The Victory of the Cross

I attended a Good Friday musical production yesterday, and it was very effective and moving. The effects were tremendous, the choir was powerful, and the acting was earnest (and for the most part not bad). There were many things that really made me think, but two in particular that I want to talk about here...

The first was the beatiful choral piece during the crucifixion. It was in a minor key and provided a very powerful backdrop to an immensely moving presentation of Christ's last moments before His death. I think that such a production is absolutely essential for the desensitized media needs of a modern audience, but at the same time it struck me how different this was from how the original must have been.

Crucifixions were always intended by the Roman Empire to be a public warning, and to that end it was almost sure that attendance was encouraged. Add to that the importance of this lesson to the political elite, the notoriety of Jesus among the people, and the number of pilgrims that had come to Jerusalem for the passover and it's not hard to imagine that a small crowd had made the trek outside the city to see the spectacle.

But when you strip away the movie soundtrack, you're left with a windy, dusty hilltop a small crowd of common people, a few political big-wigs standing off to themselves, some scary cursing soldiers, and three guys slowly dying, hanging in the hot sun, nailed to wooden posts. Though all of eternity was in fact focused on this moment, yet without the swelling music I'm sure it was as very quiet, normally horific day in a far-flung corner of the empire.

That unremarkable normalcy is the thing that hit me. God's son invaded this planet with seemingly little pomp (born in a barn, worshipped by farm hands), and left it with seemingly little circumstance (put to death as a criminal, ridiculed by a mob)... and turned absolutely everything quietly upside down.

It's fitting that we give recognition to the utmost significance of this event with dramatic presentation, but I don't want to ever forget the fact that Christ's crucifixion had no apparent glory and had every mark of absolute defeat.

But, tomorrow is Easter...