Baffling Question: Cross or Crucifix?

They say there is no such thing as a stupid question.

But sometimes a person will ask a question whose answer should be obvious to any reasonable person.  Or perhaps the question has a glaringly bad premise, which would have been realized with a moment of thought.  Whatever the case is… we’ve all had moments where we stare at a person and think:

“Did you really just ask that?”

Today I want to begin looking at baffling questions which Catholics often get from our non-Catholic Christian brethren which elicit that reaction.

Today we’ll do:

“Why do ya’ll keep Jesus on the cross?  Jesus isn’t on the cross anymore.”

History and Motivation:

Western Christian art has long depicted the crucifixion of Jesus.  But in the 16th century the early Calvinists revived the idea that depictions of Jesus are inherently idolatrous.  So whenever Calvinists took over a place the first thing to go was the religious iconography – primary among them being crucifixes.    In its place went the bare cross with the supposedly idolatrous image of Jesus removed.

This cultural marker eventually found its way into modern evangelicalism, but it isn’t as strong as it once was.  Today’s evangelicals mostly don’t find anything wrong with a monument of the 10 Commandments, children’s picture Bibles or manger scenes.

But in that milieu it’s harder to explain why a 3D image of Jesus crucified is wrong.  Thus, a new explanation for the bare cross (and corresponding complaint against the crucifix) needed to be found.  The one which seems to have stuck goes like this:

“Catholic theology focuses on the suffering and death of Jesus and doesn’t appreciate the resurrection.  In fact, they think Jesus is, in some sense, still suffering.  

That’s why they depict Jesus on the cross and need to be reminded that Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’  We, on the other hand, have a bare cross because it symbolizes Jesus’ resurrection.”

When that thought comes off the pulpit and is reframed as a question by the average man-on-the-street, it comes out as:

“Why do ya’ll keep Jesus on the cross?  Jesus isn’t on the cross anymore.”

Responses; Helpful and Otherwise…

The question is completely jarring to Catholics.  It takes something which is commonplace for us and assigns a completely foreign motive to it. It’s like asking;

“Why do you keep Abe Lincoln in a chair?  Do you know he’s died and buried?”

Huh?!

It’s hard to know where to begin with the crucifix question, but you can choose your option: (ranked from least to most helpful)

You could point out that we obviously know Jesus isn't still on the cross:

“Do you really think we’re so dumb as to believe Jesus is still on a cross outside Jerusalem?  As if the crucifix is meant to be a current status report on Jesus?  If so, is the manger scene supposed to mean Jesus is still a baby?”

You could point out that Catholics are aware of the resurrection:

“So… the biggest holiday of the year for Catholics worldwide is Easter, which is the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.  Plus, every week as Mass we pray ‘Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.’  We kinda know Jesus rose from the dead.”

Or you could explain the importance of remembering what Jesus did on the cross:

“In 1st Corinthians, Paul said he preaches ‘Christ and him crucified.’  The sacrifice of Jesus is when the debt of sin was paid.  It shows us both how bad sin is and the depths to which God loves us.  It’s worth depicting in art for us to remember and reflect upon.”

A Symbol, Examined:

For me, the real question is how anyone could be convinced that a bare cross is a symbol of Jesus resurrected.  (Again, that was never its original intent.)   There’s nothing about a bare cross which says, “The person who died on this thing has risen!” 

Think about it.  When Jesus died, His body was taken off the cross and then placed in a tomb.  At that point you’d have bare cross and a dead Jesus.  If anything, the bare cross should be a symbol of Jesus being dead.* The bare cross was the source of the disciples' despair.

If you ask me, the actual symbol of Jesus risen should be an empty tomb.  That's the thing which actually convinced people Jesus had risen.

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*(That said, some folks depict the burial shroud over the cross.  That actually works as a symbol for the resurrection.)