Take up your cross

So, yesterday, we did "Stations of the Cross." My first time. I thought it went well, though I wish weather would've permitted us to be outdoors. It was an effective tool for encouraging reflection on all that Christ went through for us. I would do it again in future years, though possibly on Good Friday. One thing that caught my eye was the teen student who actually picked up a (thin, lightweight) replica of the cross. What little Christian art I have seen usually shows Christ carrying the cross with the stipes (long, vertical part) out behind him. Like this:











Our young man, through no fault of his own, carried the cross stipes forward. It looked like he might pole vault with it at any moment. I could only find rare images of it being carried this way. Here's a Salvador Dali:








This looks like a harder way to carry the cross. And who is the buxom female behind Jesus in Dali's lithograph? Who knows. Anyway, all this is probably wrong. Archaeological evidence suggests that the condemned may have carried only the patibulum (cross piece). He would have then been lifted up onto the more permanently situated upright.


So, how would I carry my cross for Jesus? In typical fashion, I have gone off on a tangent about stipes forward or backward, or patibulum only. I don't know. I'd probably carry it the easiest way, the way with the fewest stumbles and splinters. If you think about it, it is really a tough problem. If you carry the cross the easiest and most effective way, then you wind up at the site of execution that much faster. Perhaps all that matters is that we do take up a cross and follow.


I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:20 (NIV)