We come every week to stand
at the foot of our Lord.We come and look up at the cross.
We come and look at the nails.
We come and look at his hands.
But how many of us come and look at his eyes?We look at his scars.
We look at the guards around him.
We look at the men who beat him, and stripped him, and cast lots for his clothes.
But how many of us have the courage to look at his face?We stand at the cross.
We weep at the cross.
We wonder in awe at the cross.
But do we notice the man on the cross?We hear the screaming.
We hear the mockery.
We hear shouting crowd.
But do we hear the words he speaks to us?Each week we come and survey the scene around us.
We take it all in.
But in our weekly sojourn,
how often do we remember the reason that we came there.Because I don’t think it’s the cross that gives Golgotha its power.
And I don’t think it’s the Roman Soldiers at the cross.
And I don’t think it’s the crowd of the cross.
And I don’t think it’s the sounds of the cross.
But I think that what gives that hill its power
is the Man of the Cross.
And to know the power of Golgotha
you have to know the Man of Golgotha.As you look at the cross,
look in his eyes.Eyes full of pain.
Eyes full of sorrow.
Eyes full of wisdom.
Eyes full of joy.
Do you know the Man of the Cross?
again, clearly, this was in an eye phase. it was largely inspired by a passage in Cheney’s book God is no Fool – a book that still puts the hook in me sometimes. in it she asks why we don’t look into the eyes of Christ.
i also went through a phase where i was very uncertain about our methodology of celebration of the eucharist. to me, we have a strange fixation on pain and suffering during communion, though i wouldn’t have said so at this point. but even at this stage, i think i was frustrated by our strange focus on nails and crosses and soldiers as opposed to focus on Jesus… now i would say that that we focus too much on the cross and not enough on the empty tomb – the real anomoly of the whole story, but at this point in my walk i think my realization was that not just the eucharist, but really all of Christianity, is about Christ. there are lots of dressings and other things we put around him, but the essence is found in Jesus, and in Jesus alone.