The Foolishness of the Cross?

This morning, as it is Good Friday, I felt it was appropriate to reflect on the Cross and the Crucifixion of Jesus. To start, here are some verses from Paul's letter to the 1 Corinthians 1:17-18,22-25 NIV:

[17] "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel---not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. [18] 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."

[22] "Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, [23] but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, [24] but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. [25] For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength."

As I think about the cross, and what it must sound like to the non-Christian, I think Paul is accurate, it must sound like foolishness.  Why would God, if He is all powerful, and all knowing, the creator of everything, put in motion a plan where He sends His beloved Son to earth to become human, and in His humanity, suffer and die at the hands of the ones He created?  Why would this be the path of salvation? Why the humiliation of death on a cross, like a heinous criminal?

We have our mythological stories of heroes who die in epic battles, defeating overwhelming odds!  We have stories from the Old Testament of God intervening in miraculous ways to save His people.  We have our own ideas of what we would do if we were all-powerful, able to create or destroy galaxies with just a word.  We can imagine all sorts of glorious ways to save, or rescue people we love, yet it is hard to imagine it involving complete humiliation, suffering, and tortuous death.

Yet, Paul calls the cross the power of God.  I think he rightly describes it as a stumbling block for the Jews and foolishness to the gentiles, yet to those of us who believe it is wisdom and power of God!  It is hard to describe it all in a few short paragraphs, as there are whole books dedicated to this subject, but I will endeavor to express the heart of what I understand.

First, we as humans, are generally limited in our worldviews, especially those of us who have a Western-trained mind.  We don't recognize the spiritual aspects, for they are generally unseen and considered lightly in our understandings.  Yet it is precisely in the spiritual realm that Jesus' death was glorious, so we must consider that realm in our understanding of the cross.  Secondly, I think it safe to say that we clearly don't understand the fullness of all that was accomplished on the Cross, or in the Resurrection, for these had eternal consequences, and we cannot grasp or comprehend eternity fully.  Lastly, in our humanness, would have chosen a different path, for we do understand pain, suffering and humiliation in some small way, and thus we are forced to look at a reality that we just wouldn't choose on our own, and we are thus limited in what we can understand.

In scripture we are given hints of the foundational truths, the sin of man the result of free will, free-will a requirement for a real relationship of love.  We somewhat understand the idea of sin causing a loss, and ultimately separation, from the originally intended relational intimacy God desired between Himself and all humans.  After the original sin, humans lost almost all knowledge of God and His character as they proceeded to follow their own path.

As scripture tells us, the rest of history of the Jews, from Abraham to Jesus, was God slowly laying the groundwork for undoing all that was done in that first instance of sin.  God reveals Himself again, establishes a covenant relationship with Abraham, always allowing for free-will and bad choices, and God never relents of His love and commitment.  God reveals His nature and character to the Jews, slowly over time, allowing them to encounter Him differently so that they start to understand He is nothing like us!  Rather in some small way, we are like Him.

He establishes the Law as foundational truth and framework for holiness and sanctification.  He establishes a sacrificial system that is a foreshadowing of what He intends to do to restore that which was lost.  Most of this is hidden from the world, for God's word is planted like a seed in Israel, and over the ensuing years it grows in understanding and revelation, but i mostly hidden in the walled garden that was the Jewish Faith.  Within the context of this continual revelation of Himself, through the Prophets and authors of the Old Testament, God lays out His plans, describing the Messiah, and alluding to His purpose and plans, yet as humans the Jews don't fully grasp the reality of what God was really about.  They, like us, couldn't fully comprehend God's radical plan.  As God says through Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways ,” (Is 55:8 NIV).

Finally, after hundreds of years of waiting Jesus, the Messiah, is born with a spiritually spectacular birth, if you are a shepherd in the hills outside of Bethlehem.  The next thirty years, Jesus lives in relative obscurity, and this just messes with our minds!  Why would God, send His Son to live a quiet and hidden life?  Wouldn't he at least be like David and slay a couple of giants, or lead his people to victory over their enemies?  (Sorry back to my human thinking!).  The point is that Jesus is fully a man, having emptied Himself somehow of His divinity (Phil 2:6-8), that He might live just like you or me.  In that human state, He learned to walk in perfect obedience to His heavenly Father, not as the divine son, but as a human.  He learned to establish an intimate relationship with His Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit.  In His hiddenness we recognize His humility and likeness to ourselves.  He came to establish a way back to the Father, back to that intimacy originally intended but lost through sin.  He came to earth to show us the way, to make a way, and to eradicate the effects of that original sin. He came to reveal perfectly the nature of the Father (Hebrews 1:2) and to fulfill the promise and plans of God!

The passion and crucifixion is where the reality of God's intent became evident!  He didn't require us to make our way to Him, instead He came to us, and through His suffering and death took upon Himself the punishment for all sin, forever cancelling sin's power to separate us from the Father!  He, in one humble act of obedience, set billions of us free from the curse of sin, spiritual blindness and separation.

In the spiritual realm, He defeated the powers of the cast out angelic hosts who had rebelled against God originally and had been working to maintain the relational separation between God and man.  He defeated their best plan to steal for themselves God's children.  They thought they had accomplished the ultimate defeat of God, killing His Son in His most vulnerable state.  Instead, in the spiritual realm His death on the cross was the equivalent of a black-hole for all sin, for He took all sin (past, present and future) upon Himself, and its debt was cancelled as it died with Him on the cross! I can just imagine the enemies' horrified looks as all sins were cancelled and the debt was paid!  What they thought was the final victory instead become their major defeat!

The impact on our lives from that single moment in history is unfathomable, for it opened to us the way to the Father!  The path to real intimate relationship was restored!  The veil that separated God and His children was torn asunder!  All of our sins were paid for and we were once more able to enter into Eternal Life, life united with God!  It is in becoming like us that God was able to restore all that was lost!  He never faltered in His faithfulness to His original intent and plan!  He has always loved us and always desired relationship with us, and proved that love by coming to us and setting us free.  His power over sin is complete!

Moreover, in His death on the cross, He also took us all with Him, that our old nature might be put to death (Rom 6:6).  God's plan didn't end on the cross.  In fact one could say that is where we actually get our first understanding of His ultimate plan, for in taking all of us to the cross with him, He killed the old man, that we might become new creations in Him.  Paul writes  - 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"  So, on the cross, Jesus in the Power of God, humbled Himself, taking our old nature, all our sin and all the separation it caused and killed it all!  He saved us all!

I know in no way have I covered even the smallest portion of all God accomplished on the cross, but in my small way I am reminded of His infinite love, His incredible patience and faithfulness and His unbelievable ways.  I am grateful for my salvation! I am grateful that He doesn't think like me or act like me!  I am grateful for the opportunity to relate to the Father!  I am grateful that my sin has been paid for!  I am grateful that I am a new creation!  I am grateful that He defeated the best plans of the enemy!  I  am grateful that today I can celebrate the salvation that He purchased with His own blood!  I am grateful for the "foolishness" of the cross, for I celebrate it as God's victory over sin!

Amen!