Lenten Journey 2014: The Friday of the third week of Lent

Good evening, internet. I am sitting outside of my campus coffeeshop while I am writing this. I wish you were here. There's a wonderful breeze here in Lakeland. It truly is beautiful, and just reminds me of the creativity of God in creation. I have recently discovered the wonderful world of Lutheran podcasts. There certainly are a plethora of good, sound doctrine and witty humor of Lutheran podcasters. (I'm actually listening to the Boars in the Vineyard podcast while I'm writing this!) I'll give some links to some of my favorite Lutheran podcasters. But today, I wanted to talk to you about something that I have been reflecting on this week of Lent: the crucifix. I have heard many objections about the use of a crucifix either in churches or for personal use in the home. One of the biggest objections is that because the Roman Catholic Church uses crucifixes, we shouldn't use them. I, as a Lutheran, cannot jump on that bandwagon. I actually thank the Roman church for many things. First of all, they preserved the historic liturgy of the Church. Second, they also preserved the ancient writings of the Church Fathers and some early Christians. Thirdly, they have shown me what a church should look like. Does the Roman church have some errors in their theology? Absolutely. But am I going to throw out something simply because it is used in the Roman Church? Of course not! The second objection I hear is "The cross is empty, so we shouldn't use the crucifix." I'm sorry, but this is not a good argument. If you're going to argue that because Jesus is not on the cross we should refrain from using crucifixes, then we have to apply that logic to our dear, dear nativity scenes with the infant Jesus because Jesus is not an infant anymore. The third argument used is that the use of a crucifix is contrary to one of the Ten Commandments. The only response I have to that is: context. The prohibition of graven images is affiliated with making graven images in order to worship them. No Lutheran that has a crucifix would ever worship it. We may be similar to our Catholic brothers and sisters, but there is a reason why we're Lutherans. I've probably bored you with this, but I feel like its something that needs to be addressed. If you have comments, questions, or concerns, feel free to email me or leave me a comment. In closing, I shall leave you with this image.
God bless,
Manny