Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is in you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”
John 12.31–36 (NRSVue)
The Roman cross was a tool used for execution, domination, and terror.
These days, it has become a fashion statement and a decoration, a symbol of a nationalistic religion where the cross is just a reminder that “Jesus died for me” and that “Jesus took away my sins.” It is synonymous with an individualized faith that, at its core, refuses to see the vulgarity of the cross, and therefore strips the cross of all true meaning and power.
In first-century Palestine, the Roman cross meant one thing: the power of Rome to kill at will anyone who opposed its authority, rule, and might. Anyone accused of dissonance with the empire faced the cross. Insurrectionists, rebels, and zealots were all hung on crosses as a reminder that the Empire had the power to kill.
The cross was a tool of terror. Its ever-present threat kept people in their place. No one wore a cross as a fashion statement. The cross and its shadow loomed large over the entire Roman empire as a threat to instill obedience through fear in the common people.
And Jesus said that this is how he was going to die.
Jesus knew what was coming. He knew that his political, religious, and social disruption could only last so long before he was handed over to Rome because the sociopolitical religious leaders couldn’t kill him themselves under Roman law. If they did, they faced the cross. But Jesus was a foil to their power. To the structures of law and order, the systems of oppression, the power dynamics in first century Israel, Jesus was a disruption. He didn’t tow the party line, didn’t fall neatly into social categories, didn’t stay “in his place.”
Jesus was ungovernable, and the sociopolitical religious leaders couldn’t stand that.
They had their authority, their status, their place in the social and political landscape of Israel. Jesus was a threat to all that, and Jesus knew because he was a threat to their system of power, he would be killed by crucifixion.
But Jesus’ crucifixion—his execution by the state—wasn’t just the inevitable end of a disrupters trajectory. The cross didn’t terrorize Jesus. In his crucifixion, the powers of this world were shown for what they really are.
In John 12.31, Jesus says that the crisis of the world is happening. The systems of power and oppression and the spiritual impetus behind them are being judged, and the controlling force of those systems is being expelled from its place of power.
That seems like a bald-faced lie, Jesus.
I mean, look around us. What do we see?
Homegrown terrorists shooting up our schools.
State-sanctioned terrorists arresting, criminalizing, and deporting people of color under the guise of immigration enforcement.
Cities being occupied by a militarized force by their own government.
Laws and executive orders being passed that oppress, harm, and terrorize trans people.
The rise of fascism into mainstream political thought as a viable option for government rule.
People declaring loving your neighbor—empathy—a sin.
Christian nationalism declaring a form of manifest destiny over the nation.
Things are deeply wrong.
Where is the judgment that leads to justice? Where is the casting out of the ruler of this world’s empire? Where are righteousness, peace, and joy?
How in the hell can Jesus say that the judgment of the world is happening?
Jesus makes this claim because on the cross, at the state execution of Jesus, the truth of the powers and principalities of this world is revealed, and the verdict is passed.
As much as the cross was used for terror and domination, God still used it to unmask the powers of this world and to glorify Jesus. In the cross, in the execution of the son of man, we see that the powers of this world that function by fear, terror, shock and awe, and violence had no power over Jesus because no matter what those powers did to Jesus, including death on a cross, he never capitulated to their ways of power.
Jesus didn’t fight back. He didn’t call angels from heaven to avenge him. He didn’t exert dominance and coercion to conquer. He did nothing but continually empty himself, refusing to exploit his divine nature for his own gain and comfort.
Jesus clearly states he will die by being “lifted up” and the crowds knew that this meant crucifixion. There’s no denying this fact. But that’s not all that’s meant.
Jesus says that when he is lifted up, he will draw all people to himself. People will come to see the spectacle of his death. The gospel accounts make it seem like all of Jerusalem came to witness this execution. But there is another way Jesus draws people to himself, and that is through the revelation of glory that happened on the cross.
The fullness of God’s nature was revealed in the death of Christ. The everything of divinity was put on display for the world to see. People could clearly see why God had to die: Jesus embodied everything the empire was not.
To put it another way, God as the fullness of love was in stark contrast with the empire’s games and tools of violence, coercion, terror, and dominance.
This was the casting out of the ruler of this world. This was the dethroning of the old order. This was the birth of a new way of living.
Instead of violence, peace.
Instead of grasping for power, self emptying.
Instead of exclusion, hospitality.
Instead of terror, compassion.
The cross represents the inauguration of a new day, a new epoch of living where we are not bound and enslaved to the powers of dominion and oppression. We no longer have to fear violence and death because our God passed through those waters first and now promises resurrection. Without the fear of what the empire can do to us as the last word, we are free to disrupt and love like Jesus did.
We are free to flourish, to come out of the arid soil of capitalism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. We are free to be in solidarity with the suffering, to proclaim good news to the poor, to call the oppressors to true freedom and escape from the system that enslaved us all.
This is the meaning of the cross, of Christ being lifted up.
We are now invited, urged, called to walk in this light, this new reality. We are freed from the requirement to live according to the world’s systems. We’re no longer trapped and shackled to fear, dominance, and violence.
So, let’s disrupt.
We have been given the antidote to empire, the means and method to dismantle the status quo. What we have is so powerful the empire killed the one who brought it. But they could never destroy the source. The Holy Ghost indwells us and through her wisdom and power we can live counter culturally to this system of death that is all around us.
Sit in solidarity with the marginalized and the weak. Call the powerful to repentance, to lay down their riches and join us in the margins. Don’t fear the crosses of the empire. They have lost their terror, their power, their dominance.
As we remember the cross and its call to walk in the light of self-emptying love poured out like wine and broken like bread, let it make us bold to live in the light. Another way is possible. Another way is here.
Look to Christ lifted up on the cross and rejoice!
Salvation has come.
I am in the process of becoming a community chaplin with The Order of St. Hildegard. This program is designed to help form people into spiritual leaders that lead from the margins and serve the margins. It’s for the people who don’t quite fit with the traditional church because of trauma, disability, or identity. If you, as my community, would like to help me fulfill the financial obligation this chaplaincy program has, you can give at the link below. Thank you for the myriad ways you support me.