As I write these words, we are fast approaching a major series of events and celebrations in Western Christianity called Holy Week, or Passion Week. Central to this week is Good Friday, the day that commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. It is this event that led the early followers of the Way of Jesus to look to the cross as a symbol of the Christian faith.

The cross continues to persist to this day as a powerful reminder of the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth and what it can mean for us today.

The use of this symbol, or image, is not only used as part of the many expressions of the Christian faith but also is present in the secular world as well. Many people who have no active association with “organized religion” own and wear crosses as pieces of personal adornment and the cross shows up in a variety of forms in all sorts of graphic expressions in print, online, in paintings. It is a common symbol. I wonder, however, just what does it mean?

The obvious first answer to that question would likely be, “Many things to many people.” For those in the secular world I could speculate and could not offer much of significance. For those who have anywhere from a passing acquaintance with Christianity to a deeply committed religious faith centered in the person of Jesus, the various understandings of the meaning of the cross are manifold.

For people who grew up as active members of the Roman Catholic Church they experienced visually the cross with an image of Jesus hanging on it called a crucifix. This way of experiencing the cross was meant to emphasize the personal sacrifice Jesus made as a result of his work of confronting the powers of empire of his time with an alternative way of living in community that he called the Kingdom of God, or sometimes, the Kingdom of Heaven.

This was perceived at the time as subversive and a threat to the powers-that-be, the puppet kings, the temple priestly hierarchy and the Roman overlords. As a result, Jesus was put to death on a cross, an instrument of execution reserved for traitors and “enemies of the state.”

If one grew up in the Protestant tradition (as I did) the crosses in our churches were empty, focusing on the power of resurrection part of the story. It suggests that the perceived power of empire — wealth, military might, governmental control — is impotent in light of the power of powerlessness — God’s love expressed in the way of Jesus.

Granted, this kind of power is hard to recognize at work on the world stage. It becomes more visible in our smaller communities and groups of people helping others. This is where we are able to witness Christ alive today.

For some, then, I suppose crosses are simple cosmetic ornaments or, in some movies, a means of warding off vampires and other non-religious uses. But even in those contexts they represent something to do with power.

For the authentic and faithful Christian, however, cross or crucifix, they remind us of a gentle but persistent power from a Source outside of ourselves, yet within us as well — a power characterized by self-sacrifice, service, compassion, kindness and acceptance.

It is a strange but remarkable irony, then, that the cross — an instrument of heinous and horrendous torture and death — becomes for so many an icon of hope and promise. It heralds, welcomes and invites us all to a new way of being, a way of love, the way of Jesus.