Flowering of the Cross

Published by

Michael K. Marsh

May 2, 2014

One of the great Easter traditions is the flowering of the cross. People bring and place colorful fresh flowers on a drab wooden cross. What’s behind this? Is it just a pretty decoration? Well, it does look beautiful but there are also some beautiful traditions and meanings associated with the flowering of the cross.

The sixth century hymn (#166) we sing on Good Friday celebrates this beauty with these words:

“Faithful cross! Above all other, one and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be.”

The tree of life in the Garden of Eden has often been seen as a prefiguring of the cross. Some legends even say that the wood of Christ’s cross came from the tree of life or from a tree that grew from seeds of the tree of life. There is another legend that says at Christ’s death the cross burst into blooming flowers. Art work from the sixth century shows a flowering cross.

I don’t know if any of this really happened but I know it all to be true. The point in all this is that the cross of Christ is the new tree of life and every cross now flowers with new life. Death has been defeated and Christ is risen. Alleluia!

Easter, Holy Week

Crucifixion of Jesus, Easter, Flowering Cross, Good Friday, Tree of Life

7 responses to “Flowering of the Cross”

Here is the Man – A Good Friday Sermon on John 18:1-19:42 | Interrupting the Silence

April 3, 2015

[…] of suffering and death for all people and transformed it into the Tree of Life. The hard wood of the cross now flowers with hope and possibilities for the healing, reconciliation, and restoration of our own lives. […]

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Margie

February 10, 2016

I am looking to either make a cross for flowering on Easter or buying one. Where did you get yours? Thanks!

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1. Michael K. Marsh
  
  February 13, 2016
  
  Margie, ours is a homemade wooden cross. We purchased oasis from a floral shop. The oasis is soaked in water overnight and then attached with wire to the cross. On Easter morning the flowers are placed in the oasis. After the Easter liturgy we put the flowered cross outside the church. The flowers usually last a day or two. I hope this helps and you enjoy this tradition.
  
  Peace be with you,
  Mike+
  
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2. Jerry Martz
  
  March 26, 2016
  
  Margie, at our very rural church; we have a wooden cross, to which we nail some chicken-wire. We, then, use artificial flowers to insert into the wire in memory of lost loved ones, and to exhibit the sins which Christ died to take them upon Himself.
  
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Good Friday? Really? – A Sermon on Suffering and Death | Interrupting the Silence

April 14, 2017

[…] want to explain away the suffering. We want to make sense of that which makes no sense. We want to flower the cross before it’s time and jump from Palm Sunday to Easter […]

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The Two Questions Of Easter – An Easter Sermon On Mark 16:1-8 – Interrupting the Silence

April 1, 2018

[…] of us rolling back stones, emptying tombs, preparing new places, and calling forth life. Every cross is flowering with new life, every tomb is becoming a womb of new birth, and every darkness is being overcome by […]

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The Pandemic Is Our Holy Week – Interrupting the Silence

April 4, 2020

[…] don’t know when or how we’ll get through this pandemic, but I know this. Every cross flowers with new life, every tomb is a workshop of resurrection, and every Holy Week is the raw material for a new […]

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