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Victory through Sacrifice
Clint Eastwood is an iconic Hollywood actor and director. When I reviewed one of Clint’s most popular films, Gran Torino, I said, “We need to learn that getting justice may only be won by giving ourselves.” In short, true victory is achieved through sacrifice.
Eastwood’s symbolic gesture of a cross-like pose at the end of Gran Torino has been used repeatedly since Jesus sacrificed Himself on the Cross for human sin. The importance of the cross is more than a symbol to be worn around a person’s neck. Jesus’ death was a finished work. We remember Jesus dying on the cross because that is where He defeated both sin and death.
My favorite passage of Scripture about the cross comes from Colossians 2:14-15. It reads, “God cancelled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside by nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them at the cross.
What is the full meaning of Christ’s crucifixion on the cross, and His resurrection? Was it an atonement for our sins? A payment for our sins? Or was it something else far deeper? What was it that Jesus actually did, and why does it matter? For Orthodox Christians, the focus of Great and Holy Pascha (their word for Easter), the Feast of Feasts, is about far more than the empty tomb or some sense of payment, but about Life itself. “Christ is Risen!” we will greet each other, “Truly He is Risen” we reply. Christos Anesti! Alethos Anesti! And again and again we sing the Troparion:
