When I was 19 years old, I got my first (and so far only) tattoo. Now, 19-year-old me did some dumb stuff and didn’t always think things through. But, I did have enough sense to know that whatever image I was about to get inked on my body was going to be with me forever. So I knew that I wanted to get a tattoo that would mean something to me not just now, but hopefully for the rest of my life.
So being a person that thinks of myself as fairly religious and having been influenced by the teachings, stories, and life of Jesus, I got the outline of a simple, square-angled cross inked on my left shoulder.
Now, dear Mountain Mail reader, I tell this brief personal story because it highlights how we as a culture have appropriated the symbol of the cross. For you see, the cross wasn’t always a religious sign that one gets tattooed on one’s body. It wasn’t always a pretty wall decoration. It wasn’t always a piece of sparkly jewelry.
The cross was originally a symbol and tool of The Roman Empire. The Empire would use the cross as a means of terror and control across its domains. The cross was a reminder that The Empire and its agents held the power of death over its subjects. If you said or did something The Empire didn’t like, up on a cross you go to die.
And it wasn’t just about whoever wound up there. A crucifixion was an intentionally public act. It was meant to intimidate entire communities. After the failed revolt led by the slave Spartacus in the year 71BCE, Rome (then a quasi-republic but still all about that power) crucified 6,000 prisoners. This was done so that no slave would every think about revolting against Rome again.
It is to the cross of The Empire that Jesus of Nazareth was nailed around the year 33CE. With Jesus dead on a cross, The Empire hoped that this source of unrest in the province of Judea would be eliminated. Surely this nascent movement following a wandering teacher would be finished now that its leader was dead, and order would return.
But, my friends, that story of Jesus doesn’t end with another dead body on The Empire’s cross. For you see, The Empire failed. The cross failed. Our human systems of Empire, power, control, and violence failed. Even death, the most potent tool the Empire has, failed.
With the resurrection of Jesus on Easter morning (April 1st this year, by the way), the cross is transformed. It’s no longer a symbol of The Empire’s might, but instead is now a reminder of how powerful God’s love is and how empty our human ways are.
And my friends, we still haven’t completely learned that lesson. Rome was by far not the first, nor the last, Empire we’ve created. We continue to build up and sustain systems of control, power, and violence. Any time we wage war against each other or kill each other, we are continuing the failed ways of The Empire and the cross.
The cross calls us to seek after the better, whole, and life-giving ways that God calls us to. And the cross calls us to abandon the failed ways of Empire and violence. The cross calls us to a life where we love God and love each other with everything we have.
And that’s a tattoo worth having.
Righteous Shred 