Lenten Altarcloth - Cross of Swords/Cross of Nails
As God’s wayward children, sinful, and forgetful of His mercy and loving-kindness, we are directed during the six-week timeframe of Lent to ‘return to God with all our hearts’ (Joel 2:12)
In the center of the dark purple, six-sectioned altar frontal is a crimson-black cross, which is both a ‘cross of swords’, and a ‘cross of nails’.
The ‘cross of swords’ convicts us of our sinful nature, that is, our disregard for God, and our tendency to take matters into our own hands. The center vertical sword is a reminder of The Fall-First Sin, when God placed an angel with a flaming sword at the Garden of Eden entrance, barring Adam and Eve forever.
The left horizontal sword is a reminder of Peter, who drew a sword attempting to defend Jesus and inflicted harm, while ‘thinking like everyone else and not like God’ (Mark 8:33), - a sin of which we are also guilty.
The right horizontal sword recalls how Judas and the crowd came with swords and clubs to capture Jesus like a common robber. Jesus acquiesced though and went peacefully to His ‘cross of nails’.
In our preparation for the holy events of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter, the ‘cross of nails’ requires us to ‘fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God’ (Lenten Gradual).