Pastor’s Perspective
The Glory of the Cross
In a world in which Christian love is no longer re-spected, the message of the Cross has never been more necessary.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul acknowledges something in which many Chris-tians still struggle; that the message of the Cross is foolishness to the unbelieving world.
As we prepare for Holy Week and Easter, the message of the Cross is often leapfrogged in our desire to focus only on the glorious resurrection of Jesus. And while the resurrection is indeed in-credibly important, Paul is unashamed to tell his Corinthians brothers and sisters, that the mes-sage of the Cross is the core of the gospel. As Paul writes, “For I decided to be concerned about nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (I Corinthians 2:2)
What does it mean to preach Christ crucified?
Modern readers might recognize the term “cruciform theology” as one way of understanding what it means to preach Christ crucified. In sim-ple terms the work of Jesus Christ reframes the vision of God for humanity. Instead of using the old school power terms of Greek divinity or the remote holiness of Jewish and semitic theology, the message of the gospel is “God with us.”
Christ crucified is not a legalistic god who de-mands perfection from those who would worship God. Instead, Jesus came to die for the fallen creatures and the sin-blemished creation. He en-ters our lives and dies our death so that by his blood and grace we could be at one with God.
And while there is a great bit of theological and philosophical work that fills in the full explana-tion of Christ crucified, the fundamental core of the gospel is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…”
God approaches us, not with a sword drawn, but ready to suffer and die to show us the char-acter of God and meaning of divine love. Jesus is not Thor. He comes not with the hammer but carrying a cross. God calls us by His sacrifice and calls us to join God in the sacrifice so that we might love and forgive others as we have been loved and forgiven.
The cross is the full revelation of God’s charac-ter; and the freedom that salvation provides helps us to change the posture in which we en-gage with the world. His grace and sacrifice, and the promise of resurrection, allows us to put down our privilege and power in order to love and forgive those who are currently ene-mies of the gospel. In the cross we can leave behind the old nature of control and authority and pick up the mantle of faith, hope, and love.
While the world still ignores the power of the cross, those who are saved by it understand that it changes everything. The cross impacts our understanding of money, our views of sexuality, our connection to family, the prospects of hu-man power, and even the nature of justice and mercy.
Easter Sunday reminds us that we are destined for a resurrected body and eternal life in Christ, but the cross of Jesus tells us that the power of this world no longer controls what we do or how we must live. The King has come and the King-dom is within us. In the cross of Christ we can live by faith, today and forever.
Pastor Dan
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