How This Protestant Came to Love the Crucifix

A few weeks ago, I found myself in Saint Mary’s Cathedral, the bishop’s seat for the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. I wanted to make a point to pray in that old church, a church whose exterior I had admired since I was a child. As I approached the alter, I was overwhelmed by the beautiful life-size painting of Christ crucified above the alter. I knelt on the kneelers at the front and the only prayer that I could find the words to pray was the great Sanctus, a doxology used in the liturgy: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts. Heaven and Earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest! Amen.” 

Crucifixes are not a part of the church tradition I grew up in. I was raised in a nondenominational evangelical Protestant Charismatic congregation. Sure, we had crosses but none of them featured the crucified Christ. Instead, our pastor explained that while the Roman Catholics were focused on the crucifixion, we were focused on the resurrection. Christ is risen! Therefore, our crosses are empty. While the Roman Catholic Church cares about the resurrection just as much as Protestant church, I think my pastor still had a fair point. Empty crosses do emphasize the risen Christ (though, I would argue that there are better images for expressing the hope of the Resurrection). However, I think there is value in meditating upon and picturing the crucified Christ.

No Greater Challenge

In the gospel of Luke, Jesus calls his disciples to, “deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” We are called to life cruciform lives. That is, our lives are to reflect the upside down reality of the cross.

This is the type of love we are called to emulate. The Apostle Paul beautifully captures this in the famous Christ Hymn from Philippians:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that 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.

This is the character we are called to emulate, our Lord on a tree. On the cross, true power, freedom, and love manifest themselves in sacrificial love. True freedom does not look like holding onto one’s life, it looks like giving it away. True love does not look like infatuation, it looks like self-sacrifice. On the cross, we see God’s love, His nature, in its most vivid display.

When I look at the crucifix, these counter-intuitive realities flood my mind. My God hanging on the cross asks of me to live a life like that. As I recognize just how far I am from that ideal, I have no choice but to throw myself at the feet of that same God and beg forgiveness and grace. I cannot help but break out into lament crying, “holy, holy, holy.” The crucifix brings me to the feet of Jesus in confession.

No Greater Hope

When I perceive my Lord on a tree, I am not only reminded that I fall horribly short of His example but that the cross is the only hope I have for emulating it. Because Jesus died for me, I can come to live in communion with Him. Because Jesus died for me, I can live like Him. Because Jesus died for me, “I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). The crucifix not only paints a picture of how we are called to live but illustrates the means by which we are able to start to live that way. As I recognize that Jesus will help me to grow closer to Him, living in me and I in Him, I cannot help but break out into worship crying, “holy, holy, holy.”  

The cross is a challenge and a promise. It is a challenge to live like Jesus in sacrificial love. It is a promise that the God who died on a tree for me will help me along the way.

Can an empty cross accomplish this? Possibly. However, is there any image that more vividly calls us to deeper service and holiness than Christ crucified, as we seek to model our lives after His? Is there any image more comforting than event that made it possible for us to grow more like Him in the first place? In short, the crucifix encompasses the gospel. And that powerful challenge and encouragement is why this Protestant loves the crucifix.

What Now?

How might you implement the crucifix into your own faith walk? First of all, you could acquire a crucifix for your home or room. I would recommend shopping for one at a thrift store. A worn crucifix reminds me just how ugly and broken the crucifixion was and just how ugly and broken my sinful nature is. A worn cross is also beautiful. It reminds me that beauty can transcend brokenness. In addition, a used crucifix has been an object of devotion for someone else. Mine reminds me that my faith is bigger than myself, that I am connected to the communion of saints.

Secondly, spend some time in a high church. Pray in a Catholic or Orthodox or Anglican sanctuary where the crucifix is still displayed above the alter. Take some time to meditate on passages about the cross or about living like Jesus. 
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This is the first of a series of articles. Over the last few years, I have fallen in love with images, ideas, and practices from The Great Tradition. This series is not an apology or theological treatise. It’s the theological reflections of one Christian. There are hundreds of articles from accomplished scholars defending the subjects of these articles from both the Bible and church tradition. I would encourage you to take the time to read a few.

I decided to start with the crucifix quite intentionally. Every practice I will be reflecting on has one goal: to draw us deeper into love and imitation of Jesus. No matter how foreign some of these might seem, that’s the goal. If these practices do not accomplish that goal for you, there is no pressure to adopt them. My goal is not to convert, simply to reflect, share, and lovingly challenge my Protestant brothers and sisters to think outside their ecclesiastical comfort zone and, hopefully, come to look a little more like Jesus to whom all honor, and glory, and power is due, forever and ever.

Peace be with you,

James