Cross
Lent in Plain Sight • Sermon • Submitted
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Isn’t it almost a part of human nature or at the very least a very strong pull on our ability to be tempted to use what we have to our advantage or at least to the advantage of those in what we might call our group? For example: little kids know they’re cute so they bat their eyes and cry to try to get their way. Some attractive people use their good looks to try to further themselves in life. Some people with money try to use their money to avoid unpleasant situations or influence people on a variety of levels and topics. In other words some people have a tendency to exploit the advantages they have in life whether earned, learned, or innate.
It is that possible trait of exploitation that Jesus never had as a part of his human nature. Jesus never used his divine nature to exploit other people even if it was for the best of intentions. If you were at church a few weeks ago I talked about that when it came to Jesus being tempted in the wilderness. He could have accepted all those proposals by the devil and exploited his divine nature. Jesus chose not to do it then and never did he do it throughout his life here on earth.
Instead Jesus chose to be faithful to God even when it ultimately came to be his death. And it wasn’t just any death it was death on a cross. The problem with the image of the cross today is that we wear them around our necks, we hang them in our homes, and we place them in our worship spaces, and they mean something completely different now then they did when Jesus was sent to the cross.
The cross was the ultimate form of public punishment. It was painful, it was humiliating, it was as I said public, and there was really no death that affected the entire body over a period of time as the cross did. It was the ultimate symbol of punishment. Knowing all this Jesus didn’t exploit his relationship with God, he didn’t exploit his power given to him, instead he, as a full human, experienced all the pain and shame that went with the cross.
It is that very pain and suffering, as well as shame that makes the cross such a powerful tool of communication for the Roman Empire. So what person, let alone God’s one and only son, would choose to go to the cross and die? Gods aren’t supposed to die. If they do they do so in glorious battle, taking out their foe with them. That’s what gods do. So it is no wonder that the cross seems like foolishness to people, then and now. Why would God, who is so powerful and wise choose to use the ultimate tool of death to save the world?
God shows time and time again that God does not use the logic or the wisdom of the world. That is why the cross is so perplexing it is also why the message of the cross is so powerful. God used a tool of death to bring life to the world. God used the cross to bring about forgiveness and salvation to the world. In a world that demands signs and wonders, in a world that uses exploitation to get ahead of one another, we as Christians turn to the cross. For in the death and suffering of the cross, of our world, we see life, not just life but life abundant with a God who will stop at absolutely nothing and use any means necessary, no matter how confusing it may be, to show that love, life, and forgiveness. Amen.