spiritual, cosmic, creational, and eschatological change.
Finally, the cross itself is essential. Imagine the meaninglessness of such a church
building’s windows and murals without a cross.
This seems obvious, but there have been not a few attempts to have some
dimension of the theology of the cross without the cross. Some people, for example, wish to interpret
Jesus’ outstretched arms on the cross as a symbol of universal love without
remembering that this love was expressed sacrificially in his death for our
sins. Christian theology is not about
forgiveness, reconciliation, and love without sacrifice and death for
sins. It is not a mere acceptance,
welcoming, and tolerance of diversity without calling people to repentance and
transformation of their ways through Jesus’ death on the cross.
I am told that one seminary in the Midwest of the United
States removed all the crosses from its campus as an offensive and violent symbol
for those wishing to emphasize the positive message of peace and love. It would be shocking enough to hear of a
local church engaged in this sort of revisionist theologizing, but for a
seminary to do so is nothing short of incredulous. How profound the ignorance of the wise. As Paul said, ‘For Jews demand signs and
Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to
Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Corinthians
1.22-24). Through murals and windows of
the imaginary Church of Christ our Saviour presented here, the rich meaning of
the cross of Jesus Christ can be contemplated.