The Cross of Christ: 1 Corinthians 1:18, 20-25: The Meaning of the Cross.

The Cross was once the emblem of shame, but we see it as the symbol of the greatest love that ever was. What happened?

1 CORINTHIANS 1:18, 20-25: THE MEANING OF THE CROSS

INTRODUCTION

In our church building’s worship space there are dozens of crosses. At the end of each pew there is a cross carved in the wood.
Every hymn book has a cross on the cover. Every pew Bible has a cross on its cover.
There is a cross on each of two lecterns from which the scripture is read.
The robe of each choir member has a cross on its front.
There is a cross on the wall behind the communion table and beside the table, a cross on a stand.
The pastor’s stole is decorated with crosses.
I counted 430 crosses in plain view
Our name tags have crosses on them and so to the bulletins.
…and some of our people wear crosses around their necks.
But I wonder how many people who come to worship think much about what all those crosses mean.

Catholic Christians also use crosses, maybe more even than we do. But there is a difference. Many times their crosses have the figure of Christ on them. They are called “crucifixes.”
When I was a child four years old, one of my little friends, a neighbor girl named Peggy gave me a little crucifix. It was black with a little silver Jesus on it.
I asked Peggy what I was to do with my crucifix. She told me that I could hang it on my bed.
I was very pleased because the crucifix was pretty.
I took it home and showed it to my parents. They told me: "We don't use crucifixes," and they took it from me. I suppose they threw it away.
I have always been a little sad about that.
I understand why Protestants have a different view about the cross with the image of Jesus on it. But I don’t think the Catholics are necessarily wrong about that. That cross with the suffering Jesus upon it represents the most important thing in all the world.
It reminds us that Jesus suffered and died for their sins.

In his first letter to the believers in Corinth Paul tells them what the Cross represents:

“The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…

“Where is the wise man” Where is the scribe?
Where is the debater of this age?
Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
For since, in the wisdom of God,
the world did not know God through wisdom,
it pleased God through the folly of what we preach
to save those who believe.
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
but to those who re called,
both Jews and Greeks,
Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men,
and the weakness of God is stronger than men”
(1 Corinthians 1:18, 20-25).

I. Crucifixion was the cruelest and most shameful form of execution the Romans could devise—and they were experts in cruel executions

A. Crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals: run-away slaves, terrorists, revolutionaries, murderers
Death on a cross was a long, drawn-out painful death. It sometimes took days while the poor man hung, naked, dying of thirst, exposed to burning sun and the gaze of passers-by. Every breath was an agony as the man hung from the nails through his hands. His hands were also tied to the wood, so the hands wouldn’t pull free.

It was a shameful death. The one crucified was stripped of all his clothes. The crucified man might be ridiculed and tormented with objects thrown at him. The Latin word crux was considered an obscenity, not even to be mentioned in polite society.

Jesus’ enemies supposed that exposing him to this humiliation, they could bring such shame on him that no one would ever again take his claims seriously.

II. When Christians proclaimed the Cross, the unbelieving world thought they were ridiculous.

A. To the Jews, the death of Christ on a cross was a stumbling block.
The Jews expected their Messiah to be a great warrior who would kill their enemies.
Jesus was too weak and helpless to be a Savior, they thought.

B. To the Greeks, the idea a Savior who had died was foolishness.
Greek gods were not good, but they were beautiful and powerful. Greeks couldn’t understand a God who was so weak that he let himself be crucified.

C. So Paul says, “…Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom…”
In other words, “The Jews want a miracle and the Greeks want an argument.”

III. But to Christian believers, the cross was “the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

A. Believers knew that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
He had died—to be sure—but he hadn’t stayed dead.
And they had experienced the risen Christ in their lives.

B. Believers knew the power of the Cross.

They knew that God had taken upon himself the evil of the world…
When John saw Jesus, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1.29).

They knew that Jesus had paid the price for our sins…

“There was no other good enough
to pay the price of sin.
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in.”

They knew that Jesus, by his death had brought us to the Father.

“Christ…suffered for sins once for all, that he might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3.18).

CONCLUSION

The story is told of a popular monk in the Middle Ages announced that in the Cathedral that evening he would preach a sermon on the love of God.
The people gathered and stood in silence, waiting for the service while the sunlight streamed through the beautiful windows.
When the last bit of color had faded from the windows, the old monk went up to the candelabrum, took a lighted candle and walking to the life-sized statue of Christ on the cross, he held the light beneath the wounds on Christ’s feet, then Christ’s hand, then his side.
Then, still without a word, the monk let the light shine on the thorn-crowned brow. That was the sermon.
The people stood in silence and wept, everyone knowing that they were at the center of a mystery beyond their knowing, that they were indeed looking at the supreme expression of the love of God—a love so deep, so wide, so eternal, that no wonder could express it, and no mind could measure it. This is the GREAT ACT of Christianity—that God’s love gave to the world what was most precious to him: his only Son.

If the story of Christ’s death on the cross does not move us to tears, it should move us to love him and give ourselves to him.

Look at Christ suffering on the cross for your sins and mine.

He’s holding out his hands as if to welcome poor sinners like you and like me.

He says, “See how I have loved you”
“Come to me and live.”
“Give yourself to me and share my eternal life.”

Do you remember these words from the hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross"?

“See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?”

I will close with a prayer from a believer of long ago:
“Thou, O Savior art here upon the cross
suffering for my sins.
What can I offer thee for so great a mercy.
All thanksgiving is too feeble; all expression, too weak.
I give thee myself, my soul and body I offer unto thee.
I are not worthy of it, but thou lovest me.
Wash me with thy blood from all my sins and fill me with thy Holy Spirit.
And so shall I praise thy name acceptably for ever more.”

[from Thomas Traherne (1637-74) Centuries]