The reality of the Crucifixion both draws and repels us. The barbaric suffering and death inflicted on Jesus elicits a strong emotional response, even as our rational self recognizes that somehow, according to the witness of Scripture and the teachings of the Church through the ages, Jesus' death frees us from our sins, and makes it possible for us to live with God forever.
The conflict that the Passion creates in each of us mirrors one or more of the conflicts found in the characters in the gospel accounts, and we often find ourselves identifying with one particular figure. But we should be cautioned against emphasizing one facet of the struggle to the exclusion of the others.
The prayerbook liturgy suggests that every congregation sing today, "Sing my tongue, the glorious battle; of the mighty conflict sing." This is John's theme throughout his Passion narrative. From the final supper to the agony in the garden, the betrayal and arrest, torture, and humiliation, through his suffering and death, God the Father glorifies the Son. Jesus reigns from the cross. "It is finished" may not refer to Our Lord's final mortal breath. It may refer to the perfect completion of Jesus' life which seamlessly glorified God, with the ultimate act of glorification to come on the Third Day.
Orthodox priest Father Alexander Schmemann writes: "To be Christian, to believe in Christ, means and has always meant this: to know in a trans-rational and yet absolutely certain way called faith, that Christ is the Life of all life, that He is Life itself and, therefore, my life." (For the Life of the World, p.104)
