The cross is precious to Christians. It stands for our salvation, paid for by the sufferings and death of God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Over two thousand years, we have drawn it, worn it as jewelry, sung about it in our most beloved hymns, woven in it cloth and into the words of our sermons, teachings and conversations. In our liturgy, we make the sign of the cross to remind us that all the gifts being given by God in worship come to us by the power of that cross.
The cross is the deepest wisdom of God It is God’s answer to sin, suffering, grief and death. We are tied to it when we receive his body broken there with bread and when we drink his blood shed there with wine. When Jesus died on the cross, we died to sin and when he rose from the grave, we rose to new life. To this day, Christians literally die rather than forsake the cross.
In the cultures shaped by the faith, the cross is everywhere, you only have to look. It is hard for us to imagine why non-Christians either do not understand it, think it doesn’t make sense, or worse, are offended by it. Even though they see the evil in this world, they do not believe they themselves are evil. They do not understand the depth of God anger against the evil that has ruined his world, brought death and suffering into it and separated him from his children, whom he loves. They don’t realize that only death and eternal destruction can be the only way to satisfy that anger. They don’t get that means every person must pay that price. Finally, it doesn’t make sense to them that God would pour all that wrath out on his son — himself really — rather than let us suffer it. They think the whole plan is stupid.
But in the cross, which appears to be weakness, is really God’s strength. It is the power of God that destroys death and sin in us. It is the greatest wisdom, for it is the solution to our dilemma. He pays the price we cannot pay and forgives them forever. There may not be a free lunch, but there is free salvation. This is the good news that we preach.
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