Are you smarter than a 5th grader? That’s what the producers of a new television show want to find out. I took an online quiz from the show’s website and found out that I am not smarter than a 5th grader. I didn’t know that when you mix the colors red and blue you get purple. (I thought you got green…) Did I ever tell you I got a “D” in art class?
It’s a bit humbling to admit that I am not smarter than a 5th grader. After all, we live in a society that prizes intelligence. It was that way in the Apostle Paul’s day too. That explains why some of the church members in Corinth weren’t all that impressed with Paul. As far as they were concerned, Paul didn’t speak with great intelligence or eloquence. But Paul didn’t mind being viewed as a simpleton. His goal, after all, was not to show off his intelligence but to preach Christ crucified – a message that seems foolish and weak, but, as we’ll learn today, it is a message that marks true wisdom and contains true power. Therefore the Holy Spirit urges us to lift high the cross, and not our intelligence, as we go about our business as Christians.
The Greeks were especially critical of Christianity during Paul’s day. They had no use for Christ or the cross because they were certain that if they tried hard enough, they would be able to find happiness on their own. The Greeks believed that by training the mind and the body one could get rid of undesirable qualities and achieve a god-like status. While the Greeks made advances in science, math, and government, their philosophizing didn’t lead to lasting happiness. That’s because Greek philosophers failed to recognize just how corrupt human nature is. They thought there was enough good in mankind to override our moral corruption which makes this world such a trying place to live.
Many people today still believe the Greeks were on to something. In fact Rhonda Byrne recently wrote a book (now also a movie) called “The Secret” in which she suggests that if we only had positive thoughts about ourselves, good things would happen. But that’s like saying that a car with poor alignment would stay on the road if we only spoke kindly to it and had positive thoughts about its handling. Think nice thoughts all you want, your car won’t drive straight until you get the alignment fixed! And so we can try all we want to make ourselves into better people but we’ll never achieve lasting happiness, because sin, ours and others’, will always leave a mess in our lives, like the discarded chocolate bar will always lead to a mess in the living room should the dog get hold of it.
Instead of ignoring sin, Paul says to lift high the cross and acknowledge it. Acknowledge that what put Jesus on that cross, that what made him suffer rejection by his heavenly Father was our rebelliousness. What? Admit that we’ve done wrong? Go ahead and admit it, the world says, just don’t take the blame for it. The reason you lied to your parents about where you were is because a friend asked you to cover for him. The reason you were curt with your sister on the phone is because she never asks how you are doing. You wouldn’t be so impatient if everyone was as efficient and responsible as you… No, you’re not to blame for your sins. So don’t harbor any negative thoughts about yourself. Think only positive ones and you’ll be happy.
Just as the driver who ignores his poor alignment may, as a result, get himself into a serious accident, so those who fail to take responsibility for their sin will find themselves in a serious bind come Judgment Day. Then we will no longer be able to ignore our poor alignment because God will make it public and ask why we didn’t do anything about it? Actually what God will ask is why we didn’t believe that he had fixed our alignment. He has? Yes. He did when Jesus, his Son, was crucified. You see the message of Christ crucified is not so foolish because it does not sweep our problem of sin under the rug. God exposed our sin and revealed his hatred for it when he punished his Son on the cross. But God also demonstrated his love for us there at the cross by punishing Jesus instead of us. The cross proclaims that our sin has been neutralized, not minimized. The cross is like the scar from your last surgery. It testifies that the tumor, which would have killed you, has been cut out, not ignored in hopes that it would go away.
Still, the message of Christ crucified seems foolish because it’s so simple. To hear that heaven is now mine because of everything Jesus did sounds a bit like those two phone calls our family received last week saying that we had won vacations to the Caribbean. Of course the catch was that we had to give the caller our bankcard and pin #. So there must be a catch in regard to the message of Christ crucified, right? No! There is no catch. All of our sins are forgiven. Heaven is ours, period.
And still the world scoffs at the message of the cross. You know this better than I do because you’re on the front lines at work and in school and daily face people who laugh at the Bible’s claims. So what can you do to reach these people? How will you convince them of the truth? It’s simple, Paul says: lift high the cross because the cross contains the power of salvation. In other words, it’s through the message of the cross that the Holy Spirit changes attitudes and hearts.
While we may confess with our mouths that the Holy Spirit uses the message of the cross alone to convict and then convince sinners of the truth, do we really believe this, or do we think we would better off if we lifted high our intelligence? And so we wonder if there isn’t a better way to convince people of the truth than just using God’s Word. So we analyze our programs. We critique our worship. We lament not having a bigger sanctuary as if these things are what convince people of the truth. Don’t get me wrong; it’s important to analyze programs and to critique our worship because if we are not lifting high the cross in these endeavors, we will not connect with sinners, at least not in the way God wants us to connect. And we will keep working on our sanctuary because we don’t want our building to be the thing that keeps people from coming back to hear the message of Christ crucified. But let’s not forget that the power of salvation is contained in the cross, nowhere else.
But haven’t we been lifting high the cross ever since this congregation was founded? What do we have to show for our efforts? Maybe it is time to change our tactics. Maybe there is another part of God’s Word that we should be emphasizing more? Lifting high the cross and preaching Christ crucified might not bring explosive growth to this church but that’s not why we do it. We lift high the cross to give glory to God because this is the plan of salvation he came up with. And this is the only message that will change hearts, not our clever programs or marketing efforts. So no, I will not apologize for preaching Christ crucified week after week, even though Satan likes to say: “Habben, are you going to tell them the same thing again this week?” You bet I am! I will lift high the cross because it’s the only message that calms troubled hearts and gives strength for the week ahead. In fact the cross of Christ gives us nothing less than life…forever!
My family had a good laugh when I told them that I didn’t know red and blue make purple. No, I may not be smarter than a 5th grader but Paul tells me not to worry about that. You see the truth is I am smarter than the most successful PhD who is an atheist, and so are you. For Paul says that while the message of the cross is foolishness, it’s God’s foolishness, and therefore wiser than man’s wisdom. Not only that, the message of the cross may seem weak but since it’s God’s weakness it is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:25). So we will continue to lift high the cross for as Paul said: “Christ Jesus...has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore…“Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:26, 31). Amen.
