Day 6: Jesus dies on the cross

The Crucifixion of Christ

by Becki Jayne Harrelson

A queer version of Christ’s Passion is running in daily installments this week from Palm Sunday through Easter. Each daily post features a queer Christian painting and an excerpt from the novel Jesus in Love: At the Cross by Kittredge Cherry. I looked at John. His sorrow affirmed his love for me. Grief caused him to tighten his gnarled fingers into fists, screw up his wrinkled face, and raise those dark, wistful eyes toward heaven. I longed to comfort him and remind him of the new relationship I foresaw between us, something like my marriage to the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t say much, so I chose simple statements. I fixed my eyes on Mom until I was sure that she and John both saw me looking at her. Then I nodded my head a little to indicate John and called out, “Woman, here is your son.” To John I cried, “Here is your mother.” I hoped that he would understand the nuance behind my words. I wasn’t leaving them alone. We were a new kind of family. “Yes, we’ll take care of each other,” Mom shouted to me. Satan’s chilling laugh cut her off. “Not likely! Not tonight!” … The next time that I looked down from the cross to Golgotha… My divine heart bled for them and for all human souls tangled across time. The rosy light flared out from my heart, so intense that it seemed like darkness to some. My breath was sputtering out. “It is finished,” I sighed. (Please come back tomorrow for the next daily installment in the Holy Week/Easter series at the Jesus in Love Blog.)

Gay artist does inspiring Jesus art

Take Away the Cross by Dirk Vanden

A gay artist’s inspired paintings of a naked Jesus are the newest additions to the Jesus in Love library of glbt spiritual art.

The two images were painted by Dirk Vanden, who is also the author of three early gay novels.

Take Away the Cross shows Jesus dancing beneath a glorious sunburst in the midst of a cross. The crowd around Jesus includes portraits of Vanden’s friends, references to Michelangelo, and some of the artist’s favorite rock stars. Look for Buffy St. Marie, Janis Joplin, Paul McCartney, David Crosby, George Harrison, Gracie Slick, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Ecce Homo (Jumping Jesus) leaps for joy, with wings that carry him into the sky. [Correction from the artist added Nov. 6, 2008: "That is his long hair, spread out behind him as he flies, not wings - & not up to heaven! If he's back, he's here to stay. Actually, in my head as I painted him, he's jumping with joy to be free of the cross."]

Vanden painted these pictures in 1971, but they are still fresh. Now the artist is busy putting his latest gay Jesus ideas online. Click here to read his reflections on “Is Jesus Gay?”

Ecce Homo (Jumping Jesus) by Dirk Vanden

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Kittredge Cherry blogs at the Jesus in Love Blog and edits the Jesus in Love Newsletter on queer spirituality and the arts. She offers GLBT and progressive spiritual resources at JesusInLove.org.

Jesus dies on the cross

The Crucifixion of Christ

by Becki Jayne Harrelson

A queer version of Christ’s Passion is running in daily installments this week from Palm Sunday (3/16/08) through Easter (3/23/08). Each daily post features a queer Christian painting and an excerpt from the novel Jesus in Love: At the Cross by Kittredge Cherry.


I looked at John. His sorrow affirmed his love for me. Grief caused him to tighten his gnarled fingers into fists, screw up his wrinkled face, and raise those dark, wistful eyes toward heaven. I longed to comfort him and remind him of the new relationship I foresaw between us, something like my marriage to the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t say much, so I chose simple statements.

I fixed my eyes on Mom until I was sure that she and John both saw me looking at her. Then I nodded my head a little to indicate John and called out, “Woman, here is your son.”

To John I cried, “Here is your mother.” I hoped that he would understand the nuance behind my words. I wasn’t leaving them alone. We were a new kind of family.

“Yes, we’ll take care of each other,” Mom shouted to me.

Satan’s chilling laugh cut her off. “Not likely! Not tonight!”

… The next time that I looked down from the cross to Golgotha… My divine heart bled for them and for all human souls tangled across time. The rosy light flared out from my heart, so intense that it seemed like darkness to some.

My breath was sputtering out.

“It is finished,” I sighed.

(Please come back tomorrow for the next daily installment in the Holy Week/Easter series at the Jesus in Love Blog.)