At Easter we identify the cross as an implement of execution but is that the only image that the cross can imprint on us? Perhaps the cruciform (cross-shaped) figure could also function as a schematic diagram depicting the nature of our lives. Imagine a diagram with a vertical vector intersected by a horizontal vector, in the shape of a cross. The vertical line plots the spiritual trajectory of our lives and represents ‘above’ and ‘below’ and the horizontal plots our trajectory in terms of time and represents ‘past’ and ‘future’.
We are being told that we now live in a secular or ‘post Christian’ age. How is this change to be plotted on our vector diagram? The secular attempts to rotate the vertical vector 90 degrees clockwise eventually aligning it with the horizontal. Our lives then become ‘one dimensional’ there is now no place for the spiritual, for what was above now becomes synonymous with what is ahead, and our past becomes just a repository of what is negative. “Faith in the future!” becomes the progressive rallying cry with people who have some respect for tradition being labelled as regressive. We go from a lively stereophonic world into a tone deaf monophonic one. Spiritual depth perception and a sense of the presence of the Holy are gone. We are made captives, chained to the flat timeline of history. As a vehicle that can propel us into some glorious future, we are being marketed ‘The Great Re-set’, but is this just a re-shuffling of the deck chairs on the vessel of our fate?
Now, a re-set is not a bad idea. When the memory in our cell phone gets all kludged up, we initiate a hard re-boot to re-set it back into working order. When the disciples of John asked Jesus about his mission, he said that he came to: “re-store sight to the blind, to re-store hearing to the deaf and to re-lease the captives”. Jesus offers us more than a Great Re-set he offers us a “Deep Re-set”. It is the ultimate hard re-boot. The re-set provided by Jesus re-stores us back to our default settings, re-orients our vectors and re-stores us into the stereophonic world. In biblical terms all this is referred to as ‘abundant life’. It is such a profound re-set that Jesus himself refers to it as a “re-birth”.
As we contemplate the cross, we can discover in its cruciform both the revelation of the pattern of our lives and our means of salvation.
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