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TGIF: Has the Cross Become Cliche? | Good Friday Special · Neighbourly: Real Stories of Care and Community

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  Maybe we need to shift the question from, what did Jesus
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  save me from, to, what did Jesus invite
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  me into? What if Jesus didn't erase our
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  shame by bypassing it, but by entering into
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  it? This is Journey with Care, a podcast
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  by Care Impact, where curious Canadians find inspiration to love others
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  others well through real life stories and honest conversations.
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  Hi, friends. Thanks for joining me today. We're doing something a
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  little different on the podcast. Today is Good Friday.
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  And instead of our usual format, I wanted to take some time to share a
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  few personal reflections, some really honest ones. Whether
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  you're listening in your car or taking a dog for a walk or simply taking
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  the time to pause, I'm glad we get to sit here with this
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  together. Can I start with a confession? You see,
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  I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I
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  believe in the crucifixion and the resurrection and the hope we have in
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  Christ. But if I'm really honest,
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  there's been a dissonance in my spirit, a quite unsettledness
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  I haven't always had the words for. Something about the way I've
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  been taught about the cross, the way I've taught it even
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  myself. It's felt, well, incomplete, even
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  cliche. I mean, have you ever stopped to listen to the
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  way we talk about it? And it's not because I haven't
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  studied. I've paid thousands of dollars, spent hundreds of hours in
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  lectures, written the theology papers. I've been that
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  honor student of North American white evangelical theology.
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  I've done the work. I've read the books. I've believed it
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  sincerely. And yet, deep down,
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  something still doesn't feel right. I do recall
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  being that student, hand raised in theology classes,
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  pressing deeper than the professor knew what to do with. I
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  learned that to have faith was just to believe the
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  simple truths and learn some fancy language. And
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  by adding emotion to it, we would truly experience God's
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  redemptive love for such a wretched sinner I was.
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  We're told Jesus died for our sins, that he took our punishment,
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  and that he stepped into our place so we didn't have to suffer.
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  And we're supposed to feel gratitude, relief,
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  like we've been handed some kind of divine get out of jail
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  free card or something, a spiritual fire insurance policy,
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  an insurance policy with immediate, hashtag blessed
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  perks and comforts with promises of eternal bliss.
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  Jesus became our cosmic underwriter, absorbing all the bad
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  stuff so we can coast through life covered by grace.
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  Has Good Friday become our TGIF? Is this
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  the day we dodge the bullet and pay respects at a
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  funeral service for Jesus? When I look
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  at the suffering in our world, the kind that lingers, the
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  kind that cuts so deep, the kind I've been invited
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  into to care for others in their distress,
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  to experience being in distress myself because of the
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  road marked out for me. I can't help but ask
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  myself, is this it? Is this all the cross was
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  for? A get out of jail card, a fire insurance, a day to remember how
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  wretched we are without Him? Because if the cross is just
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  about escape, why does it feel like
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  Jesus is always leading us deeper into suffering,
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  calling us deeper into suffering? Why does
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  Christianity in North America often leave a a wretched
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  scent rather than the aroma of Christ in places of oppression
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  and suffering? And I wonder why has my ancestry
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  generations upon generations of people devoted
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  to Christ been both the persecuted
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  and the perpetrators of oppression while bearing the
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  cross? Let's start with what's familiar.
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  Many of us grew up with a version of the gospel that focused on
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  substitution. Jesus stood in for us. He took the
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  punishment we deserved so we could be forgiven
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  and go to heaven. And there is truth to that
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  too. Scripture speaks of Christ bearing our sins,
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  of being the lamb who takes them away. And it's not
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  nothing, but the problem
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  is when that's all the cross becomes, a transaction, a
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  legal loophole, a cosmic balancing of the scales.
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  And what often gets lost in the bat version is Jesus,
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  Not the idea of him, but the life of him,
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  the story he told with his body, the people he
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  welcomed, the systems he challenged, the
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  suffering he didn't bypass. In a transactional
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  gospel, Jesus dies so we don't have to.
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  But I think that the gospel that God is revealing
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  to me is Jesus dies to show us how to live,
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  how to live with open hands, with courage, with community,
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  with a love that defies fear and outlast
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  power. So maybe we need to shift the question from
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  what did Jesus save me from to what did
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  Jesus invite me into? Let's look at how other
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  voices, older voices, global voices understood the cross.
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  In early African Christianity, theologians like Origen
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  didn't see the cross as divine punishment. They saw it as a
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  rescue operation, a liberating act where Christ
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  confronts the power of evil and death, not by crushing them,
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  but by absorbing them with love. Then there's
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  Francis of Assisi in thirteenth century Italy. He
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  didn't care much for abstract theology. For him, the cross was about
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  humility, simplicity, suffering love. He didn't just preach
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  it, he lived it, walking barefoot among the poor,
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  treating lepers as Christ himself. And then in Latin
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  America, Liberation Theologians like Gustavo
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  Gutierrez spoke of the crucified people,
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  the poor, the oppressed, those abandoned by
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  systems of power. For them, the cross was God
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  standing with the suffering, not apart from it. Jesus
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  wasn't the fixer. He was the one who got wounded with us.
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  And here in Canada, I live on Treaty 1 territory, the
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  traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, the Cree, Oji Cree, Dakota, and
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  the Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Metis nation.
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  This land was intended to be shared in peace and friendship, yet
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  we recognize the ongoing impact of colonization,
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  including how the cross was weaponized against
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  Indigenous communities, land shaped by indigenous
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  communities whose spirituality has long centered around
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  relationship to creator, to one another,
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  to the land. Many indigenous Christian voices like
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  Lakota theologian Richard Twist have called out how the cross was
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  weaponized during colonization. Used not as
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  a symbol of love, but of displacement, removing people
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  from their identities and relationships. It became a weapon of
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  assimilation, twisting the cross into a tool
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  for forced sameness rather than sacred kinship.
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  Now as a follower of Christ, this is gut wrenching,
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  guys. I lament and repudiate this mockery of the
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  cross. This is not what Jesus came for. This is
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  about God's love for all nations.
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  But what has impacted me is listening to indigenous brothers and
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  sisters share to me a Jesus with a
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  different kind of story, a story of creator
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  entering into our broken web of relationships, not to
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  dominate, but to heal, not to force sameness,
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  but to restore sacred kinship.
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  So where does this leave us? If the cross isn't just
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  about paying for sin, if it's also about exposing
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  empire, entering suffering and forming a new kind of
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  people, then Good Friday becomes less about what we
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  believe and more about how we
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  live. There's another layer I don't want to miss here.
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  For a lot of us, shame is the background to our faith, the
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  belief that we are unworthy, unclean, not
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  enough. And the message we've been given is
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  Jesus took your shame so you don't have to feel it.
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  But what if Jesus didn't erase our shame by bypassing
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  it, but by entering into it? Hebrews
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  twelve two says, for the joy set before him, he
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  endured the cross, scorning its shame.
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  The cross wasn't just painful. It was
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  humiliating, public. It was
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  degrading. And Jesus didn't hide from that. He
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  faced it, not to shame us further, to stand
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  with us in our own vulnerability,
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  to say you are not alone. Even here,
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  you are loved.
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  So instead of using the cross to numb our pain, what if we let
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  it draw us into healing, into telling the
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  truth, into letting others see our wounds,
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  into letting community hold us? Jesus
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  didn't just die on a cross, he told us to take up our own.
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  Luke nine twenty three says, if anyone would come after me, let
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  him deny himself and take up their cross
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  daily and follow me. But that's
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  not about martyrdom complexes. It's not about self hate.
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  It's about courage, about choosing the way of sacrificial
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  love when it would be easier to hide or hoard or dominate.
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  And it's not just personal, it's a community
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  call to action. The early church didn't just believe in
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  Jesus, they became his body. They shared their
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  resources. They challenged unjust systems. They welcomed
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  the outsider and they made space at their tables
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  for everyone. Maybe the cross is less about
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  getting us into heaven and more about
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  getting heaven into us, a heaven
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  that looks like kinship, like healing, like
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  justice, like joy in the midst of sorrow.
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  Good Friday isn't just about pretending we're okay. It's about naming what's
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  broken and watching Jesus step into it anyway. It's about
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  facing the violence of our world and saying, This is not the
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  end. It's about seeing Christ, not just on a
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  hill two thousand years ago, but in
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  our streets, in our prisons, in
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  our hospitals, and in our homes,
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  still reaching, still forgiving, still
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  calling us to love. So wherever you are
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  today, whatever doubts or weariness or aches you may
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  carry, I invite you to linger at this
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  cross, not because it's a magical transaction,
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  but because it's where love broke open the world.
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  To end, I'd like to leave you with a little blessing.
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  May the cross unsettle you, but never shame
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  you. May it stir you, but never
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  silence you. May it root you in love that is
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  deeper than fear, more far reaching than guilt and
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  stronger than death. And may this Good Friday be
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  a doorway, not into escape, but into a
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  life more fully given, more deeply known and more
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  beautifully shared? Resurrection is
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  coming. Transformation is real
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  today. Jesus goes before you as you
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  learn to embrace the Jesus way in solidarity
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  with those in the margins, the oppressed, and those who
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  contend for a messy, loving community of belonging.
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  Thanks for joining me for this Good Friday episode. What are your thoughts?
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  I'd love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Care Impact
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  podcast group or email us at
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  info@careimpact.ca. And remember,
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  always stay curious.