The Sign of the Cross

By Rev. David Petersen

The symbol of our Lord’s unjust execution, the cross, has become the symbol of blessing. That is because all blessings come from the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of Christian hope is based on the self-sacrifice of our Lord upon the cross. It is our chief symbol, the main thing that decorates our churches and our homes. The cross defines us now and forever.

The cross was first drawn upon you when you were brought into Christ through a watery death and re-birth in Holy Baptism. The pastor made the sign of the cross upon your head and your heart to mark you as one redeemed by Christ. The pastor still makes the cross on you. He makes it on you at the absolution, benediction, and other places during the service. He might make it on you if he visits you in the hospital or he might have made it on you at the communion rail before you were confirmed.

Some Lutherans follow along with the pastor and make the sign of the cross on themselves. Luther advised us to do this also in private prayer. In The Small Catechism he says: “In the morning, when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say: In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” His instructions for bedtime prayer are much the same.

Luther’s instructions for prayer include the sign of the cross. He thinks that is normal Lutheran practice. Notice that he does not tell us to fold our hands, kneel, or even to bow our heads. Those are good ceremonies for prayer also and have always been done by Lutherans. They reflect the posture of the tax-collector in the Temple, but are not the most fundamental ceremony. Signing oneself with the cross is the most ancient, simple, and profound ceremony we have. It is also the most natural. When Luther instructs us to make it in the morning and evening, he is only expecting us to do what Christians have always done.

The most historic and simple way of making the sign of the cross is to use the right hand, palm inward, to touch four points of an imaginary cross upon yourself. First touch the forehead, then the middle of the chest, then one shoulder, and then the other. There are other ways of doing it. Instead of just touching the points, some prefer to trace a cross, being careful to “stay within the lines,” and returning back to the middle at a fifth point. Some like to go from the right shoulder to the left or to hold their right hand so that the tips of their index and middle fingers are touching the tip of their thumbs in a Trinitarian reference. There is no wrong way. There isn’t even really a preferred way.

No one gains favor with God either through ceremonies or by lack of ceremonies. The point is what this simple gesture reminds us of – the saving love of God revealed and given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus it helps us to pray. It reminds us of who we are in Christ. It identifies us to the world. We are defined and live by the cross. Luther doesn’t want you to forget that.

The Rev. David Petersen is pastor at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana.