Wednesday, March 23, 2016
1 Corinthians 1:23a But we preach Christ crucified!
CHRIST CRUCIFIED
Somewhere in the front of the church where you attend is a cross. You've seen that cross maybe thousands of times. But what does the cross mean? Why do we Christians keep preaching about the cross? Why do we keep telling unbelievers about the cross? Why do you and I, God's people, need to keep hearing about the cross? To paraphrase one man:
Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves. He was crucified at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble. Because that is where He died, that is where Christ's people ought to go with it's message.
In other words, the cross isn't just "Sunday morning talk" that has little to do with the real world or our own lives. The cross is for the dirty, grimy, confused, lost world out there, for people immersed in guilt and drowning in their fears, for people who one day must die and face judgment.
The cross means everything; and you and I, even though we've heard its message thousands of times, need to run to that cross every day of our sinful lives. We need to run to its forgiveness in the Word. We need to run to its healing in the sacrament of Jesus' body and blood. We need to run to its promise in the waters of our baptism. In the face of our many sins, only the heaven-sent power of CHRIST CRUCIFIED can give us real peace and certain hope.
You and I are privileged to plant the cross into the morally torn up and spiritually mixed up lives of those around us. It's not a message to keep in the church, or to ourselves. It's a message for this back-alley, sin-sick, and dying world.
Thank God if you have a pastor and a church which keeps preaching Christ crucified!
