Today’s reading by Kalil Gibran looks at how the day of Christ’s crucifixion is often treated with passing notice. Gibran builds the argument that modern humanity treats Christ’s death with a temporary sorrow and then goes about their business. He calls the reader to truly lament and associate with those who were deeply and permanently moved by the death of Jesus such as Mary his mother, Mary Magdalene, and those who truly heard Christ pronounce forgiveness.
Gibran efforts to show the perceived weakness of Christ’s death was actually a display of His divine power. This point is well made but gets close to equating power with a worldly definition of dominance. Ultimately the author’s point seems to be that the crucifixion looks weak but is actually God’s way of power.
Whatever the intention it does bring up another in a long line of apparent paradoxes of Jesus. The strength on the cross is not something that I have really thought about. I have heard the “power” of the cross as it applies to the means of salvation. But, I don’t know that I have ever considered that Christ is a picture of strength hanging on the cross atop Golgotha. This is strength from God’s perspective. The strength to persevere, the strength to forgive, and the strength to demonstrate love when evil seems so overpowering. The strength is not only in the empty tomb, true strength is on display in the lonely, disturbing cross.