THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504140046
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E5 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Issues of Faith
SOURCE: Betsy Mathews Wright
LENGTH: Medium: 99 lines
AS A CHRISTIAN, each year I try to find new meaning in the Easter story. In the past I've focused on different aspects of the Passion: Jesus Christ's triumphant ride into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, the trial, the crucifixion, the resurrection.
This year, my focus is the cross.
First, some background. Often when the crucifixion is portrayed, we see an actor carry the full load of the cross on his back. That's not historically accurate.
By custom, a Roman prisoner condemned to crucifixion was made to carry only the crossbar, or patibulum, through the streets to the place of execution. The crossbar was up to 6 feet long and weighed about 125 pounds. It was a tremendous burden, but a humanly possible burden to bear.
At the execution site, a massive wooden post planted in the ground awaited the prisoner's procession. This upright beam, or stipes, weighed several hundred pounds and was sturdy enough to hold both the weight of a grown man and that of the crossbar. Most execution sites had several stipes planted, so more than one prisoner could be executed at any given time.
In Jerusalem, the execution site was a bare hill outside the city walls called Golgotha, or ``the place of a skull.'' The route through the city streets from the place of sentencing at Antonia Fortress to Golgotha was called ``Via Dolorosa,'' or ``the Way of the Cross.'' The winding route covered a distance of about a third of a mile.
Fast forward to today. What can the historical cross mean to Christians in 1995?
Imagine that each human is firmly planted - much like the stipes of the cross - in the earth. We are bound here to the worldly, material things around us. These ``things'' weigh us down, and yet all the time we wonder, ``Is this all there is to life?''
So, intuitively knowing there is more, we seek guidance. Some choose to focus straight ahead, on what is unknown, on what is dark and terrifying. They worry and fret about the future. Others only look backward at all they have learned and all they know. They seek only what is secure and safe, never wanting to leave the comfort zone of tradition.
There are also those who choose to constantly look down at their own selves. They keep the focus of their lives only on their own needs and desires and possessions. Then again, others choose to look to their sides, seeking other humans and new relationships to guide them through life.
There is, however, one more choice. It is the choice I believe to be the wisest. We can look up. We can focus on God, choosing to love God and allowing God to guide us in our journey. When we do this, we draw a line upward. Bolstered by God's firm love, that line becomes the steadfast post of our faith.
But be aware. When we choose God as the focus of our lives, God will then demand a second thing of each of us. God will demand that we open our arms out to our fellow human beings to love and embrace and to serve.
Also be aware that God demands that we love all our fellow human beings. We are not allowed to pick and choose. We are commanded by God to love those who do not look like us. We are commanded by God to love those who do not believe like us. We are commanded by God to love those who fail us, hurt us and hate us.
I believe Jesus Christ's commandment that we love our neighbor as ourself, to be the crossbar of the Christian faith. It is the thing we bear most begrudgingly. It is the thing that makes us weak, vulnerable and exhausted. It is the thing that makes us stumble and fall. Loving our neighbor is a tremendous load to bear, but it is a humanly possible load to bear.
What makes it humanly possible to carry this load? I cannot speak for you, but the only thing that makes it possible for me to love all my fellow human beings is Jesus Christ. By focusing on Christ, who I believe was, is and always will be the human incarnation of God, I am able to love others.
And also, by focusing on Christ's sacrifice for me, I am able to see that I too must sacrifice a few things. In order to truly love my neighbor, I must sacrifice my time, my devotion, my money and possessions and my love.
But then those are the easy sacrifices.
For me, the really tough things to sacrifice are my pride, my anger, my bitterness and my ability to get revenge. Things like being right. Things like getting my neighbor to ``see it my way'' and believe what I believe.
I must sacrifice things like being understood. Things like wanting justice in my lifetime. Things like desiring that the person who has hurt me will ``get what's coming to him.''
I'm just human enough to hate giving up those petty desires of retribution. That is why I need the focus of Jesus Christ. Without that focus, I can see nothing else in my life but the thrill of being right and getting even. And those are shallow thrills.
So, this Easter, the cross takes on new meaning. It is ever wonderful to me that the focus of my faith - the Easter Story, the story of God's greatest sacrifice for his greatest creation - changes, grows and expands every year of my life.
For me, that is the power of the Gospel. MEMO: Every other week, Betsy Mathews Wright publishes responses to her
opinion column. Send responses to Issues of Faith, The Virginian-Pilot,
150 W. Brambleton Ave., Norfolk, Va. 23510; call (804) 446-2273; FAX
(804) 436-2798; or send computer message via bmw(AT)infi.net. Deadline
is Tuesday prior to publication. Must include name, city and phone
number. by CNB