Derek Russell
Contributing columnist
There is a 14 ft. cross sculpted out of granite that stands on the Island of Iona, a tiny island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The cross stands near the entrance of an Abbey. As the story goes, a holy man named St. Columba came from Ireland in a small boat with several of his followers. Some have said of his journey that he was performing an act of penance after taking part in a battle. Others have said it was simply his wish to spread Christianity to a population that was unreached by the gospel: the Picts in what is now known as Scotland. Whatever the original reason, they landed on the Island of Iona, separated from the Island of Mull by a narrow bay.
The year was 563 A.D., and St. Columba started a monastery there that was active for several centuries. As the monastery flourished, it became a target for several Viking raids. From 795 – 825 A.D., the monastery was attacked on four separate occasions. The raid in 806 A.D. was particularly brutal, with the massacre of 68 monks. St. Columba’s Bay was renamed Martyrs’ Bay, and the monastery was moved to Kells, Ireland, after the last attack. You may have heard of the Book of Kells, a wildly artistic Latin manuscript of the Gospels. The Book of Kells was created at the Iona Abby and then later moved for safety to Ireland.
Meanwhile, on the Island of Iona, the buildings fell in on themselves, and the monastery fell into ruins. It was not until 1938 that the rebuilding of the monastery was begun, with later reconstructions of the surrounding buildings. Throughout all of those centuries, the 14 ft. cross stood the test of time. The cross is known as “St. Martin’s” Cross, honoring an early saint of the Church, Martin of Tours. The cross was carved and put in place probably right before the time of the Viking raids. It is an absolute work of art. Each part of the cross depicts a different biblical story or image. When the monastery was in full swing, thousands of pilgrims would visit the Abbey and gaze in meditation at the cross, focusing on the different parts of it as the sun hit it from different angles in different seasons and times of the day.
On one side in the center of the cross is depicted a Nativity scene of Mary, the mother of Jesus, holding the infant Jesus in her lap. We’re reminded that Jesus put on flesh and came to live as one of us, a human child born into poverty. At the very top of the cross are back-to-back lions with intertwining tails. The lions remind us of the fact that Jesus is the King of Kings, and the cross was his throne. Even as they mocked him by beating him with a “scepter” and crowning him with a crown of thorns, Jesus’ tormentors were unwittingly giving testimony to the fact that Jesus is the ultimate king who will come in glory at the end of time, according to the New Testament and to Christian belief. Below the center of the cross are several sections that remind us of Old Testament stories: Daniel in the Lions’ Den, Abraham in the act of nearly sacrificing his son Isaac on an altar, David playing a harp, and David killing the giant, Goliath, with a slingshot.
On the other side of the cross are intricately intertwining serpents as well as five “bosses,” spherical shapes (they look like half-shotputs to me) that bump out from the cross, on the arms, top, center and body of the cross. The bosses bring to mind the five wounds of Christ on the cross, hands and feet pierced by the nails, his side rent open by a spear. As far as the snakes go, at first, I thought of the snake in the Garden of Eden and wondered if they were symbols of the devil, who tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Upon further examination, I realized that the image of the snake was more positive. Jesus likened himself to the snake on the pole from the story in Exodus, where the people looked on the snake and were healed miraculously. It’s through Jesus’ sacrificial death that we are healed in our souls from the curse of sin. Snakes also shed their skins, and some have said that the snakes are reminders of the Resurrection of Jesus on the third day after dying on a cross.
When you look at the Cross of St. Martin on the Island of Iona, you are looking at a cross that has stood there for over 1200 years. It was an object of meditation by countless Christian monks and pilgrims. It overlooked the martyrdom of the 68 monks at the hands of the Vikings. It stood the ravages of storms blown in from the Northern Atlantic Ocean over the span of many centuries. It still stands today, and you can go as I did and see it standing for yourself.
The St. Martin’s cross could easily have inspired this line out of a Christian hymn: “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time, all the light of sacred story gathers round its head sublime.” The symbol of the cross is powerful for Christians through the centuries because of what it represents, an act of supreme love and sacrifice as God’s Son shed his blood for all of humanity so that we could receive grace and be transformed. That sacrifice stands the test of time and into all of eternity.
Derek Russell is pastor of the Hillsboro Global Methodist Church. He loves Jesus, family, dogs and football.
