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He Is Risen! So Why Do We Still Have Jesus on the Cross?

  • Writer: Jane Isley
    Jane Isley
  • 4 days ago
  • 5 min read

Why Is Jesus Still on the Cross When He Already Walked Out of the Tomb?


If the whole point of Christianity is that Jesus rose from the dead, why do we keep Him nailed on the cross then? This is a fair question to ask and think about. Our faith is unique from all other faiths. Jesus died for us so that we could be reconciled to God and enter heaven, and His resurrection is the key to that. Jesus is alive and very well. He’s not hanging on the cross anymore, and He’s not dust in a tomb somewhere. 


So why do we have images of Him on the cross? Hanging, partially nude, and sometimes completely nude (I will be getting to that), suffering and frozen in the moment of His death? Like I said, it’s a fair question to be asking.


Now, while there is a group that widely uses this, that is not my target audience because there are Christians from all denominations all over the world who do this with the cross. This is for anyone who still sees Christ on that cross in their living room.


What You See Shapes What You Believe

If the predominant image of Jesus in your everyday environment is one of His suffering and still on the cross, that affects how you see and relate to Him in your everyday life. What we repeatedly see shapes what we come to expect and what we believe.


Over the years, I’ve come across a large number of people through conversations, reading, or hearing their experiences who believed that Jesus couldn’t or wouldn’t help them. Several of those times, there was also a cross with Christ still on it, dying, in agony, and suffering somewhere in their story. 


That was the image they associated with Him, not the empty tomb.


This is not about ignoring what He did and went through for us; Christ bears the scars as proof of what He did for us. We should be thinking about it at times, and let it hit us like a brick crap house every so often. It should bring us to our knees with gut-wrenching tears to understand that He did that so we, the imperfect humans, can go to heaven.


But…….get up off your knees and live, because He is alive. 


His command is to go forth and make nations. How are you going to do that when you are busy looking backwards at a cross still showing Him hanging on it?


Real Thoughts & Reactions

I remember my first reaction to seeing a picture of Christ still on the cross, also, He was painted as fully naked. I looked at the picture and remember thinking along the lines of “why didn't He get off? I though He was stronger than that, maybe He’s not?” Yeah, to say I was confused and also highly embarrassed that I saw Jesus naked is an understatement.

“His eyes were closed, but his face looked sad. Defeated. […] That’s when it hit me: no wonder he couldn’t protect me and my sisters […] He was too tiny, too frail, and too powerless to do anything about it.” I. M. Koen


“Images mislead us. They convey false ideas about God. The very inadequacy with which they represent him perverts our thoughts of him, and plants in our minds errors of all sorts about his character and will. … It is a matter of historical fact that the use of the crucifix as an aid to prayer has encouraged people to equate devotion with brooding over Christ’s bodily sufferings; it has made them morbid about the spiritual value of physical pain, and it has kept them from knowledge of the risen Savior.” (1)


“…The pathos of the crucifix obscures the glory of Christ, for it hides the fact of his deity, his victory on the cross, and his present kingdom. It displays his human weakness, but it conceals his divine strength; it depicts the reality of his pain, but keeps out of our sight the reality of his joy and his power.[…]” (challies)


Psychology 101

Psychological factors are happening here. Actually, there are a lot of different psychological things going on. I promise to try to keep it concise and to the point.


Mere Exposure Effect, identified by Psychologist Robert Zajonc and confirmed across more than 200 experiments. The finding was quite simple, the more we are exposed to something, the more familiar it becomes, and that familiarity can shape our attitude toward it, often without us consciously thinking about it. All we have to do is see it repeatedly.


Next, we have Terror Management Theory (TMT). This research shows that when people are repeatedly reminded of death, they often become more defensive, anxious, and resistant to ideas that challenge their existing beliefs. Mortality reminders can push people to cling tighter to what feels safe, despite what the truth is or not.


Then I found this nugget: brain imaging studies found that death reminders decreased activity in the regions of the brain associated with open, reflective thinking.


As a side note to these, think of social media as an example; we know that what we see every day has an effect on us, it's not even something that is debated; it is something that is known and proven. What we see every day affects us.


Did You Know?

And I’m betting you didn’t know this, that in the early centuries, Christians rarely, if ever, had crosses showing a crucifixion with a depiction of some kind of male body. 


Many sources say it is because it was too jarring or too fresh to them, in a sense, because they weren’t that far removed from the era that did crucifixions. And I agree, I can absolutely see that being a part of it. 


The more graphic and emotionally triggering images of Christ on the cross developed gradually over time. But something important happened in the 16th century. 


During the Reformation, many reformers rejected religious images completely. In response to that, the Catholic Church reaffirmed the use of sacred images, which helped solidify their continued role in Catholic devotion. (Council of Trent; Session 25)


Shameful Depictions

That’s the psychology and history side of things. For those who still feel the need to defend keeping Christ on the cross, I want to ask a few simple questions.


If someone you loved died today, and their body was exposed or partially clothed, would you want that image put on display? Would you want people looking at it, studying it, returning to it over and over again? Or would you want their dignity preserved?


The Romans stripped Jesus as a form of humiliation and public degradation, meant to strip a person of dignity and humanity. A strategically placed loincloth does not change that reality or make it ok. So why preserve that moment of His suffering, His body exposed, His dignity stripped, and center your attention on it? Why is Jesus still on the cross in your living room when the whole point of our faith is that He is not there anymore.


“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay” Matt 28:6


© 2026 Jane Isley.


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