The journey to the top of Calvary must have been difficult. Jesus was exhausted as he carried the weapon of his demise all the way up Calvary. He’d been beaten. He’d been mocked. Yet he endured the pain of that brutal cross.
For me. For you. For the sins of the world.
Since the first good Friday, the cross has become more than a tool for execution. For me it is a reminder of forgiveness, how much I’m loved, and the tool used to redeem my brokenness. To others the cross is just art, something to look at. But as you can see from the pictures I took during my recent trip to Guatemala, even when the cross is represented artistically, it can still mean something.
Today, Good Friday, the day we celebrate Christ’s death on the cross, what does that cross mean to you?
Adventure With Brendan 
The cross has meant my once wrecked life could be redeemed. Even my pain now has purpose. Thanks for the post and the pictures are wonderful.
Thank you. I am glad the cross has deep meaning for you.
Reblogged this on The Year of Living Spiritually and commented:
Several weeks ago my son, Brendan, and I traveled back to his home away from home, Guatemala to teach in his old school. These are some of the photographs he took while down there. There are perfect for today: Good Friday: The Day of the Cross.
The cross reminds me on days much like today that Jesus accepts me. Even when I want to ignore Good Friday, Jesus does not ignore me.
It also means I can trust. I don’t have to be in control of my life or yours,, I can trust that no natter how ugly today looks, no matter how harsh my lie becomes, there is Joe and there is redemption. The cross gives me the power to say these words even when I don’t feel like it.
Love it Michael, thanks for sharing. The cross never ignores us. It’s amazing how powerful it is.
By lie I meant life and by Joe I meant hope. There is forgiveness even for typos, right?
I was really wondering about the Joe one. I think there is forgiveness in everything.
I love all the different pictures Brens!
Thanks Emmy! What do those crosses or The Cross mean to you?
The cross means to me that He is faithful. Even when I am faithless.
He sure is. Thank you for sharing.
When I looked at the picture of Jesus hanging on the cross, the thought that went through my mind was that He was hanging up there for all to see. It was a place of pain, of shame of ridicule and of hate.
To me the cross represents that Jesus took it upon himself to take my place and pay for the things that I have been guilty of and I now stand forgiven.
Amen!!! Thank you for reading and for commenting. Amen again! We all stand forgiven!
To me, the cross is a representation of beautiful redemption. Jesus paid it all… Not because of anything that I have done that makes me deserving, but because of His undeniable LOVE which is the source of all things beautiful. I am so grateful that even though my best effort is still just dirty rags to my King, He chose to bear the weight of my iniquities!!
It is great that he took up our burden and set us free. Thanks for commenting.
This is something I’ve been mulling over lately….
The truth of the matter is, the cross was the worst that humanity could come up with for suffering a slow and painful death during the time Jesus lived. It wasn’t simply an execution. It was the epitome of man’s depravity and the absolute worst of man’s creations for suffering. The cross maximized pain. I’ve heard it said that wearing a cross around your neck is about the equivalent of having a representation of an electric chair around your neck. The cross was meant to take the life of those who hung on it. Have we grown insensitive to what the cross signifies? Have we forgotten what exactly Jesus Christ did for us?
Just some thoughts. For me personally, this reminder of how much pain Jesus endured for my sin is humbling and something not to be taken lightly. One of my favorite quotes is something I try to live by: “Christ did not die a casual death so we must not live casual lives…”
There is no going back to a normal life after realizing the power of the cross. Thank you for commenting.
The minister at a wealthy church proudly showed Clarence Jordan, the founder of Koinonia, the new cross fixed to the steeple and named the price tag at $10,000 for the cross alone. Jordan famously quipped, “You got cheated. Times were Christians could get them for free.”
For me, the cross is usually a meaningless symbol. I´ve seen it so many times, even genuflected before it, as it´s the only icon most Evangelical churches will permit. But I admit there was one church where the cross was borne in during the procession, erected in the middle at the front of the sanctuary, and then all events — singing, reading, preaching, praying — went on around the cross. It got in everyone´s way. You couldn´t watch or do anything without having to move around the darn thing. And that´s the trouble with the cross. It gets in the way of what I want to do.
Is it getting in the way or realigning what we are to do?
On Good Friday our combined English/Spanish congregation gathered together between 9 A.M. and 3 P.M in the very place shown in your second photograph, Brendan.
The Crucifixion is significant for me when I contemplate the cross in union with what came before, and what came after. These three events, only when inter-fused together, summarize the fullness of the story of our Salvation: the Incarnation, the Cross, and the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and gave him the name
that is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”
-Philippians 2:5-11 (http://bible.oremus.org/)
Laurel, actually the first three pictures were all taken from St. Marks. Thank you for reading and sharing.