The Crux of the Matter
TCF Sermon
September 27, 2009
(open with examples of language funnies from Engrish.com)
I�ve always been fascinated by words and language. Since I was a little boy, I was always a good speller � in fact I was almost 8th grade spelling champ. Guess what word I missed? Faucet. I�ll never again forget how to spell that word.
I�ve also enjoyed my little bit of language study. I took Latin in high school, and 2 � years of French. It may also be one reason I enjoy studying scripture. Determining the meaning of not just words, but THE Word of God, is an interesting and fascinating challenge.
Part of the reason I enjoy the study of words in general, and the Word of God in particular, is because it challenges my intellect. Many of you are probably thinking, yeah, Bill sure needs his intellect challenged.
But it�s ironic, considering what we�re going to focus on this morning. You�ll perhaps note the irony here in a moment. This morning, we�re going to look at The Crux of the Matter. I think �crux� is an interesting word. Here�s a dictionary definition:
1.A vital, basic, decisive, or pivotal point: The crux of the trial was his whereabouts at the time of the murder.
2.A cross.
3.something that torments by its puzzling nature; a perplexing difficulty.
Some synonyms for crux are words like essence, heart, core, gist. It�s a play on words, then, to say that the crux of the matter of our faith, is the cross, because crux is Latin for cross.
Now here�s the irony. The cross is at the core, it is the essence of, our faith as followers of Christ. It�s the pivotal point in human history, the decisive moment in God�s plan of redemption. But to the world, it�s foolishness. To the Greeks of Jesus� day, the learned, wise, well-educated intellectuals, it was foolishness. And I think to many in our day, the message of the cross is foolishness, too.
1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NIV) For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man�s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man�s strength.
Paul, here writing to the church at Corinth, is not diminishing the importance of the intellect. He�s saying, essentially, this plan, the cross, the means through which God chose for the salvation of the world to be accomplished, seems like foolishness.
In fact, the root of the word translated foolishness here is the same Greek word from which we get our English word moron. So, I guess that makes us, if we believe in the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ � that makes us morons.
But, really, it�s not foolishness to us. To those who are perishing it seems like foolishness, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
To those who are perishing, it�s not just foolish, it�s offensive. In Galatians 5:11, Paul writes about the offense of the cross. The cross is indeed offensive to people. It was offensive in Jesus� day, and I believe the message of the cross is no less offensive today. It was offensive then in part because crucifixion was so barbaric. Today, familiarity with the story of Jesus can diminish our offense at crucifixion�s brutality.
"the cross of Jesus sounds so familiar to our ears, that we are in danger of forgetting just how dreadful, how horrific, how offensive, it was. We make crosses of brass as ornaments. We wear the cross as jewelry. Perhaps we should wear an emblem such as a miniature electric chair, or a hangman�s noose - for that is what it is a symbol of - shameful execution. Unlike the electric chair, crucifixion was one of the most refined processes of torture that twisted human justice has ever devised. It was the extreme punishment, reserved for the worst kind of criminal....The victim was totally degraded in his naked, vulnerable shame. It was an offensive thing." Bruce Goettsche
Not only is the brutality of the cross offensive, but what the message of the cross clearly says about the human condition is offensive. It was offensive in Jesus� day, and it�s offensive now.
The world doesn�t want to hear, and we don�t want to be reminded, that it�s our sin that made the cross necessary. Your sin. My sin.
Not just the generic �sin of the world.� That�s a little easier to manage in our minds � because we can all see the evil in the world around us, and we think that�s not us.
But when Romans tells us there is no one righteous, that all have sinned, that�s foolishness, and it�s offensive. We want to hear about how good we are. We want to hear about how great we can become � the potential for our future.
We all know people who think of life like a balance scale. Your good deeds go on one side � your bad on the other. Then God weighs them and if your good deeds tip the balance, you get into heaven. When you try to tell them this isn�t the way God looks at things, they�re surprised. Most people are confident their good deeds are good enough. They compare their good deeds with the slackers they know of, and consider the evil that�s rampant in the world, and can�t imagine their lying, their cheating, their infidelity, the bad attitudes, could possibly add up to enough to condemn them, especially when there are murderers and rapists who are so much worse. One poll found that less than 4% of Americans think they could end up in Hell.
People naturally think well of themselves, and �good people� are offended when they are told that they are more evil than they would ever dare imagine. But when the Apostle Paul, in Romans 3, explains why God is right to judge and condemn us as sinners, he says: �All [people], both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, as it is written: �None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God�. No one does good, not even one�� (Romans 3.9-12). Glen Durham
When they hear these kinds of things, they think it�s foolish, or they dismiss it, or they get angry and call Christians judgmental. We want to hear about your best life now. How we can be healthy and wealthy. People are offended by the cross because it shows us a picture of ourselves that we do not want to see.
Then there�s the idea that, in the message of the cross, it�s implicit that not only are we sinners, but there�s nothing we can do in and of ourselves to save ourselves. Apart from an understanding of the mercy of God, no one wants to throw themselves on the mercy of the court.
The cross is God�s statement to the world that Jesus is THE way, THE truth and THE life, and that no one comes to the Father but through Jesus. This is a point at which the world really thinks we Christians are foolish. Perhaps even more so in America than elsewhere. After all, we�re all about independence. Early Americans fought and died for independence, and there�s the idea that we are self-sufficient, and you�ve heard the phrase �pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.� We�re to make our own way, succeed completely by our own efforts. A little sidebar, related to this idea and this phrase. Speaking of the interesting origin of words and phrases and how they�re used:
The origin of this descriptive phrase isn�t known. It refers of course to boots and their straps (or laces) and to the imagined feat of a lifting oneself off the ground by pulling on one�s bootstraps. This impossible task is supposed to exemplify the achievement in getting out of a difficult situation by one�s own efforts. It was known by the early 20th century. James Joyce alluded to it in Ulysses, 1922:
"There were others who had forced their way to the top from the lowest rung by the aid of their bootstraps."
A more explicit use of the phrase comes a little later, from Kunitz & Haycraft�s British Authors of the 19th Century:
"A poet who lifted himself by his own boot-straps from an obscure versifier to the ranks of real poetry."
Some early computers used a process called bootstrapping which alludes to this phrase. This involved loading a small amount of code which was then used to progressively load more complex code until the machine was ready for use. This has led to use of the term �booting� to mean starting up a computer.source-http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/290800.html
The reality is, we all want control. We like to think we�re in control � that we control our own destiny. But this is an illusion, and when you tell people that � especially in the context of what the Word of God clearly says we need, at best, it makes them think we�re foolish, ignorant, stupid. At worst, it makes them mad.
When it comes to saving our souls, the message of the cross says we�re absolutely helpless, and that kind of statement makes it easy for some to dismiss us, and for others to get upset with us.
Charles Spurgeon pointed out in a sermon once that, though true Christian faith brings peace, benevolence and love, it�s also true that the message of the cross is a source of conflict. It�s a message that we�re all sinners, there�s no one righteous enough to earn his or her way to eternal life, and that the only cure for this sin-sickness is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Spurgeon noted that the offense of the cross perhaps lies most in the way it deals with human wisdom. Strictly speaking, it�s too simple. So simple it�s offensive. And it paints us all with the same, broad brush of sin. The cross strikes at our self-image, our worth, our pride, our intellect.
�the cross will not recognize any distinctions between mankind. The cross makes moral and immoral persons go to heaven by the same road; the cross makes rich and poor enter heaven by the same door; the cross makes the philosopher and peasant walk on the same highway of holiness. Therefore, the wise man says, �What! am I to be saved by the same cross which saves a man who does not even know the alphabet?� The very rich and sophisticated lady asks, �Am I to be saved in the same fashion as my servant-girl?� The gentleman says, �Am I to be saved the same way as the common laborer?� And he who boasts of his self-righteousness cries, �What! am I to walk close to a prostitute, to be side by side with a drunkard on the road to heaven? Then, I will not go to heaven at all.� Then, sir, you will be lost. There are not two roads to heaven; it is the same road for everyone who goes there; and therefore, the cross has always been offensive to men of wealth, knowledge, and power - very few kings and queens have ever bent humbly before it.� Charles Spurgeon
Recognizing this offense, and perhaps well-meaning at first, many have tried to undermine this offense by not preaching the reality of, and our need for, the cross of Christ - that is, our absolute and utter need for the blood of Jesus to take away our sins.
Knowing it�s offensive to many, and knowing that to many it will sound foolish, and perhaps even hoping to reach people with the love of Christ, the message of the cross is watered down in much of the church.
One very popular TV preacher sells tickets to his national tour, and routinely fills 15-20,000-seat arenas with his positive message. In this quote, he describes his own church, generally considered the largest church in the U.S. today.
He says, "It�s not a churchy feel. We don�t have crosses up there. We believe in all that, but I like to take the barriers down that have kept people from coming. A lot of people who come now are people that haven�t been to church in 20 to 30 years."
Singer and author Michael Card recognized this trend in America and even in the church:
"Particularly in American Christianity, the cross has become somewhat objectionable. Well-known pastors avoid referring to it in their sermons and on their TV programs because it is �too negative.� Some contend that it is somehow �dysfunctional� to feel that we owe something to someone who sacrifices anything, much less himself, for us. Can�t that become manipulation? Wouldn�t it be better to respond to God for our own reasons rather than because we owe him something? Other people are put off by the violence the cross portrays. Shouldn�t we focus instead on the gentler side of the gospel?"
I have no problem with trying to remove barriers to faith. Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
1 Cor. 9:22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
In Acts 15, talking to his fellow believers about Jewish rules and regulations, and debating about what should be required of the Gentiles, James said:
Acts 15:19 "It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God.
There are legitimate strategies, plans, to participate with the Holy Spirit in bringing people to Christ, and in removing potential barriers that need not keep people away. And in many cases, done with the right intent and focus, there�s certainly not anything wrong with these strategies. We can earn the right to be heard in people�s lives by showing Christ�s love, and we can do so in a winsome way in which we are not adding to the offense of the cross. The cross is offensive enough without our help. We have to be careful by our words and our behavior to not add to that.
But, there are some �barriers� that cannot be removed from churches, even for the sake of reaching people for Christ...maybe especially for reaching people with the whole gospel.
These real barriers, and I don�t want to imply that they aren�t in some way barriers, are there for a vital purpose. Without this particular barrier of the cross of Christ, we cannot fully understand the good news. Why it�s good news. Why it�s called Good Friday.
There�s an old adage which goes: �What you win them with, is what you win them to.� I think if you win them with a �gospel,� which requires you to remove the offense of the cross, because you think it�s a barrier to them coming, I wonder if you�re really winning them to the Jesus which the Bible reveals. The Jesus we�re worshipping here this morning. The Jesus who, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross.
If Jesus endured the cross, knowing that joy and glory awaited Him, yet knowing that the cross, and only the cross, was the painful, terrible path He must walk to that glory, then why should we think the cross is an insurmountable barrier to bringing people to church?
Would we say to our children that, for example, even though this vaccination will accomplish something good in you, we�ll remove this barrier because we know it�s difficult, it�s hard, it�s painful.
I�d submit to you today that we cannot take down the barrier of the cross. The most disturbing thing about this preacher I mentioned, the one who doesn�t have crosses up anywhere in his church, is not so much that there are no crosses to be seen in his church, but moreso, that there�s no cross in his preaching.
Yes, we can stipulate to the fact that the cross is offensive. But it�s also the way to salvation. The whole message of the cross is offensive to our natural minds. The whole idea that it takes the death of God incarnate to save our souls is a barrier to many, many people. But if we water down, or remove this barrier, to make it easier for people to step over, to make it easier for them to ignore, easier to not fully consider the cost, we�re watering-down the gospel message, which includes the fact that Jesus must and did die on the cross.
The Word called this barrier a stumbling stone, a rock of offense. In some passages, it�s the same word from which we get the English word scandal.
Jesus Himself said in Matthew 11:6 "And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over Me."
Romans 9:33 "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."
Even Isaiah saw prophetically, quoted here in Romans, hundreds of years before Jesus took up His cross, that Jesus, and by inference, the cross of Christ, the way God chose to bring salvation to men, would be a barrier, a stumbling stone, offensive. The stumbling stone, the scandal, the barrier, is Jesus. We read again from the passage in Corinthians.
1 Cor. 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
So, for us to take away that barrier of the cross, even though perhaps well-intentioned, is to water down, to diminish, the vital, critical importance of the cross in our faith. It ignores how critical it is in God�s plan of salvation, and in our walk of faith.
As much as our culture, as much as we might try, as much as we might attempt to remove it as a barrier...as much as the world might like to make it into only a symbol, and rob it of its eternal meaning, we cannot diminish the importance of the cross.
Unless we embrace that barrier, just as Jesus embraced His destiny on the cross, I don�t believe we can come into the Kingdom of God. I don�t believe we can live lives of sacrificial service to the King. Unless we consider the offense of the cross, and consider implies we think about it, we mull over and meditate on its meaning, and unless we realize, as the song we sometimes sing says, �I�ll never know how much it cost, to see my sin upon that cross....,� I wonder if we can really live as true Christ followers.
If we don�t consider the cost, then it says to me that we must think we don�t need the awful price to be paid. If we don�t think the price needs to be paid, how can we accept Jesus� gift of eternal life to us?
The cross is what it took to save us. To remove the cross, for the sake of removing barriers to the gospel, is not preaching the whole gospel.
The cross is not a symbol. It�s much more than a symbol. Not only should we not remove the cross from our churches, but I think we should embrace all it means, all it means in our lives, all it means in history, all it means in eternity.
The cross is the reason we�re here this morning. Not just because we�re Christians, saved by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross...but because it�s important, and not just on Good Friday or during Holy Week, when we traditionally remember the cross, but always. Not just once a year, but daily.
We�re about halfway between last year�s Easter season and next year�s. But this is too important to remember only one week a year. And not just remember, but to ponder...to consider...to think about, Jesus� suffering for us, His horrible, painful death, to purchase our salvation with His blood.
Hebrews 12:2-4 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
Here, we have the admonition to first, fix our eyes on Jesus, who endured the cross. Then, we are admonished to consider him... to think about Him, Jesus, who endured.
So we see in the span of two verses that we are to focus on Him, to consider, to think about, to ponder Jesus, who endured the cross.
But even where we haven�t watered it down, I still wonder if it�s central enough to our thinking, to our faith. After all, when it comes to our faith, the cross is the crux of the matter.
Did you know that for almost 400 years, the early Christian church never depicted Jesus on a cross? Some of the research I did says that the first known depiction of the crucifixion of Jesus to come from the Christian community, was not carved until AD 420 � that was 387 years after the event.
From early Christian art, from the catacombs for example, we see inscriptions, menorahs, anchors, and the then secret, but now familiar bumper sticker, icthus. We see many events in Jesus life depicted, but never Jesus depicted on the cross.
Why is that? We can only guess. Were early Christians embarrassed by the cross? The fact that so many of them died for their faith makes this seem improbable. Perhaps it was still too real and brutal for them to ponder in a way that they could make art of it. Still too personal. Have you seen many paintings of electric chairs?
Some of those early Christian martyrs died on crosses much like Jesus. Some probably had relatively fresh memories of friends or family or acquaintances, hanging from a cross, dying a horrible death. For us it�s history. For them it was part of their lives.
Michael Card wrote:
For a set of very different reasons, the cross seems to have disappeared from the Christian art and music of our own time. Worse, it has disappeared from many hearts and minds as well. Fewer and fewer of the churches I visit have crosses hanging behind or in front of the pulpit. Fewer songs sing of it. Fewer sermons celebrate it. Why didn�t they (early Christians) utilize the symbol of the cross? My guess is that they shied away from representing the cross because it meant too much, not because it means too little (as it does today). The cross is not a symbol. It is the center of the universe, the nexus of history, the most meaningful event that ever took place.
So, for 400 years, you never saw a cross in a church. If we keep heading the way we�re headed now, you may not see crosses in many churches in our time, either. But it�ll be for a different reason. And while for the early Christians, it might have been too graphic, or too personal, hitting a little too close to home, I think for this era of Christians, we need the cross. We need to see it. We need to think about it. We need to ponder it. Because for many, if not for most, of us, it�s not too personal. It�s not personal enough. It�s not close to home at all.
So, we�re in a completely different place than the early Christians. While they spoke of it and wrote about it, they didn�t depict it like we do, because it was all very real to them. They didn�t need to see the cross like I think we do.
Luke 9:23 Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
How can we understand what this means to us, if we never think about what it meant to Him? When we commit to become followers of Jesus, we commit to become crucified followers of Jesus.
John Piper wrote:
The reason for this is not that Jesus must die again, but that we must. When he bids us take up our cross, he means come and die. The cross was a place of horrible execution. It would have been unthinkable in Jesus day to wear a cross as a piece of jewelry. It would have been like wearing a miniature electric chair or lynching rope. His words must have had a terrifying effect: Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.�
As much as the world has tried to diminish the cross to a symbol, to a simple piece of jewelry, it cannot be done. But we can reduce its importance again, if we do not choose to remember the suffering and death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and why we needed that.
That�s one of the things we�re to ponder when we share communion each week. If we think of these things, ponder these things, consider Jesus, fix our eyes on Him, they are sobering words. They mean that when I follow Jesus, the old self-determining, self absorbed me, must be crucified. My old self must be put to death. I must consider myself dead to sin, and alive to God. This is the path of life. Just as Jesus took the road to Golgotha, making it the path of life to us.
If we are to maintain a truly Biblical understanding of our faith, in this era when everything around us seeks to diminish this understanding, we must refocus, regularly, our attention on the cross.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said of grace and the cross:
�How could something become cheap which cost God everything?�
We must live the cross in our daily lives. The cross of Jesus is now, and will forever be, the center of our faith. It�s the source of His unlimited grace for us. When it comes to our lives as followers of Christ, it�s the crux of the matter. Let�s let Paul�s words in Galatians 6 be a part of our closing prayer this morning.
Galatians 6:14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.
