Redeeming the Cross
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I grew up under the shadow of crosses. They decorated churches, Bibles, necklaces, and were portrayed in hymns, sermons, and evangelistic meetings. None of that, however, really presents what I have come to understand as the meaning and significance of the cross in the New Testament writings. All those bronze, brass, iron, silver, gold, and wooden crosses have much more to do with how Constantine wielded the cross than anything written by Paul or spoken by Jesus. Constantine reported a vision in which he saw a cross of light and heard “in hoc signo vinces.” The vision was that under this sign (IHS), he should and would send out his conquering armies to victory. He was taking something referred to in Christianity and wielding it as a symbol of military might, of domination, of torture, of death, and of subjection and sending his troops to march under that sign of Rome’s Empire. The cross goes back to the Greeks, who used it for their enemies. The Romans took the cross