The Message Of The Cross

Alba 1-26-2025

THE MESSAGE OF THE CROSS

I Corinthians 1:18-25

Recently we witnessed the inauguration of the 47th President of the United States of America. Every four years it happens. March 4, 1881 was a beautiful spring day in Washington D.C. James Garfield stood on the Capitol steps, placed a hand on the Bible, another on his heart, faced a crowd of thousands, and was sworn in as the 20th President of the United States. Like every Inauguration, it was a day ripe with patriotism, pride, and power. After the ceremony was over, a curious listener came up to James Garfield and asked, "Mr. President, what does it feel like to have the most honorable job in the world?" Garfield shook his head and said, "Sir, to be honest with you, I feel like I've been demoted."

The man was confused and asked, "But Mr. President, what do you mean? You're the most powerful man on the face of the earth. You're the commander-in-chief of the United States of America. How in the world have you been demoted?"

Garfield responded, "Sir, before I became the President, I was a gospel preacher, and there is nothing more honorable than that." When the 20th President of the United States grabbed the presidential anvil, he felt like he had stepped down.

[Whitworth, Michael. Fit for the Pulpit: The Preacher & His Challenges (pp. 43-44). Start2Finish Books. Kindle Edition.]

Why would he feel that way? It is because of the great message God has given us of salvation through the cross, and he felt privileged to share it. The cross is the central fact of the Gospel. But not all people are aware or accept that fact. And this has been true from the beginning.

Our text in I Corinthians 1:18-25 describes the message of the cross, and two words stand out: Foolishness and Power. I Corinthians 1:21 says, “It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” And verse 18 says, “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, to many, the message of the cross is...

1. FOOLISHNESS

You see, dying on the cross doesn’t look like success or power. It doesn’t look like victory. It looks like weakness. It looks like failure. It looks like defeat. So to the Jews it was a stumbling block and to the Greeks it was foolishness.

Crosses were everywhere during the time of Jesus, but they were not used for jewelry. They were tools made to humiliate and bring death. Crucifixion was a method of capital punishment in which the victim was tied or nailed to a large wooden cross, beam, or stake and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion or asphyxiation. Being crucified in the first century was most certainly considered to be a sign of evil deeds either by yourself or someone in your family.

It seemed as foolishness to the Jews that the supposed Messiah would allow Himself to suffer and die at the hands of sinners. It seemed as foolishness to the Gentiles that God would exhibit such love for the likes of mortal man.

Verse 23 says the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews. The term: “stumbling block” comes from the Greek word “skandalon.” We get our word “scandal” from this. The Jews considered the cross a “scandal” because of Deuteronomy 21:22. It says, and I quote, “If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree.” And then in the next verse it says that anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. To them, it was a scandal, totally foolish, that their Messiah would have to suffer on a cross.

But verse 25 tells that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men”. God often does things that seem foolish. He often uses things that seem weak. For example: David and His sling. Here was a shepherd boy who trusted in God, fighting a mighty warrior, and yet the boy wins. Or consider Naaman having to dip in the dirty water of the Jordan River seven times to be healed of his leprosy. And then there was Jesus healing the blind man with mud and spit. Things that seem foolish to mankind are often exactly what God chooses to confound the so-called scholars. And the cross is one of them.

The Jews stumbled over the message of the cross because Jesus wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted. That’s strange, because the Jews had been carefully picked by God. He had watched over and protected them down through the generations, and had prepared them to be the nation through whom the Messiah would come.