“For the centuries of Christendom the cross was seen as an answer. Life held only two fundamental challenges- sin and death- and the cross dealt with them as surely as restoring sight and comfort by taking a speck of dust out of an eye. But the end of Christendom and the accumulated challenges of history, trust, life, purpose and power have turned the cross from an answer into a question.”
-Samuel Wells, Hanging by a Thread: The Question of the Cross
Many of us grew up being taught that the cross was an answer. An answer to a question that perhaps we weren’t even asking. But beginning to understand the cross as a question allows a journey of discovery to open up before us. The beautiful (and, surely, frightening) part is that there is no end to the questions. Maybe one question is about suffering. Another one is about violence, another one about love, and so on.
In this season of the cross- how might we in the church become less concerned with answers and more focused on the questions? How might this season open before us a journey of discovery- a journey that touches on the actual questions that we (and all those around us) have?
I wish you a meaningful end of Holy Week and a blessed Easter.