The high altar- where Jesus is shown on the Cross. Artists, sculptors, priests and theologians have all tried to portray the shocking reality of Good Friday. Magnificent churches and cathedrals, decorated in gold, silver and fine fabrics, have become places for the worship of the One who was crucified. His suffering on the Cross is represented with a crucifix, a near-naked body lifted high. Generations of believers have been inspired by the artist’s representations.
But in reality- it was not like that.
Reality was ripped skin, blooded head, impaled limbs, heat, sweat, terror, and horror.
His own mother watched and wept.
Hardened Roman soldiers were silenced.
The Earth groaned, and the Sun turned away.
An innocent Jesus, betrayed, tortured, and dying- a miscarriage of justice, a victim of power games and politics, yet still asking Father “Forgive them, they do not know what they do.”
The only precious metals in evidence: 30 pieces of silver, the price of a traitor.
I’m not criticising the artists who filled the altar: nor attacking any Christion tradition or denomination. The churches, cathedrals and altars have their place, and millions will worship in churches with “representations” of the Cross and the links between Heaven and Earth. There is no material alternative! No cameras existed at Golgotha, no Michelangelo sketching, no TV reporters blathering on and asking Mary “How do you feel about your Son today?”
Just the blood of a pure and sinless body, and a Voice crying out “It is finished!”
How can I imagine the terrible scene? How will I remember the death of Christ? And how will I grasp the reality of what is to come on the Third Day, when a Stone is rolled away and Resurrection brings new Life to a world that doesn’t deserve it?
More than a personal salvation for me, for us… this is a Kingdom of righteousness, justice, and joy, inviting us to follow the Way of the Cross and in the name of Jesus to proclaim life, freedom, justice, and hope until our last breath – then living that Kingdom into eternity where God will reconcile, renew, and re-create a new heaven and Earth and the Crucified One is crowned with glory instead of thorns.
THAT is what Good Friday and Easter Sunday is really like. That is what “Happy Easter” means.
The Reflectionary 