Following Christ Crucified
Friday, September 4, 2026
Theologian M. Shawn Copeland laments the many people and places that suffer ongoing crucifixion:
To know and to follow Christ crucified is to know and love those children, women, and men who are poor, excluded, and despised, made different and unwelcome, lynched and crucified in our world….
If we would follow Christ crucified, we would hear the echoes of ululation and bitter weeping in Gaza and in Rafah, in Baghdad and in Beirut, in Cairo and in Kigali….
If we would follow Christ crucified, we would hold in memory the tears that fell on the rude and bloodied floors of the holding forts of Cape Coast, Elmina, and Christiansborg….
If we would follow Christ crucified, we would press to our hearts the tears that flowed from the eyes of Cherokee, Seminole, and Choctaw children and women and men who limped through the cold and hunger from Oklahoma to Arkansas and Alabama and Mississippi….
If we would follow Christ crucified, we would recover the tears that fell on the floors of the camps at Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibór….
If we would follow Christ crucified, we would retrieve the tears that flowed from the eyes of children and women and men who crowded into flimsy boats and old trucks and shipping containers to suffocate and die in front of fences strung across the desert, at abandoned check points on the outer edge of rural towns, and at heavily guarded borders near rivers and waterways….
If we would follow Christ crucified with attention, reverence, and devotion, we would recognize that the tears and blood and moans of the innocent have been absorbed into the air we breathe, have seeped into our streams and … oceans, into the earth in which we plant and from which we harvest and eat.
If we follow with attention, reverence, and devotion the moans and tears of the brutalized and burned, raped and mutilated, enslaved and captive across the centuries, we are led to the ground beneath the cross of the crucified Jewish Jesus of Nazareth. [1]
Copeland points to the compassion that grows in disciples who follow Christ into the world’s suffering.
The crucified Jesus enfleshes for all and for us the very meaning of being human, of being a person who embraces and lives out God’s gracious gift of love and freedom.
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8:34–36)…. We who would be his disciples discover our humanity, our personhood in imitation of him—in taking up our cross in order to transform evil into good, for the cross belongs not only to Christ but to all humanity. “He chose it because of us, and we choose it because of him.” [2] We who would be his disciples incarnate the meaning in our own lives by following the moans and tears … into a crucified world, taking up an active, compassionate, solidaristic mission. [3]
References:
[1] M. Shawn Copeland, Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience (Orbis Books, 2018), 133, 134–135.
[2] Bernard Lonergan, “The Mediation of Christ in Prayer,” in Philosophical and Theological Papers, 1958–1964, Collected Works of Bernard Lonergan, vol. 6 (University of Toronto Press, 1986), 181.
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| John Chaffee – Five on Friday |
1.
“Everyone will be salted with fire.”
This is a tricky one.
I included it in red font because it comes directly from Jesus.
Most Christians in the West have the idea that “fire” awaits only the unrighteous or the unbelieving. The problem is that Jesus saying this in Mark’s Gospel contradicts that framing of the faith.
“Everyone will be salted with fire…” can seem intimidating until we remember that the word for “fire” shares the same root as the word for “purify” in ancient Greek.
It may not seem like Good News at first, but I find it comforting to know that God will “purify” all “impurities” from “everyone.”
2.
“You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all.”
– Therese of Lisieux, French Mystic
Therese of Lisieux was in her early twenties when she died of tuberculosis.
She prayed that she might understand what it means to love God through suffering… and she was certainly given suffering through tuberculosis.
Her autobiography is a bit saccharine until you realize it was written in earnest. She actually was that pure, simple, and childlike in her heart!
Since she lived such a short life and is already considered a saint, I want to give her words more credence. No time to be half-hearted about living the holy life; it is something worth chasing after wholeheartedly.
3.
“Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.”
– Oscar Romero, Salvadoran Priest and Martyr
This coming Sunday, I am preaching on Luke’s version of the Sermon on the Mount, which also begins with comments about the “poor in spirit.”
The phrase “poor in spirit” is a difficult one to translate. We do not know exactly what the phrase means. It might refer to having a small amount of faith, but we do not know for certain.
Throughout Christian history, though, there is an emphasis on humility, being grounded, and remembering our “smallness” before God. Terrible things have happened in human history when we think we are more than we really are.
The interesting paradox is that the true movers and shakers of human history have always been the “poor in spirit.” By becoming small, we discover who is truly great. If we are too full of ourselves, then there is no room for God.
4.
“We Christians are a peaceful race…for it is not in war, but in peace, that we are trained.“
– Clement of Alexandria, 2nd Century Bishop
Early Christians were always pacifists.
The first few generations of Christianity still understood their identity in contrast to the Roman Empire’s ethics.
It was only after Christianity was legalized and made into the formal religion of the Roman Empire that the early Christians began to struggle with the temptation of power, influence, and violence. For the early Christians, who were still witnessing public executions by the Roman Empire, they could not imagine favoring violence over peace.
This reminds me of Nat King Cole’s recording of “Ain’t Gonna Study War No More.”
Check it out.
5.
“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
– Teresa of Calcutta, Founder of the Missionaries of Charity
I conceptually understand that all of life is about learning how to love.
Love is the summation of the Christian faith. It is the start and finish, beginning and end, the source and completion of all things, and yet… I realize all the time that I have so much to learn about how to love and be loved.
I believe every one of us is afraid of loving until it hurts. That sounds terrible and terrifying.
But like all things, the thing that feels like death is actually where life can be found. On the other side of crucifixion is resurrection, right?
Years ago, the band Thrice put out four short EPs, most of which were rather jazzy in their sound, which was a big deal for a band that was more punk and hard rock than anything else. Their song, “Moving Mountains,” (today’s YouTube song choice above) gets its inspiration from the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 13, and I think its lyrics are exquisite.
The song’s constant refrain is “I don’t know the first thing about love.”
The first step in learning how to love is probably admitting that we do not know how to love.
