The Cross as a Sign of Resistance

The cross is a symbol of liberation. It's a symbol of resistance. But it's taken me a while to see this reminder for what it is.

Jesus was a victim at the hands of the Roman Empire. He was murdered for his refusal to comply, for his insistence on non-violent revolution, equality, and freedom from oppression; for a love so radical that Pilate couldn't face him; for being a living embodiment of Scripture that the religious leaders of the day just couldn't (or wouldn't) interpret.

Jesus told us explicitly that if we want to be his disciples we must take up our own crosses and follow him. This command has been misinterpreted in a variety of ways - "This is your cross to bear," especially, has been used too often to keep those suffering persecution, oppression, domestic violence, abuse, and economic injustice from breaking free. Instead we are told to endure patiently, to forgive just as Jesus forgave his executioners, and that it will be all right when we get to Heaven.

This flies in the face of everything Jesus did during his ministry. He liberated people, spiritually and physically. He took away their blindness, set them free, spoke up for the voiceless, dined with those whom society deemed as the lowest, and fed them when they were hungry. To take up our crosses like Christ can never mean staying silent in the face of oppression, whether our own or someone else's. 

Jesus told his disciples to "take up their cross and follow me" a year before his trial and execution. And his disciples at that time would have heard it very differently from the way we interpret it today. To the disciples, a cross wasn't a symbol of atonement, forgiveness, or forbearance - it was an official mode of execution, by oppressors and occupiers. It was an instrument of terror. Jesus' words to the disciples were not just a warning. They were an exhortation to follow him anyway, in complete defiance of the very worst anyone could possibly do to us......

You can find the rest of this article at https://sojo.net/articles/cross-bear-means-actively-embracing-cost-following-jesus