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.

(Continued here tomorrow)

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[Note: For a woman’s version of the crucifixion, see “Christa” by Edwina Sandys at:
http://edwinasandys.com/sculpture/scultureChrista.html

AIDS Crucifixion by William Hart McNichols ©
www.fatherbill.org

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Becki Jayne Harrelson is an Atlanta artist who challenges mainstream religious beliefs via art. Raised in a fundamentalist Christian family, she cares passionately about lesbian rights and other justice issues. Father William Hart McNichols is a renowned iconographer and Roman Catholic priest based in New Mexico. He worked at an AIDS hospice in New York City from 1983-90.