First Presbyterian Church, Marianna, Florida
Lenten Luncheons Lent 2007
Reflections on the Cross of Jesus
by Huw Christopher, Pastor
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Jerusalem Cross

Hymn:                         “At the Cross”      stanzas 1 and 2 and refrains

	A few weeks ago after our washing machine had died Rachel and I were in 
Lowes looking for a new one.  As we were checking out a young man who was 
working there came up to Rachel and said, “I have cross like that and I know what 
it means.”  The cross she happened to be wearing that day is one that many of you 
have probably seen her wear on other occasions.  It is the cross that was featured 
on the front of our bulletin last Sunday and now on our banner today.  It is called 
the Jerusalem Cross.  In talking with that young man at Lowes it appeared that he 
had been given that cross at a conference he had been attending. The particular one 
that Rachel was wearing that day was one that she had been given at one of the 
first continuing education conferences that she and I attended when we were 
beginning our ministry in Washington, North Carolina.  We came to Atlanta to a 
Serendipity Conference in the mid-1970s led by Lyman Coleman who had written 
so much of the Serendipity material at that time.  As part of the closing 
commitment service everyone was given a Jerusalem Cross.  I do not recall any 
particular significance being given at that time to the fact that the cross that was 
given out was a Jerusalem Cross.  I think that it was just intended to be a reminder 
to us of the conference.  When Rachel wears her Jerusalem Cross I often wonder 
what may have happened to the one I was given.  While I was pastor in the 
Washington Church I had a young man who frequently would come by the church 
looking for help.  One day when he was in my office he saw my Jerusalem Cross 
and decided that this was one that he would like.  I hope that he may still have it 
and that it may be a reminder to him of the help I sought to give to him over thirty 
years ago.  Some of you may have seen Rachel wear a smaller fancier version of 
the Jerusalem Cross.  This one also has great significance for her because she 
purchased it when we were visiting in Jerusalem as part of our trip to the Holy 
Land in the year 2000.
	The Jerusalem Cross has sometimes been called the Crusaders’ Cross since 
it was the coat of arms of Godfrey de Bouillon, who became the first Christian 
ruler of Jerusalem in 1099.  Godfrey organized the Knights of France, Normandy 
and Flanders in what turned out to be the second crusade to conquer Jerusalem 
from the Muslims.  It is not clear why he choose the Jerusalem Cross.  
	As you look at the Jerusalem Cross on the banner in front of me this 
morning I would invite you to think about some of the various interpretations 
which have been given to this cross.
Some suggest that the five crosses represent the five principalities which 
made up the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades.  Another 
interpretation is that the five crosses symbolize the five nations which eventually 
went on the crusades to free the tomb of Christ in Jerusalem, namely, England, 
France, Italy, Spain and Germany.
Another tradition says that the cross was designed after an Armenian crutch 
cross Godfrey found somewhere in Asia Minor.  This tradition suggests that he 
liked the old design which was symbolic of pilgrims who leaned on their crutches 
as they prayed.  We do know that later the crusaders established the Knight 
Templar to protect such pilgrims and that the Knights Hospitaler were concerned 
about caring for pilgrims who became ill on their journeys to the Holy Land.  For 
some people these associations have caused the Jerusalem Cross to be called the 
Cross Potent, and its resemblance to an ancient crutch to become a reminder of the 
fact that God’s nature is salvation, seeking to bring healing and wholeness to that 
which is ill or “dis-eased,” and seeking to make whole that which is broken, 
handicapped or impaired of body, mind or spirit.
	Some people have seen here in addition to the crutch symbol of healing that 
the four larger crosses are seen as Tau or T crosses which are sometimes called the 
Old Testament Cross or the Cross of Prophecy or the Cross of Anticipation. It is 
sometimes associated with the bronze serpent that Moses held up on a stick as a 
sign of healing for the people of Israel in the wilderness.  The four smaller, Greek 
crosses, are then seen to be symbols of the four Gospels which have displaced the 
Mosaic law, depicted by the Tau crosses.  In this way the Jerusalem Cross is seen 
as the symbol of the fact that as Christians we have passed from the “Law of 
Moses” to the “Love and Grace of God” revealed through Christ’s death on the 
cross.
	Other people looking at the cross have seen the way in which it speaks to 
them of the suffering of our Lord on the cross.  In particular they have seen the 
large square cross as representing the wound in the side of Jesus, and the four 
smaller Greek crosses to refer to the wounds in his hands and his feet as he was 
hung on the cross to die for us.
	I do not recall exactly what the young man in Lowes said about how he 
interpreted this Jerusalem Cross but I think he said that the large cross was seen as 
being representative of Jerusalem, and then the four smaller Greek crosses were 
seen as the four points on the compass or the four corners of the earth.  In this way 
the cross is often called a Cross of Witness reminding us of the way in which the 
Christian faith has spread as the Risen Jesus promised because of the witness of his 
followers first in Jerusalem and then in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of 
the earth (Acts 1:8)  Seen in this way, of course, the cross prompts us to pause and 
to give thanks for those whose faithful witness to the cross has enabled us today to 
come to know the love of God for us as that love has been revealed supremely in 
the death of Jesus Christ upon that cross for us.  Looked at as the Cross of Witness 
it also reminds us of our continuing privilege and need to witness before others to 
the grace and healing power of God seen in God’s gift of love to this world in 
Jesus Christ who loved us and suffered for us on the cross.  It is indeed our faith in 
him that makes the cross, whatever shape it might be to be, so significant in our 
lives because we remember that it was on the cross on Calvary’s hill that Jesus 
became that symbol of the lamb of God, our Savior Divine.  Let us remember 
again all that our faith in our dying Lord means to us as we sing stanzas 1 and 2 of 
“My Faith Looks Up to Thee.”

Hymn:                        “My Faith Looks Up to Thee”                    stanzas 1 and 2

Prayer:
God of our Salvation you have given us Jesus Christ to be the Lamb of Calvary, 
and our Savior Divine.  We praise you for all that your salvation, your healing 
power means in our lives as you seek to bring us wholeness in body, mind, and 
spirit.  As we remember all those who have witnessed to your love in Jesus Christ 
beginning there in Jerusalem and reaching now to the ends of the earth we praise 
you for all who have enabled us to hear and to have faith in your great love 
ourselves.  As you give us the privilege even today of continuing that witness to 
your great love throughout the world so we pray that you will strengthen us, guide 
us, inspire us and encourage us by your Holy Spirit ever at work in our lives, for 
we ask these things in the name of Jesus, our Savior Divine.  Amen.	
 
 
 
 


1