Yesterday as I was driving in my car, a new song came on the radio that I had never heard before. And as I listened to the chorus if it, my stomach tightened into a knot. The words repeated over and over …’there is room for more at the foot of the cross… there’s room for you at the foot of the cross…”

I had a visceral reaction as I heard these words, thinking to myself:

THIS IS REALLY BAD THEOLOGY.

I thought as the song drone on…. you will never find me at the foot of the cross, that is not where you meet Jesus. If I am to gather to meet Jesus — and if I am to encourage others to do the same — it will be at the empty tomb.

At the empty tomb or at manger in Bethlehem or at the mountainside where Jesus fed thousands with miraculous abundance. These are the places where we should “meet Jesus.” These are the places where we should bring our beloveds to show them who Jesus really is. But not at the foot of the cross.

Because the cross is just one, temporary moment in Jesus’ life when the power of Empire and the suffering of the world seemed to overtake Jesus, at the cost of his very life. The disciples believed their Messiah had failed. The Jewish leadership believed that they had put down a coup that would overtake the temple. But they were all wrong. That was a temporary moment in time. And it was a moment that Jesus conquered, with his resurrection, at the empty tomb.

To root your faith in Jesus on the cross is to root yourself in the suffering of the world. Jesus overcame this suffering. And the apostle Paul reminds us that we are to be in this world, but not of this world. That as disciples, we are not to conform to the world, but to be transformed by it. The suffering of the world is a temporary moment, and we are not to be consumed by it.

So if I am to bring my beloveds to “meet Jesus,” I will not be at the foot of the cross. I will not live in the profane suffering of a broken world.

If I am going to invite others into the life and ministry of Jesus, it will be in a manger in Bethlehem, where the God of the Universe decided to love the world so deeply that they become one of us to experience all of humanity’s complexity.

I will invite others to experience the Jesus at the Passover table, who washes feet and feeds us from the bread of life. This is the Jesus who offers us the mystery of grace and mercy in Communion together.

I will invite others to experience the Jesus on the hillside who feeds thousands with miraculous abundance, and who calls his disciples to do the same.

I will invite others to experience the Jesus who sits at the well with those who are outcast, marginalized, and foreigners, and offers them the living waters of God, understanding their human circumstances do not preclude them from love of God.

And most importantly, I will invite others to experience the Jesus who greets Mary (and all of the world) at the empty tomb — the Jesus who conquers the suffering of this world and the evils of Empire (the Jesus for whom the separation of death was but a temporary moment) and reminds us that God works for good in all situations, even in the pain of crucifixion. That is the Jesus I know, and that is the Jesus I will share.

So, no, I will not be found at the foot of the cross. I am bringing my folks to the empty tomb instead.

Hope to see you there.