And we who now stand at the foot of the cross have to face the most searching questions because we, too, find it desperately uncomfortable to look at the face of God’s Image, the man, the king, and see there the perfect likeness of the maker and redeemer of ht world. We are so stuck in the system so Caesar – his swords, his coins, his gambling soldiers – that we too have a hard time recognizing truth of any kind, let alone speaking up for it We are so anxious to protect the philosophies upon which our modern works is built that we will do anything to declare that we have no king but Caesar, that when push comes to shove religion is just a private thing which musn’t affect the public sphere, even when Jesus is reminding Caesar’s representative that he only has power because god has given it to him. And perhaps that is one of the reasons why the church is in such pain at the moment, caught between ‘what is truth?’ on the one hand and ‘no king but Caesar’ on the other.
But the good news – and this is after Good Friday – is that this story, for all its searing challenge, remains the story of the scriptures and the power of God, and therefore of the glory and love of God … and if it is true that that love must transform our whole lives, our public life, our grasp of truth on the one hand, our dealings with Caesar on the other, this can only be if we are first grasped and transformed by that same love at the very deepest level of our personalities.
Tom Wright, from “Good Friday,†in The Scriptures, the Cross, and the Power of God: Reflections for Holy Week. 64-66.
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