“The Cross Is Always About Christ”

Sunday, August 26, 2018

In Bladensburg, Maryland, a forty-foot tall cross stands in a highway median as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I. A group known as the American Humanist Association has recently sued to have it removed since it is on public land. Their claim involves two ideas:

1) Since the land is public, it should have no association with a particular religion, lest it violates the Constitution. 2) Although many advocates of keeping the monument have said, “It’s just a memorial; it’s not a religious statement,” these humanists understand that a cross is always the premier symbol of Christ and Christianity.

It is not my intention in this writing to argue whether the monument should remain, but rather to highlight that second idea: that, even from a perspective that denies God’s sovereignty, a Roman cross is inherently seen as a reference to Jesus Christ and his religion.

This case has already gone through a major appeals court (on its way to the Supreme Court), and the writer of the majority opinion said, "Even in the memorial context, a Latin cross serves not simply as a generic symbol of death, but rather a Christian symbol of the death of Jesus Christ.” 

There is something encouraging in the fact that the world must still face the reality of Jesus’ cross. It’s not just a relic of history; it is always the message of “Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor. 1:23-24)

- Dan Lankford, minister

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