When we sing in worship, it’s important to know what we are actually singing and so I’m reflecting on a different Christian hymn every week during October. This week the hymn is a very traditional one, “The Old Rugged Cross.” This is one of those hymns that people either love or hate. For many it’s a wonderful reminder of their childhood faith as well as the sacrifices that Jesus made on our behalf. For others, the song’s theology might be questionable, even symbolic of how we have been damaged by the church through doctrines such as original sin and substitutionary atonement. That there are varying opinions about this hymn is really no surprise because the cross itself is in many ways ambiguous and paradoxical.
The Old Rugged Cross invites us to imagine Jesus crucified. Crucifixion was a gruesome, painful, and humiliating method of execution. How does the cross, a symbol of torture, become representative of our faith in God through Jesus? I think early Christians adopted the cross as a way to say to their persecutors, “you can’t scare us, you can’t control us with fear because the God of love is more powerful.” It’s much like the way we reclaim words such as “queer,” which was once an insult hurled at LGBTQ+ people to defame and demean them. Today, it’s become a term used to demonstrate pride in being true to one’s sexuality or gender identity even though it doesn’t conform to society’s expectations. For more and more people, identifying themselves as queer is a way of saying “you can’t control us with fear.”
But just like everyone isn’t comfortable with the word queer, not everyone is comfortable with the cross, either. The cross is a foundational but problematic symbol of Christianity. The Old Rugged Cross lyrics point to the paradox of the cross: “an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame; and I love that old cross.” How can our love be inspired by an emblem of suffering and shame? According to the apostle Paul, it can only make sense if we abandon worldly wisdom and think according to God’s wisdom, the wisdom that says wealth and power are meaningless, but loving each other is the most important thing we can do in our lives.1 In this way the cross transforms from a symbol of death and shame to one of love and sacrifice.
Unfortunately, whenever we put the cross and sacrifice together many people immediately think of substitutionary atonement which claims that because humanity is evil and deserves death and eternal punishment, God sent Jesus, God’s child, as a substitute to die in our place. There are lots of problems with this doctrine. For starters, it assumes that people are inherently evil, which I don’t believe. It also makes God look like an abusive father who beats his children to vent his anger. The meaningful and awe-inspiring story of sacrifice represented by the cross is not a sacrifice to sate God’s anger, but a sacrifice of love born out of the desire to help not an evil people, but a lost and oppressed people. For me, the cross represents the way Jesus lived his life for the people he loved, much like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi in modern times. These are people who took risks and made sacrifices, giving their lives to help others.
God so loved the people that God sent Jesus that whosoever might trust in him and follow his ways would be healed and saved, led into harmony with the divine loving power. But, we didn’t trust Jesus or God. Jesus didn’t die on the cross for our sins, but because of our sins. Jesus was killed because he tried to make the world a better place and the powers of the world were threatened by his message of healing, unity, and love. They might have killed Jesus’ human body, but they couldn’t kill the good news of God’s love and so the cross as a symbol of torture was declared ineffective, turning it into a symbol of hope. The cross says to those in power that they cannot scare those who follow God and base their lives in love because fear cannot defeat love. The cross is symbolic of how Jesus turns worldly wisdom upside down. It declares victory where the world sees defeat. It declares new life where the world sees death. It declares love and hope where the world sees fear and hate.
“The Old Rugged Cross” talks of a heavenly hope, and while I find hope in the idea that something wonderful awaits us beyond the trials of this life, that’s not the hope I see in the cross. If our hope only lies in an afterlife, we’ll miss and dishonor the life God has given us in the present world. Jesus’ life was lived bringing healing to those in need. His ministry was very much in the physical present. The hope of the cross is a hope for today – not that love wins some day, but that love wins now and always.
And the cross isn’t just about Jesus bringing love and hope to us. The hymn says: “To that old rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear.” The cross is a challenge to us to take up our own crosses and be more like Jesus – a force for love and hope in the world in the face of our struggles. The cross also reminds us of our frequent failure to live up to that challenge. Crucifixions sill happen in our day in the form of black people hung from a tree or suffocated under the knee of a policeman, or in the gay man beaten and tied to a fence to die or dragged behind a car, or in the many transgender people killed every year for just trying to be authentic to who God made them to be. The cross reminds us of what happens still today when we fail to love. And it asks us: can we do better?
What can we do this day to love the world, no matter the consequences? Perhaps we begin with inspiration from the cross, living our lives in God’s wisdom. Seeing the gift of God’s love instead of condemnation. Seeing the possibility of success instead of defeat. Seeing new life instead of death.
11 Corinthians 1:18-25
thought provoking as usual but I still am very averse to that hymn. It could be the tune is so maudlin and just supports the old understanding of substitutionary atonement. I used to be averse to In the Garden too but when I understood it was written from the perspective of Mary on the day of resurrection, it was redeemed for me. I'm not sure any amount of unpacking can redeem this one!