PERHAPS
this thought experiment will pry loose a few extra synapses . . . toward increased understanding of my perspective.
PRETEND . . .
since some seem to think that I’m the chief torturer anyway . . .
JUST IMAGINE, PRETEND, that I was the fellow who’d put YOU on such a cross and tortured you to death.
Would YOU then TREASURE a brass reminder of Quix’s treatment of you?
############
I realize that given various givens, I may never live down this THOUGHT EXPERIMENT ILLUSTRATION . . .
however, in the interest of theological understanding, I’ll yet again put myself on the line even with some of the hostile cliques.
Jesus Himself asked Thonas to touch the wounds in His hands. It would seem that even in His resurrected state He showed His wounds to alleviate Thomas’ doubt.
Also, why would He ask Saul: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” In His resurrected state He would seem not to be able, anymore, to suffer persecution for our sake. Yet this is what He said. It was because Saul was persecuting the members of His Body, the believers. Their persecution, He indicates, was also His, as He was living as He had promised, to those who believed in Him.
At no time did He turn away from the Cross—not when He was with them (us) and also not when He was resurrected.
Yes, He is risen. Yes, He will come again, in glory—when the vine is ripe—to gather His Church for all eternity. But—until then—the Body of Christ, member for member, suffers in His name.
“Take up your Cross and follow Me.”
No offense, please?
That's the human way of looking at it.
By contrast, looking back, as it were, in the light of the Easter miracle - or even looking back (in our imagination) from the consummation at the End, even the fall of Adam is called "happy" because it led to so great a redemption and so great a redeemer. (In the great Easter Hymn, The Exsultet, we sing "Oh happy fault, Oh necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer."
Aside from the Mystery I have already mentioned, there is also this: to contemplate a crucifix is to see the great cost of my redemption AND the willingness of God to pay that cost in Christ. Emotional roller coaster: I needed this dreadful thing, and He was happy to do it for me.
I don't think this is worth going to the mat for, but I am happy to praise the crucifix.
Besides, if you did that, and somehow my side of the deal led to everlasting happiness for both of us, I might cherish the reminder ogf a great battle leading to a greater triumph....
23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews indeed a stumblingblock, and unto the Gentiles foolishness: 24 But unto them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.1 Corinthians 1:23