Heart Tracks - The Foolish Cross

"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 1:18...."The cross is a picture of violence, yet the key to peace; a picture of suffering, yet the key to healing; a picture of death, yet the key to life." David Watson...."Unbelievers will one day be ashamed of the things they have laughed at, and we will one day be grateful for looking like fools." Chris Tiegreen

What role does the cross of Christ play in your life? What role has it in your marriage, family, relationships, profession, and ministry? Is everything of yourself and all that makes for yourself brought to it, nailed to it? Has your old life really ended there, and your new one in Him begun? Is it real to you, or just a decoration on the wall of your church or home, if indeed it's even physically visible in either?

The message of the cross has always been and will always be "foolishness" to all those who reject Him. That is a tragedy which has eternal consequences. Yet an even greater tragedy is that it is becoming foolishness in some parts of the church. A friend of mine attends what would be considered a "good and growing church." Yet he tells me that he can't remember the last time he heard a message preached on the cross, and the power and life that is found there. Messages on how to have a better marriage, communication, contentment in your life, yes, they abound. But the message, the full message of the cross? No.

Jesus said, His Word says, that the cross is an offense to the flesh. It exposes our central need; freedom from sin, and tells us that there is no other way to that freedom but through Christ and His cross. This offends our sinful flesh, which is sure it can find its own way to God through its own efforts, and bypass the cross. The cross tells us that we can't. That we never will. The cross does not draw flesh centered crowds, but it will draw, does draw, those who are His. Jesus said that when He is lifted up, He will draw us to Himself. He was first lifted up on the cross, and then in His resurrection. We want that resurrection life, but we don't want the cross that is the only path to that life.

The moving away from the message of the cross is not new. It's happened periodically throughout the history of the church. I first began hearing it back in the 80's, when at a seminar I was told that its message was a negative one that people would only be driven from. They needed to be wooed through other means, fleshly means. Soon that meant that we needed to make our churches "people friendly," and pastors and leaders were advised to not display crosses at all, as they made people uncomfortable and carried a "negative message." So the cross being the "key" to peace, healing, and life was a little heard message, while just believing Jesus was a doorway to the good and pleasant life our flesh so craves. A Jesus message that contains no cross of Jesus.

Has the message of the cross become foolish to you? Has it become foolish to the fellowship of which you're a part? Has it always been so? Do you remember a time when it wasn't? The cross will indeed offend our fallen nature, but it beckons to the yearning for His Life that is in all of us. It is the path, the only path, to the death and burial of our old, fallen life, and the beginning and endless riches of His risen one. Then we learn that the foolish cross is, and has always been, the power of God, as well as His wisdom.

Blessings,
Pastor O