The Unfiltered Cross
17For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel--not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18For 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. –I Corinthians 1:17-18 (New International Version)
As of today (March 7, 2004), the Passion will have grossed over $215 million, making it a box office phenomenon. One commentator on the Fox News network predicts that this film could gross over $1 billion dollars--making it the highest grossing film in history. While a box office hit, this movie has also sparked more controversy than any other movie ever made. Even at Eden Seminary my class seemed divided about what they thought about the film.
As I reflected on the controversy, however, I had an epiphany. It seems that whenever the full message of the cross is presented in its unfiltered, brutal form controversy is sure to follow. This is what has happened today with The Passion, and this is what happened two thousand years ago whenever the cross was preached to cultures that witnessed the horrors of crucifixion.
I discovered as I viewed the movie that there is a reticence to see the cross as it really was. We want to dress it up. Indeed the cross makes a nice ornament. For example, you can see pictures of pop stars such as Brittany Spears and notice they wear gold crosses. Indeed, for many people the cross is just hip jewelry to wear—empty and devoid of meaning. Some scholars and liberal theologians want to reduce the cross to a metaphor. For many others the cross is merely a nice sounding spiritual platitude.
While Mel Gibson’s The Passion did not perfectly align itself with Scripture, I believe that his film caught the essence of what the cross is about. It was certainly the most vivid and visceral presentation of the passion I have ever seen. I certainly saw no sign of anti-Semitism in the film, and would like to point out that Gibson’s Christ certainly was the most Jewish looking Savior I have ever seen portrayed in film.
I also would like to add that Jesus was Jewish, and that it is impossible for a true Christian to be anti-Semitic. If Jesus was Jewish, then to be anti-Semitic is to be anti-Christ. What the film did for me is inspire in me a greater love for all peoples, Jew and Gentile, black, white, yellow, and brown.
This morning I want to speak on the unfiltered cross. So what is the cross? I don’t believe its message can be contained in a single word. I have heard some ministers say that we shouldn’t talk about the cross so much because we shouldn’t worship a cross, but rather God. I feel, however, the message of the cross is central to our faith, and that a proper discussion of it always points to Jesus.
I am somewhat of a World War II buff. Many of us who like to talk about World War II often reflect on the battle of Normandy. When I reflect on the Battle of Normandy I don’t esteem a beach, but rather the men who sacrificed their lives there. When I say “Normandy,” the meaning for me is not a mere geographic location, but rather thousands of men who sacrificed their lives to liberate Europe.
A cross to me is not two pieces of wood nailed together, but instead the sacrifice of love Jesus made to free mankind. The cross of Jesus for me is not merely what He experienced on Good Friday, but rather encompasses an entire life of sacrifice that culminated on Good Friday.
It seems to me that as I read the book of Acts that whenever the cross was presented in its raw, unfiltered form controversy seemed to follow. Whenever the first century apostles would go into towns their message of the cross would either be ardently embraced or a mob would try to stone them.
It seems that the pure message of the cross evokes passion—passion either for or against.This is what I have noticed about the response to The Passion. It seems people either love the movie or hate it. I feel that whenever the raw, unfiltered message of the cross is preached, it will always evoke controversy.
As I watched the Passion, I saw the cross in its raw, unfiltered form. I saw the bitter, organic cross presented—not the one with artificial sweetener. I saw that the cross was brutal, and anything but politically correct.What I saw in the movie during the brutal depiction of the suffering of Christ was a reflection of how depraved all of us really are, and far we all have to go to become more like Him.
Indeed, what is most offensive about the cross to both the secularists and to even many churchgoers is that it confronts our belief that we are “basically good.” As I said, when see the cross in its unfiltered forces us to see our own depravity. This is why the message of the cross is foolish, and even offensive to the world. There are three foolish lies of the world the cross dispels.
I. The first lie as I have just touched upon is that we are “basically good.” Jesus addresses the issue of man’s goodness in Mark 10:18:
“So Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.”
Certainly Jesus was good and Him stating that only God is good points to the fact that He is indeed God.
Consider also:
Romans 3
12All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one." (New International Version)
Ecclesiastes 7
20 There is not a righteous man on earth
who does what is right and never sins. (New International Version)
There are those out there who preach that if you are basically “good” you will go to Heaven. This is not, however, what the Bible teaches.
Many suggest that Gandhi is an example of someone “good” who is probably in Heaven. What about Gandhi? Consider what Gandhi wrote in his autobiography:
In his autobiography Mahatma Gandhi, a devout Hindu, speaks eloquently of his own struggle with this when he says: "Oh wretched man that I am. It is a constant source of torture to me that I am so far from the one I know to be my very life and being, and I know that it is my own sin and wretchedness that hides Him from me."
So what does the Bible have to say about our “goodness?”
Isaiah 64
6 All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. (New International Version)
All of us are unclean—all of us. When I saw the suffering of Christ portrayed in The Passion I saw in His wounds a reflection of our own depravity. It was neither the Romans nor the Jews who caused Christ to suffer—it was all of us. It was our depravity that compelled Him to receive the Christ and take up the cross.
When we look at the brutality of the cross we come to the brutal truth that we are all totally depraved without any morsel of goodness within us. It is only by the grace of God that we can even come to Him. The cross in its unfiltered form compels us to cry out in desperation—to cry out in desperation for salvation, and from deliverance from ourselves.
II. The second lie that the cross dispels is that we can get to Heaven without it. I can understand when people of other religions challenge this, but whenever those claiming to be Christian ministers challenge this, it frankly blows my mind. Some clergy even claim that Jesus didn’t really die for our sins, but rather to be a good example. It is also often the same ones who also assert that He didn’t really physically rise from the dead. Let me now address these.
First of all, if Christ is truly not the only way to salvation, then why did God call for Him to die such a horrific death? I mean if “all dogs do go to Heaven,” then what’s the point of the suffering and death of Christ? To be a good example?
Now imagine you had a son and he was called up to go to war. He is going to war and he is going to die in battle. He is not, however, going to sacrifice his life for freedom or to save anyone. We are merely sending him off to die so that he can be a good example. How many of you would be willing to send your sons or daughters off to die so they can merely be good examples?
Now would you would be willing to send your son off to die a slow tortuous death so that he can be a good example? I didn’t think so. Now if God has far more compassion than we do, would He His beloved Son to die a horrific death just to be a good example? I don’t think so.
Now concerning the issue of the physical resurrection of Christ, I would like to ask the doubting clergy on what they base their faith. If there was no physical resurrection of Christ, then there is no reason for us to believe in Christ.
Jesus in His own words said that He was the only way to salvation.
John 10
30I and the Father are one."
Luke 10
16"He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me." (NIV)
John 5:23b
He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. (NIV)
John 14
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
John 3:14-16
Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
The words of Christ and the message of the cross therefore lead us no room other than to believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation. If one claims to follow Jesus then one must accept all of what He said. Consider what C.S. Lewis wrote:
“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said wouldn’t be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he’s a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of hell; you must make your choice. Either this was, and is the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But don’t come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He hasn’t left that alternative to us.”
C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity
III. Finally, the third lie that the message of the cross confronts is that God is indifferent to the suffering of the world. I don’t know how anyone who sees the movie the Passion can come away with the belief that God is indifferent to our suffering. Indeed, what we see in Christ is a God who took up our sufferings.
Consider what is written in Isaiah 53:3-6:
Isaiah 53
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
Romans 5
7Very rarely will anyone did for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die 8But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The fact that Christ would die such a horrible death for us speaks volumes as to how much He loves us. When I think of the love of Christ what comes to mind is a chorus written by Billy James Foote titled “You Are My King:”
Amazing love
How can it be
That You my King
Would die for me
Amazing love
I know it’s true
It’s my joy to honor You
In all I do I honor You
I’m forgiven
Because You were forsaken
I’m accepted
You were condemned
I’m alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because You died
And rose again
The movie Saving Private Ryan is the story of how an entire squad of men gave their lives to rescue one private. Near the end of the movie the dying squad leader, Capt. John Miller ( played by Tom Hanks ), challenges Pvt. James Ryan ( played by Matt Damon) to live a life worthy of their sacrifice. At the end of the movie, years later we see an elderly Ryan kneeling at Captain Miller’s gravestone at Normandy. Crying, he asks his wife if he had been a good man.
We see that Ryan’s life since Normandy had been driven by gratitude for the lives sacrificed for him. In much the same way, we as believers are also challenged to reflect on the sacrifice Christ made for us. We need to look to the cross and to the empty tomb, and ask ourselves if we live our lives out of gratitude for what Christ has done for us.
In reflection of the sacrifice Christ made for us, I think of the words of St. Bernard of Clairvaux which is included in the hymn, O Sacred Head, Now Wounded:
“What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest friend,
For this Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.”
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