Symbolism of the Cross

I am not comfortable with the idea of an instrument of death as a symbol of Christianity, and I don't believe that is how the symbolism of the cross was intended. Based on my wide readings and my understanding of Christ's message, I think Jesus would have liked us to take the crucifixion in context, as a means of demonstrating the true message - the message of resurrection.

In fact, the focus of Easter in Eastern Orthodox Christianity is not the death of Jesus but His resurrection, with which He demonstrates that when we align ourselves with God, our souls live in His grace. This is symbolised in a lovely tradition where worshipers wait outside the church until midnight when the doors are thrown open, and the resurrection is celebrated with joy and kisses.

But there is more to the meaning of the cross than this, for it is a very rich symbol, and has a much longer history than Christianity.

First, the horizontal axis represents the separation of the spiritual and material realms which occurs in biblical terms in the fall from Eden.

The vertical axis represents the two realms, and the potential movement of the individual soul between them: downward into the material world and upward to spiritual being.

God desires that we seek to raise ourselves above the material, which is the means through which we can consciously experience our own spiritual evolution. Our spiritual task, therefore, is to come through materiality to an awareness of our spiritual selves as part of God. That can only be known in our hearts, represented by the heart of the cross.

The heart of the cross therefore represents the point at which the human being lives in the world as a spiritual being, aligned with and reaching upwards to God while still on earth. To reach this level of consciousness, the individual must sacrifice the the material self and commit to living as a spiritual being on earth.

It is important to understand that Jesus did not tell us to give ourselves to God after death ...He spoke of living waters and the God of the living. Rather, Jesus instructed us to die to our material selves while living, as He did, in order to be reborn as the spiritual self while living, as He was.

So death is not the door to a spiritual life, as some choose to believe: the spiritual life is the one we choose now, in life.

All of this and more is in the symbol of the cross.