At any, or perhaps at every moment, our lives can seem to be at a crossroad. Crossroads are points of choice. We are offered a choice as to which direction to go, and what we choose depends on how our minds and thoughts pivot. We can find ourselves making choices that take us on a path to a resurrection, or choices that keep us stuck on the ‘cross’ of suffering, guilt and regrets.
In the Christian narrative, the road to the Resurrection on Easter morning passes through the Cross. However, I believe that our Christian tradition has placed a lopsided emphasis on the cross as the symbol and centerpiece of the faith. In this regard, too much emphasis is placed on Jesus’ suffering on the cross, and guilt liberally apportioned out to humanity for the sin that is said to have placed Jesus on the cross. This undue emphasis misses the point of the cross as representing a crossroad of choice that can lead to a glorious resurrection.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus was quoted as follows:
Jesus answered and said unto them, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the crowd, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. (John 2:19-21)
The truth is that Christianity would have died an early death if the Cross was the climatic point of Jesus’ life. Cross-centered religion creates a theology of sin and punishment, and it is a short distance from punishment to the need to punish.
Unity views the cross as a symbol of points of choice, or crossroads, on life’s journey. Life is full of cross roads, forks on the road where we must make choices.
Easter is a spring festival. Spring is a short season between two long seasons — winter and summer.
The Cross as in crosroad is a metaphor for choice, change and new beginnings. At the beginning of spring new growth pushes through the earth; the dormant seed makes a choice to push through, answering an ‘inner call’ from an invisible sun.
The earth represents a horizontal axis of the cross, and the relative position of the sun represents the vertical axis of the cross. The point of choice is where the vertical intersects the horizontal axis on the cross. For a plant, it is where the new shoot breaks through the soil. Picture with me the power that lies at the crossroads of our life. When we are at a crossroad, it is often confusing and frightening – but every master teacher, such as Jesus or the Buddha, knows that crossroads are points of pure power and pure potentials.
Before it breaks through, the new seed, seedling or dormant plant has a decision to make, whether to summon the energy required for pushing through or lying there comfortably and dying.
Are you on a crossroad in your life? Look upwards!
Remember, it has been said that the earth is a problem solving planet and problems are another name for opportunities.
I believe that our church, Unity South Church is also at a crossroad. We have to decide, for we do decide the matter, whether our best years are still in front of us or behind us. As for me, I say that our best years are in front of us. How about you?
At this very moment in our nation and the world, we seem to be at political and social crossroads and the choices we make are so very crucial. And I wonder whether Statesmanship is too much to ask of people who we elected to serve us? To paraphrase a statement form the book of Proverbs, where people have no vision, they perish.
Happy Resurrection!
Rev. Festus