II. Jesus Takes up His Cross
David Kroft

At the beginning of this project I was thinking in terms of more traditional views of the station, "He Takes Up the Cross." The traditional view consists of Jesus picking up the cross with the most familiar showing the figure of Christ shouldering a Latin cross. As I began to rethink the image, two verses came to mind. John 10:17-18 - The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life-only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again.Matthew 26:53-54 - Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?With these verses in mind, I decided to reposition the story and the viewer. It was very clear to me that the most dramatic moment occurred when Christ stood before the cross preparing to lift it to His undeserving shoulder. In light of the two cited verses, it came to me that He could have called up thousands of angels and not only rescued Himself but also destroyed this unworthy planet and even the memory of it forever. What caused Him to take up the cross, in fact, to take up my cross? His enduring love and compassion brought Him to that decision, led Him though to the end, and to the Resurrection. Based on that idea, my interpretation reflects the point of the story where Christ stands in front of the cross ready to pick it up. In connection with that, I want to place the viewers in the position of Christ to allow themselves to ask the same question, "Should I take this up, or let them redeem themselves?" We face the cross many times a day when we have a chance to show our love to others who need our help.From the very beginning, I wanted to include small crosses on a larger cross armature--the idea of creating an encrusted or better yet an "encrossted" cross. I also wanted to put names on the cross to represent all of humanity for all time. At that point, of course, the limited metaphors available to human artists become all too apparent. I don't know how many crosses or names are actually included, but it is far from all inclusive. I hope the viewer can imagine other names and crosses hidden from our eyes yet seen and taken up by our loving Savior.