Those with whom I have previously (privately) shared this image have exhibited a range of responses ranging from shock and even anger through to a consideration of what means the Christ might have been put to death using had the time, or the people doing the capital punishment, been different.
So I have the image here for a reason. As you look at it, does it make the penalty He paid for you any more powerful or does it diminish the act? Is the sacrifice of Christ made different because the means of killing is different? Do we see the means as any more, or less, humane than the crucifixion?
What do we think when we see 'art' depicting the things we see as sacrosanct? Is is offensive or does it challenge us to consider the penalty differently.
I'll tell you my thoughts a little later, but for now I will leave you to yours:
Pax
5 comments:
Jesus was executed using the most cruel means available two thousand years ago.
Move Jesus forward in time two thousand years and think what modern form of execution is very, very cruel... Some say that the electric chair is the most cruel form of execution available today.
Yes, it is shocking, but only because those of us who claim to be even marginally civilised deplore the death penalty as a means of punishment.
Additionaly we are 'used' to seeing Jesus on the cross, his death more of a symbol than his life, so a different death feels alien.
I don't know, but suspect, that crucifixion would have been a much slower and more agonising death.
I am more than marginally civilized, but I believe in the death penalty for many reasons. I also resent people with the opposite agendas using a bloodied picture of the dead Christ in an electric chair to imply that ALL executed prisoners are innocent and Christlike. And it is simply ridiculous to think that hours of dying by hanging from a cross is more painful or as painful than a quick bolt of electricity.
Christ died, an Innocent, for our sins, in one of the most dreadful ways possible. The child rapist and murderer, the young and sturdy killer of old men and women, will die with their belly full of a good meal, and their bodies full of tranquilizers. If no one sees the difference here, I see no need for discussion.
Don't see this as a political comment or even a comment at all. It's provocative because it provokes us to address the crucifixion in a setting that is more familiar to us.
Great image - He died for me, as He did.
But what if it were Easter Sunday today?
As I've read comments left before me, some readers are responding on the debate of one being electricuted over one being crucified. What seems to be missing in the mind of men is the details that both are forms of capital punishment. And in today's society we see the capital punishment tool of acient civilization being idolized, advertised, marketed and used for entertainment (vampires & rap music). Think out the box for a second. What type of society do we live in if churches & other religions that uphold the cross had a electric chair on or inside their buildings. For in every place that the cross is being advertised replace it with the electric chair. How would you feel then? It's not about who's guilty or innocent because even Christ was found guilty. "Therefore noone can truly judge on the basis of man's judgement. Even though we do, true judgement is based with God. The similarities between the cross and the chair is based on one main factor no one can deny. "They are both capital punishment tools". Stop upholding it. And show your dedication by living the life Christ represented. "We fight not against flesh and blood, but against principalites". "I come not to bring peace but a sword". (Yeshua, aka Jesus, the Sun (Light) of God).
"G.Brown"
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