The Scandal Of The Cross
Sermon
Ashes To Ascension
Second Lesson Sermons For Lent/Easter
The preaching of the cross in the first century world was repulsive and odious. The insistence that a man tried, convicted, and executed for a capital crime is the savior of the world is scandalous. Paul describes it in our text as being "a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles" (v. 23).
The Cross As Foolishness
First, Paul declares that the cross to the Greek mind appeared as foolishness. Why? Because to the Greek mind, deity is seen as one of power, being free from pain, suffering, and death. They developed elaborate philosophical arguments to prove that their god must be free from distress and that such a deity was never moved by compassion to assist human brokenness and despair. To show compassion toward the poor or powerless was a sign of weakness. The Greek god could not suffer as men and women do. Therefore, to the Greek mind it was unthinkable that a son of God, having divine characteristics, could endure death like a criminal. A crucified God was repulsive to the Greeks.
Ernest Campbell tells about a young doctor who had no time for God or the church. It so happened that he visited a leprosarium in Africa and asked the sister who was in charge how many patients she had in the institution. "Sixty," she replied. "Your God must feel pain and disappointment when he looks at this world of sickness," the doctor answered. "But," the sister said, "God does not feel pain or disappointment when he looks at this world of pain." Whereupon the doctor declared, "Perhaps that is why I don't care to believe in him."
The truth is that God does feel pain. Look at today's Old Testament lesson from Exodus 3. "Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their suffering ...' " (Exodus 3:7). In Christ, God comes to where people hope and suffer. The central theme of the New Testament is that "the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth ... " (John 1:14). Jesus knew life as we know life. Therefore, we can cry from the depths of our despair, "O Lord, you know how it is!" He does, because he dwelt among us. This is what the incarnation is all about.
Still, crucifixion was repugnant to the first century world. There were three means of capital punishment in first century Palestine: stoning, beheading, and crucifixion. All are mentioned in the New Testament: Stephen was stoned, John the Baptist was beheaded, and Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was administered to the most dangerous criminals. It was used mainly for guerrilla insurrectionists who took up arms against the Romans. Jesus, who never took up arms or advocated that others do so, was regarded as sufficiently dangerous to merit this extreme form of execution. Therein is the scandal of the cross.
The Cross As A Stumbling Block
The cross to the Jewish mind was a stumbling block. Why? They looked for a Messiah who would be known by signs in heaven and on earth. The Messiah would destroy all other gods and drive all the foreigners from the land with a power similar to or mightier than David and Solomon, a Lord "mighty in battle."
The Jewish mind questioned how this lowly Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in obscurity to humble parents and who associated with the poor and outcast, could be the Messiah. He did not destroy the foreign armies. He did not demonstrate political power, but rather servitude and self-giving, which was interpreted as weakness. He did not overcome the enemies of Israel, but he was scorned, maltreated, and put to death as a most dangerous lawbreaker.
For both the Greek and the Jew death is the ultimate weakness. How could this be of God? There the cross is both foolishness and a stumbling block.
The Cross In Today's World
The most important question does not concern the cross in the ancient world, but the cross in our world. A recent comment on this passage by Nathan Williams made me aware of the ease with which we display the cross in our world. What in the first century was a hideous instrument of execution today hangs from our necks on chains, adorns the lapels of our jackets, dangles from our wrists on bracelets, and is seen as frosting on Lenten hot cross buns (Expository Times, March 1983, p. 329). We have domesticated the cross. We have tried to make it less offensive and scandalous. The cross is so offensive that some have sought to avoid it in their theology. A crossless Christianity has had great appeal and it has gained a substantial following and popularity. Yet the cross stands in the center of our chancels. It is, indeed, the central symbol of Christianity. Yet the cross is difficult for us to understand -- difficult to talk about and difficult to preach about.
However, it is part of the biblical record. A man who was tried, convicted, and executed for a capital crime is the Savior of the world. It is remarkable how we make such a public display of the cross, but at the same time the cross of Christ has such little influence on our public lives. Thomas ˆ Kempis, who lived and wrote in the Middle Ages, speaks of us when he said, "Jesus has many who love his kingdom, but few who bear his cross. Many are willing to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer with him."
Many have asked: Why did God do it this way? Look at verse 29 in the text, "So that no one might boast in the presence of God." Salvation for our world is not by intellect or wisdom or from the profound thinkers of the day. If so, masses of ordinary people would never have known God's love and power in their lives. The apostle declares: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are" (vv. 27-28). Obviously, God's purpose was to base the faith of men and women not on human cleverness, but on the saving power through Christ. That's why Paul concludes this section, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."
What counts in life is not the pride of intellect, civic position, or prestige, but the saving grace of God revealed through a crucified God. The ancient hymn captures the essence of this truth: "In the cross of Christ I glory. Towering o'er the wrecks of time." Frederick Buechner points out that the symbols of other religions, such as the six-pointed star, the crescent moon, and the lotus flower, are symbols that suggest light and beauty. "The symbol of Christianity is the instrument of death. It suggests, at the very least, hope" (Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 19).
The respected sociologist Robert Bellah and his colleagues wrote a very revealing book, The Habits of the Heart, showing how our individualism has led to isolation and fragmentation in our society and that our generation has become self-centered, narcissistic, and excessively materialistic. The cross and the crucifixion are offensive to such lifestyles. To the modern mind anything that smacks of weakness, poverty, or servitude is regarded as being repulsive.
The apostle clearly understands how the cross appears to many as folly, foolishness, and weakness. He is convinced that it is the secret to understanding the wisdom of God, "for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom." Only the God of the New Testament is foolish enough to become one with those who suffer and die. To believe that God really was "in Christ" is to believe that God is intentionally with all who suffer. The cross tells us that in our loss, tragedy, or pains our God is there before us. There are footprints in the sand. Conventional wisdom has no room for such nonsense.
Where Is God?
Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz, gives this vivid account in his book Night. The electric power station at Buna was blown up and the Gestapo followed a trail that led to two men and a boy back at the Auschwitz camp. The SS sentenced them to death and ordered all the prisoners out on the parade grounds to witness the hangings. There was total silence among the prisoners as they were about to be hanged. No one moved or said a word as the prisoners were led to the gallows. When the trap door opened beneath their feet the two men died almost instantly. But the boy, because he lacked the body weight of the men, struggled for his life for nearly half an hour. The SS made all of the prisoners stay and watch the boy's struggle. Wiesel said that someone in the back of the crowd cried out, "Where is God? Where is God now?" Wiesel said, "I heard a voice within me answer him, 'Where is God? He is hanging there on the gallows.' " He went on to say that "at that moment to speak of a God who could not suffer would make God a demon."
Where is God in all that is transpiring in our lives and in our world? Today it may not be Auschwitz, but Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, or the blood-spattered campuses of our schools from Oregon to Arkansas as teenage violence continues to ravage our land bringing havoc and pain to so many, or a landscape that has been ravaged by a tornado or hurricane which leaves destruction and death in its wake. The cross tells us where God is. God has entered into our suffering and has experienced it all before us. God, through Jesus, knew suffering, sadness, rejection, and pain as we do, and God experienced death, which comes to all of us. So the God we turn to in our distress is the God with a human face. The God who bids us to come to him has his arms outstretched and his hands bear the marks of the nail prints. He opens his heart of love and grace to us, a heart scarred by the piercing of a sword. No matter what darkness or sadness enters our lives, the cross casts its shadow, which reminds us that God has been there before us.
Where is God? Right where God has always been -- loving and caring for his own!
The Cross As Foolishness
First, Paul declares that the cross to the Greek mind appeared as foolishness. Why? Because to the Greek mind, deity is seen as one of power, being free from pain, suffering, and death. They developed elaborate philosophical arguments to prove that their god must be free from distress and that such a deity was never moved by compassion to assist human brokenness and despair. To show compassion toward the poor or powerless was a sign of weakness. The Greek god could not suffer as men and women do. Therefore, to the Greek mind it was unthinkable that a son of God, having divine characteristics, could endure death like a criminal. A crucified God was repulsive to the Greeks.
Ernest Campbell tells about a young doctor who had no time for God or the church. It so happened that he visited a leprosarium in Africa and asked the sister who was in charge how many patients she had in the institution. "Sixty," she replied. "Your God must feel pain and disappointment when he looks at this world of sickness," the doctor answered. "But," the sister said, "God does not feel pain or disappointment when he looks at this world of pain." Whereupon the doctor declared, "Perhaps that is why I don't care to believe in him."
The truth is that God does feel pain. Look at today's Old Testament lesson from Exodus 3. "Then the Lord said, 'I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their suffering ...' " (Exodus 3:7). In Christ, God comes to where people hope and suffer. The central theme of the New Testament is that "the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth ... " (John 1:14). Jesus knew life as we know life. Therefore, we can cry from the depths of our despair, "O Lord, you know how it is!" He does, because he dwelt among us. This is what the incarnation is all about.
Still, crucifixion was repugnant to the first century world. There were three means of capital punishment in first century Palestine: stoning, beheading, and crucifixion. All are mentioned in the New Testament: Stephen was stoned, John the Baptist was beheaded, and Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion was administered to the most dangerous criminals. It was used mainly for guerrilla insurrectionists who took up arms against the Romans. Jesus, who never took up arms or advocated that others do so, was regarded as sufficiently dangerous to merit this extreme form of execution. Therein is the scandal of the cross.
The Cross As A Stumbling Block
The cross to the Jewish mind was a stumbling block. Why? They looked for a Messiah who would be known by signs in heaven and on earth. The Messiah would destroy all other gods and drive all the foreigners from the land with a power similar to or mightier than David and Solomon, a Lord "mighty in battle."
The Jewish mind questioned how this lowly Jesus of Nazareth, who was born in obscurity to humble parents and who associated with the poor and outcast, could be the Messiah. He did not destroy the foreign armies. He did not demonstrate political power, but rather servitude and self-giving, which was interpreted as weakness. He did not overcome the enemies of Israel, but he was scorned, maltreated, and put to death as a most dangerous lawbreaker.
For both the Greek and the Jew death is the ultimate weakness. How could this be of God? There the cross is both foolishness and a stumbling block.
The Cross In Today's World
The most important question does not concern the cross in the ancient world, but the cross in our world. A recent comment on this passage by Nathan Williams made me aware of the ease with which we display the cross in our world. What in the first century was a hideous instrument of execution today hangs from our necks on chains, adorns the lapels of our jackets, dangles from our wrists on bracelets, and is seen as frosting on Lenten hot cross buns (Expository Times, March 1983, p. 329). We have domesticated the cross. We have tried to make it less offensive and scandalous. The cross is so offensive that some have sought to avoid it in their theology. A crossless Christianity has had great appeal and it has gained a substantial following and popularity. Yet the cross stands in the center of our chancels. It is, indeed, the central symbol of Christianity. Yet the cross is difficult for us to understand -- difficult to talk about and difficult to preach about.
However, it is part of the biblical record. A man who was tried, convicted, and executed for a capital crime is the Savior of the world. It is remarkable how we make such a public display of the cross, but at the same time the cross of Christ has such little influence on our public lives. Thomas ˆ Kempis, who lived and wrote in the Middle Ages, speaks of us when he said, "Jesus has many who love his kingdom, but few who bear his cross. Many are willing to rejoice with him, but few are willing to suffer with him."
Many have asked: Why did God do it this way? Look at verse 29 in the text, "So that no one might boast in the presence of God." Salvation for our world is not by intellect or wisdom or from the profound thinkers of the day. If so, masses of ordinary people would never have known God's love and power in their lives. The apostle declares: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing the things that are" (vv. 27-28). Obviously, God's purpose was to base the faith of men and women not on human cleverness, but on the saving power through Christ. That's why Paul concludes this section, "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord."
What counts in life is not the pride of intellect, civic position, or prestige, but the saving grace of God revealed through a crucified God. The ancient hymn captures the essence of this truth: "In the cross of Christ I glory. Towering o'er the wrecks of time." Frederick Buechner points out that the symbols of other religions, such as the six-pointed star, the crescent moon, and the lotus flower, are symbols that suggest light and beauty. "The symbol of Christianity is the instrument of death. It suggests, at the very least, hope" (Buechner, Wishful Thinking, p. 19).
The respected sociologist Robert Bellah and his colleagues wrote a very revealing book, The Habits of the Heart, showing how our individualism has led to isolation and fragmentation in our society and that our generation has become self-centered, narcissistic, and excessively materialistic. The cross and the crucifixion are offensive to such lifestyles. To the modern mind anything that smacks of weakness, poverty, or servitude is regarded as being repulsive.
The apostle clearly understands how the cross appears to many as folly, foolishness, and weakness. He is convinced that it is the secret to understanding the wisdom of God, "for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom." Only the God of the New Testament is foolish enough to become one with those who suffer and die. To believe that God really was "in Christ" is to believe that God is intentionally with all who suffer. The cross tells us that in our loss, tragedy, or pains our God is there before us. There are footprints in the sand. Conventional wisdom has no room for such nonsense.
Where Is God?
Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Auschwitz, gives this vivid account in his book Night. The electric power station at Buna was blown up and the Gestapo followed a trail that led to two men and a boy back at the Auschwitz camp. The SS sentenced them to death and ordered all the prisoners out on the parade grounds to witness the hangings. There was total silence among the prisoners as they were about to be hanged. No one moved or said a word as the prisoners were led to the gallows. When the trap door opened beneath their feet the two men died almost instantly. But the boy, because he lacked the body weight of the men, struggled for his life for nearly half an hour. The SS made all of the prisoners stay and watch the boy's struggle. Wiesel said that someone in the back of the crowd cried out, "Where is God? Where is God now?" Wiesel said, "I heard a voice within me answer him, 'Where is God? He is hanging there on the gallows.' " He went on to say that "at that moment to speak of a God who could not suffer would make God a demon."
Where is God in all that is transpiring in our lives and in our world? Today it may not be Auschwitz, but Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo, or the blood-spattered campuses of our schools from Oregon to Arkansas as teenage violence continues to ravage our land bringing havoc and pain to so many, or a landscape that has been ravaged by a tornado or hurricane which leaves destruction and death in its wake. The cross tells us where God is. God has entered into our suffering and has experienced it all before us. God, through Jesus, knew suffering, sadness, rejection, and pain as we do, and God experienced death, which comes to all of us. So the God we turn to in our distress is the God with a human face. The God who bids us to come to him has his arms outstretched and his hands bear the marks of the nail prints. He opens his heart of love and grace to us, a heart scarred by the piercing of a sword. No matter what darkness or sadness enters our lives, the cross casts its shadow, which reminds us that God has been there before us.
Where is God? Right where God has always been -- loving and caring for his own!
