Good Friday, ping!
The nails didn’t keep Jesus on the cross, His love for us kept him up there.
I have a story about Christ on the crucifix. It is timely for today.
I was raised as a devout Catholic. My mother was an uber-Catholic until the day she died. She didn’t know any theology - she just did whatever the priest said to do. Her only conviction was tradition and her works.
When I was 25 years old, my eyes were opened to the truth of God’s Grace, a personal relationship with Christ, and the power of His Word. It was then that I received Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.
I raised a family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
We were at my mom’s home when my older son was five years old. He already understood the importance of the resurrection and he was pretty precocious.
“Grandma - why is YOUR Jesus still on the cross?!”
She had no clue.
It was a funny - but not so much.
I have to disagree here.
An empty cross represents the ultimate in power. After all, there where thousands of people crucified, but only One who beat it, who overcame it.
It’s a good thing Catholics don’t baptise by immersion.
The crucifix captures forever Christ’s last moment of humanity among us, and his ultimate sacrifice. I find it beautiful (not a Catholic here)
Crucifix or empty cross, either way is an enduring symbol but only a symbol, and a common one at that
A cross that has never held Christ has no power. A cross that holds Christ has the power to save us through his vicarious atonement. A cross that has held Christ, but holds him no longer, is a statement of the power of His resurrection, that as He is risen, we too shall be raised. Since both messages are necessary--that Christ died according to the Scriptures, and that He was raised according to the Scriptures (I Corinthians 15:3-8)--a crucifix is just as meaningful as an empty cross, and vice versa.
I may rattle a few feathers here, but that is not my intention. First, I do not need to convince anyone else of the validity of my opinion, I only offer my thoughts.
Secondly, I always reserve the right to be wrong. The need for a person to hold onto dogma and not be open minded creates the same attachment as the worship of icons and legalism that Jesus encountered when confronted by the Pharisees. This is not about “legalism,” it’s about “fundamentalism,” and the greatest of all the fundamentals is “LOVE.” Always hold onto “LOVE” and do not sacrifice it for the comfort of “legalism” as to do so creates judgement, which becomes an obstacle to LOVE existing within our souls. For those who find my words creating anger, I ask not that you attack me, but PRAY for me to find the greatest truths in our Savior, Jesus Christ. I offer this same prayer for everyone, no matter if the truths agree with my opinion or not.
Jesus’ great sacrifice was not dying on the cross, but lowering Himself to our level to teach and help us to grow spiritually. Even in His parable of the tares in the wheat in Matthew 13, He speaks of us as the “good seeds” but then goes on to explain that the weeds were planted while we were “asleep.” Jesus came here to awaken us. His great sacrifice was not leaving here to be with His Father at all times, it was disconnecting from His awareness with His Father to come here. You are still connected to Father when you are born in the flesh, but your awareness of that connection is gone. That is why Jesus said, “My Father and I are One” when He went through His dark-night-of-the-soul experience, awakened and reconnected to that realization.
Over twenty five years ago I died of meningitis, experienced Heaven, and returned here against my will. No one would ever chose to be here and feel disconnected from God after experiencing the fullness of being “One” with Him. Prior to that I was an agnostic/borderline atheist and worshiped myself. When I returned here, it was as though my lifetime lover was ripped from me and I felt abandoned. Thus began my journey to find God again while still here in the flesh. My experience validated the truth in the Bible and thus it became my map on my journey.
One very unusual gift of the Spirit that was given by Grace and not desired nor earned by me was the ability to perceive other people’s souls as physical objects, just as most perceive the physical bodies of others. I could read their thoughts and stored memories of their life since conception. This was as much a curse as a blessing as it meant I could feel their joys and sorrows, both physical and emotional. We truly are all “One” through Christ.
I found that saying prayers for people could remove the dark obstacles to LOVE that were in their souls, just like a laser beam exploding an object. Instantly, healing would often happen and people’s personalities would often change. They would feel lighter and more relaxed. But most importantly, they often would remove the defense mechanisms they had created to block receiving or giving LOVE to other people and God.
Now my reason for posting on this thread. I was attending a conference in New Hampshire (I think it was in 1993) when I was asked to use my ability to work on a Jewish man who was suffering severe anxiety and panic attacks. I never touch an individual when I work on them. Often I am fifteen feet or more from an individual as the Helper working through me guides the process. While I grew up Lutheran, and realized that the services were very similar to Mass when I attended a few in college, I was never religiously trained nor educated.
While working on this Jewish man I found myself making the sign of the cross repeatedly. But this was not as a religious sign, it was what was necessary in order to move the obstacles to LOVE that were in his soul and compressing it, thus causing his anxiety and panic attacks. The process raised his soul up by stretching it vertically upward and more importantly it diminished the horizontal energy that was blocking the vertical flow of consciousness. I had done the cross sign movement a few times before I even realized that I was making the sign of the cross, exactly as I had seen the pastors and priests do in the services. It was during this process while working on this Jewish man that I realized this correlation between what was happening through me and the religious practice. I also realized that the energy flowing on the horizontal axis in his soul that was diminishing was the man’s ego which was creating physical symptoms as it was fighting the process of being diminished to allow God into his life. It is the process Paul spoke of as “dying daily.”
I have observed this same process many times over the past twenty five years. It has given me new meaning to the cross, even more important than the old one.
The Crucifixion: the moment of our redemption.
I’m not sure why anyone who calls themselves Christian would be offended by that.
This prayer should have never been removed from the Catholic Church's Good Friday prayers.
What about the commandment about graven images? And how do you know what He looked like? It’s not like there were pictures back then.
I think the bigger question is why do non-Catholics gloss over that part?
Sure, he could’ve just ascended into Heaven, but without his sacrifice, there would be no redemption. We should never forget that.
**First of all, you would want to check out 1st Corinthians, chapter 1, verse 23. Paul says, “…but we preach Christ crucified…” Why does Paul preach Christ crucified? Doesn’t he know Jesus has been raised from the dead? Of course he does! But, he knows that it is through the power of the crucified Christ on the cross that the bonds of sin and death are broken. As he says in verse 24, Christ crucified is the “power of God.”
1 Cor 2:2, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Again, didn’t Paul know that Jesus had risen from the dead? Of course he did.**
BTTT!