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Suitable for Easter Week

Suitable for Easter Week

Last updated on: April 2, 2026 at 4:50 pm by Dan Peterson

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Suitable for Easter Week 2026-04-02T16:50:49-06:00 Dan Peterson

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The crucifixion of Jesus, as depicted by an unknown artist. (LDS Media Library)

I’m still bemused by the antics of a small but vocal gaggle of critics who profess to see no difference between mainstream Christian veneration of the cross as the symbol of Christianity and of the atonement, on the one hand, and, on the other, showing a cross in a scene from the life of Jesus — whose life actually does involve a cross at an important part of the story. The occasion for their comments is the recent placement on Temple Square of a bronze statue of Jesus carrying his cross. (For my previous comments on the topic, in which I’m said to be making a “fuss” and throwing a “tantrum” about traditional Christian veneration of the cross — see the blog entries “Do Latter-Day Saints Really Abhor The Cross Of Jesus?” and “Well, I’ve Been Afraid Of Changin’.”)

The sculpture, created by Michael Hall, is part of a statuary ensemble depicting events from the life of Christ as narrated in the New Testament gospels. Its installation was accompanied by that of a statue of Jesus Christ in Gethsemane (see “Two Statues Depicting Jesus Christ Unveiled at Temple Square”) and it’s part of a very deliberate thematic program that emphasizes the centrality of the Savior: “New Temple Square Sculptures Focus on Christ’s Ministry and Teachings: Statue of the Savior’s visit to the young Joseph Smith is in place.”

It seems that Christian veneration of the cross emerged during the fourth century after Christ’s death — although some earlier believers may have sometimes marked their foreheads with crosses already in the second and third centuries. The impetus for greater veneration of the cross seems to have been the discovery in Jerusalem (by St. Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine) of the supposed “True Cross.” This occurred somewhere around AD 320-326, and formal rites of adoration of the cross are documented in Jerusalem by the late fourth century. (For further historical information, see “The history of the adoration of the cross,” in the Catholic periodical Our Sunday Visitor for 26 March 2021.)

I’m reasonably confident that there will be no veneration of Michael Hall’s bronze sculpture of Jesus Christ Carrying the Cross. And, while tomorrow is Good Friday, the day in the Catholic liturgical calendar when such activities typically occur, I’ve heard of no planned rituals of adoration in the vicinity of the statue.

Is it even remotely possible that these critics are serious? That they’re commenting in good faith? Honestly, I doubt it. This is, so far as I can tell, a ginned-up pseudo-controversy. (Such things apparently amuse them.) They appear to believe, or pretend to believe, that Latter-day Saints have rejected any and all portrayals of the cross of Jesus until, well, just now. But such a claim is plainly unsustainable. (See the image above for just one counterexample. See the image immediately below for another.)

And, of course, they claim that I’m lying. How? I’m allegedly pretending that this supposed new Latter-day Saint veneration of the cross is really nothing new at all! (Sometimes, reading such comments, I really do feel as if I’ve wandered onto a set of the old Twilight Zone television series, or into a painting by Salvador Dalí.) My actual contention, of course, is that there has never been and is not now a Latter-day Saint adoration of the cross and that the Michael Hall sculpture represents nothing new in that respect, but also that Latter-day Saints have never flatly rejected mere depictions of the cross. Most recently, The Usual Suspects have been triumphantly trotting out criticisms, by past Latter-day Saint leaders, of mainstream Christian veneration of the cross as if such quotations prove my position wrong (and, of course, dishonestly held). But I’ve not only never denied that such criticisms have been made but have expressly acknowledged them, pointing out simply that allowing artistic depictions of Christ carrying his cross (or of the crucifixion itself) is entirely compatible with continuing to decline to adore the cross, wear it, place it atop our chapels, or adopt it as the symbol of our faith.

I don’t think that my position is so complex that ordinary mortals cannot understand it — not, at least, if they’re even slightly inclined to try. However, I haven’t forgotten Novak’s Rule. How could I?

Jesus on the cross in an officially published Latter-day Saint book of illustrated New Testament stories for young children. (Fair use.)

Tomorrow, 3 April 2026, will be Good Friday, and Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship will be publishing its 2026 Easter essay. Since 2014, Interpreter has published an invited essay every year on Good Friday and on the Friday closest to (but not after) Christmas Day. (The multiple-award-winning Latter-day Saint science fiction and fantasy novelist Orson Scott Card wrote our first, for Christmas.) We’ve allowed writers wide latitude on these. Some have been short; some have been fairly lengthy. They can be academically oriented or they can be personal and devotional, as the author chooses. Here are links to the Easter essays that we’ve published thus far:

Mitt Romney wrote our first — it was extremely brief — for Easter 2015: “Three Streams of Gratitude for Jesus”

Joseph Grenny provided our Easter 2016 message: “Why Did You Choose Me?”

For Easter 2017, Ann Madsen provided the article: “The Healing and Exalting Powers of Christ Weave Together at Easter”

Alan Ashton wrote the essay for Easter 2018: “Easters: The Eternal Atoning Sacrifice Testifies of the Everlasting Redeeming Savior”

S. Kent Brown wrote our Easter 2019 essay: “The First Easter” https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/the-first-easter/#more-22631

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye wrote our Easter article for 2020: “Christ and the Work of Suffering”

Claudia Bushman wrote our 2021 Easter piece, in which, among other things, she objects to the term Easter: “Resurrection Month”

Rebecca Reynolds Lambert contributed the 2022 Easter essay: “Our Faithful Lord: Passover to Easter”

John W. Welch wrote the 2023 Easter essay, which is, I think, relevant to the discussion of Michael Hall’s Jesus Carrying the Cross, now installed at Temple Square: “The Goodness of the Cross and Good Friday: Lessons from Bavaria”

Daniel C. Peterson, alas, provided the 2024 Easter essay: “Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!”

The essay for Easter weekend 2025 was written by Joseph W. Green: “Easter as Threshold: Trauma, Transformation, and God’s Presence in Liminal Spaces”

Keep up with all the news that matters by paying close attention to this blog.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)

Finally, a pair of interesting links:

I enjoyed this article and would like to see the exhibit: “How this Aboriginal Australian family uses traditional art to share their faith: The family’s Indigenous artwork has helped convert ‘whole communities’ and is now on display at the Church History Museum”

Some will be upset by this apparent trend, and others will be gratified by it: “Latter-day Saints are the 2nd most Republican religious group in America — but also the only one shifting away: Deconstructing the 20-year Latter-day Saint political shift”

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