FromJamaica LINGERING NEAR THE CROSS

Ihave been thinking about the cross of Calvary and its continued meaning for us as Jamaicans and Caribbean Baptists.

My lingering thoughts on the cross may have been influenced by my rereading of James Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree alongside Devon Dick’s The Cross and the Machete; both presenting the insight that the Cross continues to be an empowering symbol of God’s loving solidarity with the least and the lowest – those whose lives are full of “crosses.”

When a Jamaican says something is “crosses,” it can mean anything from trials, tribulations, inconvenience to bad luck.

This world continues to be plagued by “crosses,” including the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic; the rising prices of basic products necessary for life and living as a result of a hard to control inflation; salaries and wages that cannot cover the cost of living; crime and violence and in particular murder making our communities unsafe and people insecure; the impacts of the climate crisis and the self-inflicted wounds on the body of the earth by senseless wars all amount to crosses or the Jamaican pronunciation,

The American Author and Poet James Baldwin is credited to have said “Whites discovered the cross by way of the bible; black people discovered the bible by way of the cross.” So we look to the cross and beyond that to the empty tomb, but I am lingering near the cross in this Easter season.

The cross of Jesus Christ continues to remind us of God’s suffering solidarity with the cross bearers in 2023: the crucified people be in Haiti or on the streets and villages in Jamaica.

That same cross bestows on us, as it did our fore parents during enslavement, the power to resist all the injustices and evil of this life. God was with Jesus on the cross. Therefore, God is with us and will continue to walk with us and help us to carry our crosses daily.

The cross for us is victory and not defeat; it is not shame, but the disarming of those who use shame as a weapon.

Although Good Friday has passed and we are basking in the joy of the resurrection, let us linger under the cross and proclaim that message of hope.

Let us live with the confidence that comes from the one who died on the cross. Blessed Easter

Rev Glenroy Lalor, PhD President, JBU