I find the ruling by the European Court of Human Rights as a golden opportunity for many Christians to rediscover the real but hidden value of salvation. The words of St Paul that “the preaching of the cross is foolishness” to most people is perhaps more valid today. It is ‘unbelievable’ that Jesus could have gone so far to die one of the most deplorable deaths.

Centuries of subsequent Christian tradition have made the image of the crucified Jesus so familiar that offensiveness of the event that it portrays has been almost completely lost.

Early Christians had indeed little to gain in proclaiming a crucified saviour. Jesus’ crucifixion rather posed one of the major problems for them. It meant that a state execution was at the heart and the origin of their faith. It meant that they revered a saviour who had been tried and found guilty by the representative of Roman imperial authority.

This was more than enough to make many people wonder if the Christians weren’t some seriously subversive movement. In those days a crucified saviour could hardly be appealing to those who cared about their social standing. Jesus’ crucifixion represented a collision between Jesus and Roman governmental authority and this translated into an obvious liability to early Christians to promote their faith.

It is out of sync with all ‘humane’ thinking of our ‘modern’ times that he has suffered all this out of love and loyalty to his God of love and to all human beings including his executors. And what is more offensive for all those who nowadays bear the banners of self liberation is that this act of love has been totally accepted by God in the resurrection of the Christ making it totally clear that God’s love as depicted in the crucified Lord has no limits. The risen Lord still bears the signs of the crucifixion. These cannot be wiped out by the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights. Yet these signs could be ‘forgotten’ by many. And this is the real shame.

Agnes Debono

Kercem