What does it mean that Christ, the Prince of Peace who “bears the weight of the government on his shoulder,” invites us into the work of peacemaking? What does it mean that Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, connects peacemaking to sharing in sonship?

I believe we cannot fully understand these teachings without understanding that Christ crucified is Christ executed unjustly by an oppressive political regime. When we confess in the creed that he was crucified “under Pontius Pilate,” it is important that we say “under” and not “by.” It is not simply that Christ is killed by unjust men; he is killed under the sanction of political authority as the direct outcome of an explicitly political process which includes a procedural trial and a judicial sentencing.

The justice of Christ’s cross is a justice of reconciliation, a pathway to peace for those who have been denied it.