The Most Important Day In the Most Important Life Ever Lived!
The Cross is an Insult
Luke 23:33; I Corinthians 1:18-24
March 17, 2002
The host was incensed. I mean, he was just up in arms, as we used to say; ¡§ticked off¡¨ might be another term. He could not understand the actions of a pastor in Poland, Ohio. This pastor, just a couple of months following the 9/11 tragedies, had had the audacity to raise the Christian flag, on the flagpole outside his church, to a position higher than that of the American flag. Showing, frankly, his ignorance, he wondered out loud on the radio if this did not violate the separation of church and state. I¡¦m still waiting to figure out how this could be, but in his fury he was casting about to find words to vent his spleen.
He probably didn¡¦t like my phone call. I explained that, while we hadn¡¦t done that as a church, I understood completely the position this pastor was taking, and agreed wholeheartedly with what he was trying to say: we, as believers, have a higher allegiance than the state. We must obey God first, rather than men, even if those men represent the government. He seemed to calm down some as I tried to calmly and persuasively give him my rationale. But I won¡¦t forget the gist of something he said, even if the exact words escape me. At one point he made a point something like this: doing such a controversial thing wasn¡¦t in keeping with the character of what a church ought to be doing. This wasn¡¦t decorum, don¡¦t you know; this was¡Kwell¡Kradical! And the last thing, it seemed he was saying, that a church ought to be is¡Kradical!
Today I argue that one of the chief problems with the American church is that we have attempted to tame the Lion of Judah. We have sanitized, sugar-coated, and psychologized our faith to the point that it is bland, and unthreatening, and mediocre to a fault. Our problem is that we have ceased to be radicals, as was the early church, because we have forgotten that that cross is a radical thing! Would you stand with me? Read Luke 23:33; I Corinthians 1:18-24; pray!
It was a humiliating, painful, scandalous, shameful, revolting, terrifying way to die.
„h First, the victim suffered the humiliation of being stripped naked.
„h He would be laid upon his back, and his hands nailed to a horizontal wooden beam.
„h His ankles would then be forced backwards, and nailed into position with one long nail driven through both into a vertical pole.
„h The cross would then be fastened together and hoisted upright; after this, it would be dropped with a bone-jarring thud into a hole that had been dug, ripping muscles and ligaments as it dropped.
„h A peg or rudimentary seat was nailed to the cross, in order to prevent the victim¡¦s body from being torn loose.
„h There the victim would hang, sometimes for several days, exposed to intense pain, ridicule, heat by day and cold by night, until death would come as a merciful friend.
Barbarians had invented this practice, but the Romans had elevated it to an art form, almost, but it was considered such a heinous death that Roman citizens were not executed by this inhumane method. The cross was an insult to the Romans. Only the lowest of low criminals could be executed upon it. And it is precisely that, the wretched means of hideous execution, that we have taken as the very symbol of our faith. It¡¦s hard to speak of modern-day equivalents, because in this country, we are too civilized (and I say that sincerely!) to execute criminals in this inhumane way. Picture the electric chair, or the lethal injection table, or a firing squad, or the gas chamber. Now imagine if one of these were to become the very symbol of your faith. Imagine songs being written about them:
„h ¡§So I¡¦ll cherish the old firing squad¡K¡¨
„h ¡§There¡¦s room in the gas chamber for you¡K¡¨
„h ¡§At the firing squad, at the firing squad, where I first saw the light¡K¡¨
„h ¡§When I survey the wondrous lethal injection table¡K¡¨
„h ¡§Jesus, keep me near the electric chair¡K¡¨
I¡¦m not trying to be silly or facetious in the least; rather, I¡¦m trying to help you understand how perfectly ridiculous it must have seemed to unbelieving people in Paul¡¦s day to hear the words Paul wrote which we read earlier! The cross is an insult! It was an insult to the Gentile mind, the Greek and Roman mind; these were the ones who administered this form of execution to the lowest of criminals. It was offensive to the Jewish mind as well; Jewish law forbade a corpse from being left hanging from a tree overnight.
The term Paul uses is ¡§stumbling block¡¨. The Greek word there is skandalon, and is defined as ¡§that which causes a hindrance to others, which causes them to stumble by the way.¡¨ From this Greek word we get ¡§scandal¡¨ and ¡§scandalous¡¨. Paul says that the cross is an insult, a scandal, to the Jews because they were looking for miraculous signs. Interesting, they had seen Jesus¡¦ many miracles: blind eyes seeing, lame people walking, deaf ears hearing, even the dead raised to life. But these were not what they wanted¡Xthey wanted signs that the Messiah would act in power to overthrow their oppressors. What kind of sign is a cross? That¡¦s an outrage, an insult! Gordon Fee said that ¡§Christ crucified was a contradiction to the Jews; one may have a Messiah, or one may have a crucifixion.¡¨ It was an insult to them because the cross didn¡¦t jibe with what they were expecting out of their Messiah!
Gentiles, Paul says, sought ¡§wisdom¡¨. The Greeks prided themselves on their philosophical pursuits; even today, we speak of the ¡§Greek philosophers¡¨ and think of Plato and Aristotle and Socrates and others. And you present to us¡Ka cross? What kind of messed-up ¡§wisdom¡¨ is that? This cross stuff just shattered all the preconceived notions that people had about how God would act; it was an insult! The cross is still an insult!
The Cross is an insult because:
I. It defies our reasoning.
We think we¡¦re pretty smart! And on many counts, we are! I used to talk with awe about the technological advances of the twentieth century, how man had never flown when 1900 rolled around, and how now we can fly around the world. I¡¦d mention such modern conveniences like electric power and indoor plumbing and the automobile and telecommunications and all such things. Now I marvel equally at the advances of just the past decade! I¡¦m one of those guys like you see on the commercial whose wife makes the mistake of walking into the Circuit City store with him, and the guy goes wild! All the stuff that we can do now is just incredible, and I can¡¦t wait for the newest cool techno-gadget to come down the pike!
But as we¡¦ve gotten smarter¡Xhave we gotten better? Categorically, no! Frankly, we can now sin better than ever before, and we do! We¡¦ve got a problem that technology can¡¦t touch! And by the way, some other commonly-suggested solutions won¡¦t either!
A. Education won¡¦t fix our problem.
I believe in education; I¡¦ve got more formal education than most of you. And you¡¦ll hear well-meaning people¡Xeven some Christians¡Xsaying that ¡§we just need to educate people¡¨. Well, maybe we do, but improving the mind won¡¦t necessarily touch the heart!
B. Self-improvement won¡¦t fix our problem.
There are more self-improvement programs out there than there are people who need improvement, it seems like. Society promises a cure for whatever ails you; all you need to do is plunk down an appropriate amount of money, and this video series or that diet or the other program will fix you. Just read this book and your life will change. Nope!
C. Government won¡¦t fix our problem.
Don¡¦t get me started about government, okay? I feel about government like Charley Finley, the former owner of the Oakland A¡¦s, did about one of his more modestly-abled players. Of this player, Charley said, ¡§His limitations are limitless!¡¨ So are the limitations of government! I¡¦m reading a book right now called Blinded By Might, which is the chronicle of the failure of groups like Moral Majority and Christian Coalition to effect the change that they desired. One conclusion the authors reach is that these groups failed because they attempted to achieve spiritual ends through political means, when Paul tells us that the weapons we as believers use to wage war are not the same weapons used by this world!
So what will fix our problems? The apostle Paul says that Christ crucified is both powerful and wise! The solution to the problems that plague mankind, and I don¡¦t care what they are, begins with the fear of God and with people coming into relationship with Jesus Christ! What is the best solution to the AIDS crisis? The solution begins with the cross of Jesus Christ. What is the best solution to the Middle East tensions between Israel and the Palestinians? The solution begins with Jesus Christ. What is the best solution to air pollution, or failing public education, or government corruption, or the Enron crisis? The solution begins with Jesus Christ! Is that an insult to people? Sure it is! Because it defies human reasoning. But the solutions that are being offered are wrong; we arrive at the wrong solutions because we begin by misdiagnosing the problem. The basic problem with the world is sin, and the answer is Jesus, and that is offensive to many. So be it! The cross is an insult!
II. It nullifies our efforts.
Man says, ¡§OK, so I get it. My sin is the mess I¡¦ve made. Now, let me do something to fix it!¡¨ And the cross replies, ¡§sorry, but you can¡¦t!¡¨ Jesus said, ¡§It is finished¡¨, just as He breathed His last, and in so saying, He indicated that the entire deal had been done, the debt for sin fully paid. You can¡¦t do anything. The cross has been spoken of as the bridge between God and man, but you can¡¦t even walk across that bridge; God has to come and get you! If I could find a way to get to God on my own, by my deeds, why in the world would Jesus have had to go through the agony He went through? No, He did so as a substitute for me that I might be able to be forgiven.
Some people pride themselves on ¡§not taking charity¡¨. Sorry. If you call God¡¦s grace ¡§charity¡¨ and thereby refuse it, you are being quite foolish; if you insist on taking your chances before a holy God on the basis of your own goodness, you have no chance. Zero. You misunderstand the gravity of your own sin; you misunderstand the holiness of God; you misunderstand the Bible. Sure, in every other endeavor of life, it is a noble thing to take responsibility and work to get oneself out of the messes one makes. But when it comes to salvation, while we begin by owning up to our responsibility, we come quickly to recognize that we are eternally in over our heads and we have no hope of getting out on our own. Those who insist on trying to make it to Heaven by their own goodness find the cross an insult.
III. It demands our submission.
Here¡¦s the fact of the matter from the Bible¡Xevery knee will one day bow before the Jesus of the cross. This is
A. An unpopular truth ¡V ¡§one way¡¨
You could hardly insult modern American sensibilities more than to say that Jesus is the exclusive way to God, but that is exactly what the cross says. I Timothy 2:5-6 says that there is only One Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. We¡¦re taught to value sincerity, and opposed to insincerity, it might be a virtue, but naked sincerity is certainly not much of a virtue. One¡¦s sincerity is only as good as the object one is being sincere about! I¡¦ve driven many a road believing sincerely that I was going the right direction¡Xhappened to me this week!¡Xonly to find out that, no matter how sincere I was, I was sincerely wrong! You¡¦ll hear people say silly things like, ¡§all roads lead to God.¡¨ How silly is that? If you want to go to Virginia¡Xand you should¡Xand you ask directions of someone, what would you think if the person said, ¡§oh, all roads lead to Virginia. Just follow one of your own choosing¡Xbut do it sincerely, now!¡¨ And so you hop on I-80 and take off! But you can run I-80 from one end to the other and never reach Virginia (just another reason why there are better roads than I-80!). Now the analogy breaks down here; there are certainly many roads that lead to Virginia. But the issue isn¡¦t sincerity; it is finding the right road to lead to the destination! Jesus is the only way, and that fact is an insult!
B. A difficult pill to swallow ¡V the pride problem
I must swallow my silly, massive pride and admit to my own unworthiness and inability. By the way, the surest way to know you have a big problem with pride is if you think you don¡¦t have a big problem with pride! I remember a man in my previous church actually telling me that he wasn¡¦t a prideful man. Now, I don¡¦t know what he meant by it, but I¡¦ll tell you¡Xhe was one of the more prideful people I¡¦ve encountered in my years in ministry! Ever heard anybody talk about their pride being wounded as though that were a bad thing? Frankly, you come to the Jesus of the cross, and that pride will need not to be merely wounded a little, but mortally so! It¡¦ll have to be crucified¡Xand that is an insult to people!
C. A painful reality ¡V a cross means death
Let there be no mistake about this¡Xa cross always symbolized death, just like the electric chair does today. People don¡¦t sit in the electric chair to have their hair teased or to relax and watch the Steelers play; they sit there to die¡Xand that is why people carried a cross in Paul¡¦s day, that they might go and die on it! And Jesus says to us, ¡§you want to follow me? Grab a cross and let¡¦s go!¡¨ That¡¦s radical, folks; that means that I¡¦m not coming back to my old life. That means that I can¡¦t call the shots anymore; I¡¦m dead with Jesus! And for many people, that is an insult; ¡§no, I want to live my life my way!¡¨ But Jesus says to these folks that the one who would keep his life will lose it, but the one who would lose his life for Jesus¡¦ sake will find it in the end! And Paul tells us in Romans 6 that ¡§if we¡¦ve been united with Him in death, we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection!¡¨
The cross is an insult to those who are perishing, Paul says, but to us who are being saved, we understand the plan and power of God. It is a thing of beauty. The little girl wore a shiny cross around her neck. One day some sanctimonious Christian came up to her to ¡§straighten her out¡¨. ¡§Little girl, don¡¦t you know that the cross Jesus died on wasn¡¦t beautiful like your necklace? It was an ugly wooden cruel thing.¡¨ To which the little girl replied, ¡§Yes sir, I know that, but they told me in Sunday School that whatever Jesus touches, He changes.¡¨
¡§So I¡¦ll cherish the old rugged cross; ¡¥til my trophies at last I lay down;
I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.¡¨
¡§What do I do with a message like this?¡¨
1. It is helpful in our sharing the gospel of Christ to point people to the reality that Christianity is not only different in obvious ways to other faiths, but in one fundamental way. It is different in that it cuts across the grain of a works-centered approach to God. We sometimes want to argue with others to the effect that Christianity is the ¡§best¡¨ religion, when in fact it is not a religion at all in the sense that all other faiths are. All ¡§religions¡¨ truly are the same; they all involve man trying by some means to reach God. The cross reminds us of our utter inability to reach God, but that God has reached out to us. Be sure, in sharing your faith, to point out this critical distinction!
2. What does it mean in your own life to see the cross as an instrument of death? What sin has been difficult for you to ¡§crucify¡¨? Is Jesus really the Lord of your life, of your relationships, schedule, and checkbook? Or do you continually ¡§climb off the cross¡¨? Pray that God would reveal to you the areas wherein as of yet you have not surrendered control of your life to Him!
