Signs of Life

We’re surrounded by symbols. Everything from emojis to icons, traffic signs, logos and flags. Good ones can convey a very specific meaning. Sometimes, like the words they may be replacing, they might come to have alternate meanings or come to represent a legacy that we may or may not wish to remember.

The church is full of symbols. Lots of them have specific meanings, some are even particular to a certain church, denomination or faith. Some have very personal meanings, some more universal understanding. Some, all of the above.

Our church has a rainbow sidewalk. It also has doves here and there, hearts, fish, angels, a turtle, candles, handprints, stones, pine cones, sheep and a variety of other symbols, all of which have their own meaning. Sometimes they can mean much more than just one thing.

And a cross.

Universally recognized and deeply personally held, the cross has been the primary symbol of Christianity since the second century. It has come to be understood by Christians as representing God’s act of love in the sacrifice of Jesus in death and the victory of Christ over death in his resurrection.

I guess. It does seem to carry a lot of baggage, and struggle with its image a lot.

For me, every Easter I wonder a little about the symbol of my faith being an instrument of a very torturous, agonizing death at the hands of a ruthless oppressor. That’s what it was, in Jesus’ day, a very public, very painful means by which an empire struck fear into the hearts of those it had conquered. The story of Good Friday is brutality, pain and death and there can be no Easter resurrection story without it.

I understand that may be the very thing that redeems it as a symbol, but I also believe that Jesus was all about life and I wonder if there aren’t better symbols for that. While some may choose to focus on the atoning sacrifice and the defeat of death, I find what brings me closer to God is how Jesus shows us life, even before the new life of resurrection. For me, that resurrection moment just affirms that the same divine spirit alive in Jesus is alive in me. And you. And everyone. That’s how Jesus is alive and how we are, too.

So maybe, at Easter, we might also consider some other symbols of our faith. Symbols that might remind us that Jesus’ life itself is an example of living love the way that God wants us to live - live, not die - and that divine love is in all of us. Shouldn’t the symbol of Easter, for example, be the empty tomb, not the instrument of Jesus’ death?  How about the rising sun of Easter morning or the spring flowers of the garden around the tomb?  How about the butterfly who’s new life comes from the shadow of the cocoon? Why not eggs, even chocolate ones, and a lively, rambunctious bunny?

Those symbols are all around us in God’s creation, reminders of God’s love in our every day. Human hands made the cross. Perhaps they should let it go and embrace the light of a new day.