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Although Scotland doesn’t have capital punishment, there was a stay of execution over the weekend with regard to five high rise flats which were to be demolished as a curtain-raiser for the Commonwealth Games. The Games organisers saw the consigning of these buildings to the dust as symbolic of Glasgow’s openness to change. But for protestors it symbolised other things - a disregard for the feelings of the local community, the demeaning of social housing, and an insult to the homeless. That’s the thing about symbols or symbolic actions - they mean different things to different people. What is a sign of hope to one can be a sign of provocation to another. We’re seeing this at the moment in Ukraine. The raising of the Russian Flag in the Eastern cities is regarded by some in these regions as the assertion of cultural and linguistic identity in the face of the national government which they fear is not as sympathetic to regional sensitivities. But to many people in Kiev, the display of such an emblem is a red rag to a bull. And Western commentators have not been reticent in suggesting that this may signal a return to the cold war days of Russian expansionism. It is only coloured cloth, but it causes completely polarised reactions. But that’s the thing about symbols and symbolic actions. As distinct from a factual statement which has a precise meaning, a symbol is much more ambiguous. What we see in it may connect us with positive or negative experiences in our history, of which we might be quite unconscious. And because we all have different pasts and different aspirations, a well-intentioned symbol may not be met with universal acclaim. This is Holy Week, and it is overshadowed by the cross - an emblem which Christians revere, but not everyone reacts in that way. During the Spanish Inquisition it was the symbol of arrogant power which persecuted Jews and Moslems alike. For others in our own day it has been associated with the clerical abuse of children, the denigration of women and homosexual people, and the religious endorsement of Western imperialism. This symbol of redemption needs itself to be redeemed. For, in the beginning, when the crucified Jesus hung naked, and open to the vilification of humanity, the cross was not representative of an imperial, sectarian god spurning those who were not like him. It was the symbol of how only the love that suffers is the love that ultimately saves. Where, in the eyes of some, that same cross holds deep resonances of hurt and abuse, Christians must ask forgiveness of their God and those whom they have offended.