The Message of the Cross

Or...How Jesus Dies On Your Back

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In 2013 Erik Ravelo, a Cuban artist and modern-day prophet, shocked the art world with a series of photographs aimed at exposing an ugly truth about our world. The controversial project was called Los Intocables -The Untouchables- meant to draw attention to the ways in which the wealthy and powerful inflict violence against the innocent, the helpless and the pure.

Children were made to hang like Jesus on a cross made from the body of their oppressors. In one photo hangs a nearly naked boy off the back of a Roman Catholic Cardinal, symbolizing the ways in which lust, collusion, and the betrayal of trust create a culture of pedophilia in an institution meant to protect the innocent and the most vulnerable. In another photo is a young girl hung from the back of a sex tourist who takes advantage of the abject poverty of families who sell their children’s bodies for the money to buy food. The third photo is a child on the back of a soldier, meant to symbolize how the senseless power grab in Syria sees the loss of human life as voiceless and meaningless casualty. A fourth photo has a little boy hung from the back of a black market organ harvester whose only care for the innocent is whether the kidneys are healthy. The fifth photo has a young girl in her school uniform hanging defenseless from the back of an assault rifle enthusiast more interested in his gun rights than in keeping schools safe. The last photo has a chunky boy hanging from the back of Ronald McDonald, symbolizing how we don’t care what we feed our children as long as it is quick and cheap and comes with a toy.

Ravelo’s photographs caused a firestorm. Many were disgusted. Offended. Concerned that simply viewing his photographs might scar the conscience of good people. Facebook refused to have his photos uploaded. People wrote and threatened him, accused him of peddling in pornography.

You and I are disturbed, too, by his images. And understandably so. But perhaps not for the reason you think.
 
If what his art is saying is true, the biggest issues threatening the well-being of the innocent, the pure, and the helpless isn’t just that pedophilia, the sex trade, war, black market organ trade, school shootings, and childhood obesity are being perpetrated by the very ones charged to cherish and to defend. More than that - you and I have now been exposed to this ugliness. And without our permission. The blinders that we put on to keep out what we do not wish to know about the world have been pulled off. And now? We are complicit in its seeing. We now have to say we know.

Or to say it in another and much more personal way, my indifference, my neglect, and my apathy is now the cross on which the pure and innocent are dying.

Say that with me.

My indifference, my neglect, and my apathy is now the cross on which the pure and innocent are dying.

We might say, whoa Pastor! I’m not the one in the alb and stole. I’m not the one on the airplane to Thailand. I’d rather go to dialysis. I don’t own an AR-15. I didn’t vote for the guy who bombed Syria. And a happy meal every great once and a while isn’t going to kill anybody. Right?

I “like” every Facebook meme that is anti-Trump, anti-gun, pro-children. I go to my caucus meetings and try to live a life worthy of the Cross of Christ. And in a moment of feeling disgusted and deeply offended, who of us is not silently saying, “though these innocents are dying, they are not dying on my back!

Thank you, Mr. Ravelo. I think we can now have a more meaningful talk about the Message of the Cross. Or more to the point, how exactly it is that Jesus dies on our back is the wisdom and power of God?

Paul writes to the church in Corinth that, when it comes to a God worth worshipping, “Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Now let’s update the language

“When it comes to how we want to see how God is fixing the mess our world has become, some people demand a full-blown, end of the age spectacle. A glorified, universe changing sci-fi movie ending that ushers in a complete change.  Others try to find a greater meaning and personal growth in the struggles of life as we slowly but surely evolve into the beings we all believe we want for our world. But we preach Christ who dies on the backs of our indifference, our privilege, our hatred. Whose innocence and purity is snuffed out for our convenience, to indulge our pleasures, for political expedience.

And -to our everlasting shame- we will not have ears to hear the message that crucifying all that is good and holy and pure and innocent in our world makes more sense to us than to confess we are complicit with the evils in a world we are actually powerless to change.”
The power and the wisdom of the message of the cross isn’t just that Jesus is drawing all of us through the horror of our sinfulness and into forgiveness and new life that is found in him. And for those who have ears to hear let us pause to hear: that God has made a way for forgiveness, new life, grace and peace to flow from the healing stream of Jesus’ blood poured out for you and for me. We may have no way to bring ourselves into a living relationship with God. But praise God, God has found a way to come to us and for our sake in faith through Jesus’ torture and death at the hands of our world.

But this day, God grant us the courage to hear! This too is the power and wisdom in the message of the cross: We have been implicated. Jesus is crucified today on the backs of our indifference, neglect and apathy. We love the Jesus that hands out fish and bread. But when asked to sell our possessions and give it away to the poor, the hungry starve and die on the backs of our indifference and fierce individualism.  We proclaim that all are welcome at the table of God’s love. But when the undocumented are arrested and imprisoned, we turn a blind eye to the separation of families and immigrants die on the backs of our prejudice as we change the language from “dreamers” to criminals. And, much more to the point in our church, we love our youth until we see a Facebook picture with them smoking weed. And in a blink of an eye a son or a daughter of the congregation dies on the back of our fear and moral indignation as they are shown the door to the streets in the name of keeping our little ones safe from a street thug.

But because of the message of the cross, we can no longer un-see that we are the back on which Jesus dies. You and I have now been exposed to this ugliness. And seemingly without our permission. The blinders that we put on to keep out what we do not wish to know about the world and our neighborhood have been pulled off. And now? We are implicated in its seeing. We now have to say we know. We are forced to confess we are the why and the way Jesus has to die.
 
My indifference, my neglect, and my apathy is now the cross on which the pure and innocent are dying.

Say that with me.

My indifference, my neglect, and my apathy is now the cross on which the pure and innocent are dying.

The crosses we wear as jewelry on our ears, around our necks and on our rings are reminders of how we were and continue to be complicit in the torture of the innocent, the pure and the helpless. We are complicit. We are colluding. And no miraculous sign or profound insight has the power to reveal the ugly truth about us to ourselves better than the very simple message of the cross:  that we will find a way to crucify all that is pure and innocent when it no longer serves our narrative.

Paul writes, “For some, our message is so disgusting and offensive that it is a bigger barrier than the blinders they wear so they don’t have to see the evil in the world they have no power to overcome. For others, this message of the cross makes no sense in a world engrossed in its own self-help. But for those who believe the message of the cross, the called, Christ is the power and wisdom for which our spirits groan.”  But this message will break our hearts and force to us to face the worst in ourselves.
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Let those with ears to hear, hear.