The offense of the cross

1Cor. 1:18-31

Lent 3

March 16, 2009

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This morning I want to talk about the most offensive symbol in the history of the world. No, it’s not the peace symbol; not the swastika. It’s the cross. This cross on the altar paraments is offensive. The Cross on each of your hymnals is offensive. The cross behind the altar is offensive. This cross I hang around my neck is particularly offensive because it has Jesus on it..making it a crucifix. The cross has been removed from hospital walls and from classrooms around the country. Some churches even, those that are going for the shopping mall look, have deliberately avoided displaying the cross because some of their patrons would find it off-putting. In some places in the world you can expect to be put in jail or even be put to death if you display the cross publicly. The cross is offensive to many people and many cultures around the world.

But to us, and to all those who believe in Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, it is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen. Not because it has great artistic value, but because what happened on the cross almost 2000 years ago. It is the highest expression of love that the world will ever know! For it was there at his cross, that Jesus, the son of God, showed us with his own life how much we mean in the counsels of heaven.

Let’s just try to wrap our brains around that for a moment. One of the worst feelings that a person can ever have is to come to the conclusion that his life is meaningless. That’s why people get so sad; that’s why people become so distressed and depressed and overcome with a sense of foreboding. They begin to conclude that life is meaningless, and that they themselves are meaningless. But Jesus, the Savior, dying for us, there on the cross forever tells us that our lives do mean something; that they mean so much to him that he gave himself up for them so they might be preserved forever.

Doesn’t that just change the way you look at your life and what you do with it? “I mean something! In the beginning and in the middle and at the last I mean something!” The people around me mean something too” “Everything means something. I know this for certain, now that this beloved child of God has paid the ultimate price for our lives and for the lives of all people” That’s what the Cross tells us and that’s why we like it so.

The Cross was interpreted and explained by Jesus himself as he spoke from there. He said “it is finished.” What did he mean? He meant that he completed what he came to do. He came to be our substitute in God’s Judgement. Those Ten commandments that we read earlier today convict us and tell us that we have not made the grade, that we have not fulfilled what is required to come into the presence of the Lord, but Jesus did. He lived the perfect life that we have not lived. But he also died the death that we deserve. That’s what he came to do at the cross. There he finished it. The cross tells us that our salvation is complete. Nothing more needs to be added by us....it is finished. This puts our hearts to rest.

I could go on, but it shall suffice to say that What Jesus did on the cross is of central significance to us and all Christians throughout the world. The cross of Christ is central to to our lives here on earth and to our hopes for the future.

But we learn from the Apostle that there are many who don’t see it that way. He writes “For the message of the cross is foolish to those who are perishing....” There are people, people who find the cross offensive and foolish. People who hate it; try to get rid of it; can’t stand it; are embarrassed by it. How can they feel that way about such a wonderful symbol of love?

Paul mentions both the Jews and the Greeks of his day. “The Jews demand miraculous signs” he says. And the Greeks? “They look for wisdom” The Jews in Jesus day were horribly disappointed because he didn’t come with glory and power right then and there and fix everything in the world. The Greeks were disappointed by him because he didn’t fit their way way of thinking. In both cases, the Jews and greeks, Jesus didn’t fit what they were thinking and so they rejected him. .

In my new members class I tell a story about a college kid that sat next to me on an Airplane on a trip I was taken to chicago. I used to dread when strangers asked me what I’d do because they’d get all uptight and uncomfortable, but not anymore. Just as the cross is offensive to many, so are those who stand for the cross.

But this college kid thought that he’d take the opportunity to expound on all of his theorys on God. I remember he said something like “I believe that all religions are the same and that God just reveals himself in different ways to different people and that God loves everybody there is no hell” And you know how that kind of talk goes over with someone like me.

“Where’d you get that idea?” I inquired. He replied “well, I’ve just been thinking”. “Really, you’ve been thinking!” “ So let me ask you something: Are you a Product of God’s thought, or is God a product of your thought?” That gave him pause. But I was hot on his trail so I continued. “And if God is simply a product of your thought then you make him out to be the created thing and yourself the creator! Where I come from we call that idolatry....and in this case the worship of yourself.” What I had sitting next to me on that plane was a modern representative of the Greeks who rejected Jesus because he didn’t plug into their philosophy. The kid was receptive though. I gave him a bible, circled some passages, introduced him to Jesus, and corresponded with him for some time. Last I heard he was fixing to join a church.

The thing that prevents other people and also sometimes us from seeing the glory of the Cross of Christ is most often sinful pride. Pride that likes to think that we decide how and when and why God should act; pride that doesn’t want to admit that we even need what God has to offer. Pride of the do-it-yourselfer who thinks that we can somehow atone for the sins of our own soul without realizing that the price is our own soul. Pride pride pride. That’s what most often stands in the way of us turning to this Savior whom God has provided. So we must get past our pride

We do that by going to the cross of Jesus. When we go, we should be prepared to offer our sins there. Yes sins, taken to the cross. That’s how we are forgiven and saved. That’s where Our hope comes from. And you might wonder how it is that you can go to cross. You’ve already been there actually, by your baptism. Paul says “whoever is baptized into Christ is baptized into his death” You are also About to receive communion. There Christ crucified for us is made available in the hear and now. As you receive and confess....be healed and strengthened.

But perhaps that’s why people don’t really like the cross. It requires and admission an admission that there’s something wrong with us. It’s hard to admit when we are wrong for we fear that we are knocking ourselves. But we’re not really knocking ourselves, we’re knocking our old sinful nature which has infiltrated ourselves. We agree with God that we need to be redeemed and renewed. That’s what the cross means to us. Renewal made possible by Jesus taking all of our sins there. . AMEN