The Cross: A symbol of faith for Christians (2024)

A wooden cross is silhouetted by the early morning sun at the First Lutheran Church, 1701 19th St., Parkersburg. (Photo by Art Smith)

As the faithful gather in church this weekend to celebrate Easter, many will use the cross as part of the observance.

The cross means many things for different people.

“I see something different with the cross and the crucifixion. With the crucifixion I am reminded that God took on our flesh, that’s what we celebrate at Christmas. It represents hope because there I see Christ. The cross represents the very worst that humans could do to another human, even to God,” said Father John Rice, pastor of St. Francis Xavier Church, 532 Market St., Parkersburg.

“There were thousands crucified in the Roman Empire, only one was God. Taken falsely, it can be used as a threat, you can’t do that with Jesus on it.

“The cross can mean many things for many people. For many Christians it is a sign of their faith.

The cross on top of the bell tower at the First Presbyterian Church, 1341 Juliana St., Parkersburg. (Photo by Art Smith)

“For those who hold religion is disdain, the cross is a sign for foolishness. For those of other beliefs, the cross can be a sign of false belief. For indigenous people the cross can be a sign of domination because Europeans brought their faith with them, and with them the symbolism of the cross,” Rice said.

“The cross represents the Christian religion as a whole, in the way that the crescent has come to represent Islam and the six-pointed star has come to represent Judaism. More specifically, to Christians the cross represents the suffering and death of Jesus, which they understand, along with the resurrection of Jesus, to be the source of salvation,” according to David Torbett, professor of religion at Marietta College.

“Certainly, most people understand the cross to represent the Christian religion as a whole. Most Christians, I think, understand it to represent God’s love. I think most Christians understand the cross to represent God’s closeness to humankind, God’s self-giving love, God’s forgiveness, and God’s overcoming of sin and suffering and death.

“The cross as a symbol goes back to the beginning of Christianity and even earlier. The word ‘cross’ is used symbolically in the New Testament much more than it is literally, to refer to Jesus’s suffering and death but also the burdens that the followers of Jesus face. Christians are supposed to ‘take up’ their cross and follow Jesus,” Torbett said. “Catholic churches make more use of the crucifix, with the body of Jesus on it. Protestants more frequently use the empty cross. The most likely explanation for this has to do with the historical Protestant discomfort with the use of images in worship, particularly of the human form, rather than other explanations you might have heard.”

Before Christ, the cross was not only a symbol but also a form of capital punishment.

The cross on top of St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church, 532 Market St., Parkersburg. (Photo by Art Smith)

“Famously, 6,000 participants in the slave revolt of Spartacus were crucified along the Apian Way in 71 B.C. The Roman Empire stopped using crucifixion as a means of execution after Constantine in the fourth century A.D., when Christianity became the de facto and then the official religion of the empire. They still executed people, just not with crucifixion. My theory is that when the Roman Empire stopped using crucifixion as a means of execution, crucifixion became a thing of the past, something people associated just with the heroic death of Jesus, but not with the humiliating deaths of slaves and common criminals. Possibly this change in perception made the cross more useful and popular in official devotional art,” said Torbett.

The cross on top of the First Lutheran Church. (Photo by Art Smith)

Three crosses at a cemetery at the intersection of Old River Road and North Meadowlark Drive in Boaz. (Photo by Art Smith)

The cross on top of Vienna Baptist Church, 3401 Grand Central Ave. (Photo by Art Smith)

A pair of graves in Riverview Cemetery marked with crosses. (Photo by Art Smith)

Beechwood Heights Church of Christ, 901 31st St., Parkersburg, has a cross made from glass blocks. (Photo by Art Smith)

Sand Hill United Methodist at 1295 River Road in Boaz. (Photo by Art Smith)