The Crucified God

George Buttrick wrote a book called Jesus Came Preaching. In it he describes a picture he once saw in an Italian church. It is a picture of the crucifixion of Christ. As you look at it closely you notice a large and shadowy figure behind the figure of Jesus. The shadowy figure is God, so that the nail that pierces the hand of Christ also pierces the hand of God, and the spear that pierces the side of Christ also pierces the side of God.

The picture makes the point that God was in Christ reconciling himself to the world. The crucifixion does not represent God against Jesus the human, but God incarnate taking upon himself the sin of the world.

Source: Reported in John Stott, The Cross of Christ p158. Stott notes that Buttrick does not indicate in which church the picture hangs.
Aopplications: Christ, death of Christ, crucifixion, incarnation, salvation, reconciliation, atonement