I can imagine Christ exalting in the empty tomb or a symbol thereof.
I can imagine Christ exalting in an empty cross.
It’s hard to impossible for me to imagine Him exalting in an image of Himself still on a cross.
And that’s quite apart from the talisman/ superstitious stuff that Prottys and Roman Catholics et al both can get all layered on either one.
You do not think Christ would exalt in an image portraying the sacrifice He made to redeem us.
Odd.
Q>>>I can imagine Christ exalting in an empty cross.
Q>>>It’s hard to impossible for me to imagine Him exalting in an image of Himself still on a cross.
Consider the words of St Paul:
1 Cor 1:23 -- But we preach Christ crucified: unto the Jews indeed a stumbling block, and unto the Gentiles foolishness:
1 Cor 2:2 -- For I judged not myself to know anything among you, but Jesus Christ: and him crucified.
Gal 3:1 -- O senseless Galatians, who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth: before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been set forth, crucified among you?
All throughout St. Paul's letters, it's clear he talks about the sacrifice of Christ and the reality of the great price He had to pay for our redemption.
And I will tell you that regular and thorough contemplation of that price, through meditation of the account of His passion, tends to reduce one's sense of self-righteousness and increase one's level of humility. Thus, those peculiar Catholic traditions of crucifixes, passion plays, stations of the cross, &tc.
Now I can appreciate the desire of an iconoclast to get rid of ALL images, all visual cues and reminders, including the empty cross, in order to remove the possibility of something being perceived as bowing down to an idol. I don't agree and think it is misguided, but I can understand it.
And I absolutely can agree that some of the modernist depictions of the crucifix are horrendous.
But, in light of the Scriptures, I cannot fathom why the revulsion that some have toward the traditional image of Christ crucified.
What I'm saying is look (or imagine) and say to yourself, "This is the omnipotence and bliss of God in action."
In the words of Fr Guido Sarducci: It's a mystery!
In the words of Cane Pazzo (Mad Dawg): It's a WONDERFUL mystery that, as God's grace grows in me, may finally kill my deisre to have everything come out my way ... and that's just a fraction of the mystery that it is.)
I'm not against "empty" crosses. Don't get me wrong. Here where I am right now I have two crucifixes. One is the sort of classic with "realistic (but not gory) "corpus". The other has Christ standing, robed and crowned as priest and king. All worth contemplation.