John 3:13-17 + 1 Cor. 1:18-24
Jesus Comes to Save the World
Today is Holy Cross Day. September 14 is the day set aside by the church to commemorate the finding of the “true” cross, the one that Jesus was said to have died on. It was found by St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, who you may or may not remember from history class. He was the one who made it legal to be a Christian throughout the Roman Empire. She found it while on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and she & Constantine had the Church of the Holy Sepulchre built to mark the site of the discovery. On September 14, the day after the church was dedicated, they brought the cross outside to give all of the faithful a chance to pray before the cross and to venerate it. Since that time, September 14 has become a day to celebrate the triumph of the cross.
But the cross didn't start out as a cause for celebration. The cross began as a symbol of degradation and shame. It was a sign of execution, of tortuous, punishing death. No wonder the apostle Paul calls the message of the cross foolishness to those who are perishing. Yet even in our day, where the cross has become a symbol of triumph, a piece of jewelry we wear around our necks, if we stop to consider what really happened there on the cross, the message of that cross strikes even us who believe, who are being saved according to Paul, not as the power of God, but as foolishness.
Foolishness, because Jesus knew what he was getting in to when he descended from heaven. He knew what he was in for when he came to Earth as a human being, that he would be subjected to all of the drama & trauma of life. It's right there in the gospel. He lays out the plan to Nicodemus: “...just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up...” There will be no ifs, ands, or buts about it. He must be lifted up. Jesus knew the end from the beginning; he knew that the cross stood at the end of his road...
...and he went anyway. When the time had come, he went straight to the cross – do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. He went straight to the heart of human suffering and pain and death. He gave of himself until there was nothing left to give. He saw the world coming to get him, and he didn't do anything to get out of the way, he didn't fight back. And there on the cross, we see what happens when you don't fight back – you get crucified. Weakness and vulnerability add up to sure and certain death.
We, who are so wise in the ways of the world, see his action, or lack of action, as foolishness. Because the wisdom of the world says: When you are threatened, protect yourself. The best defense is a good offense. When you are threatened, you hit first, and hit hard, before the other guy can hit you. The wisdom of the world says: Never let 'em see you sweat. Don't reveal your weakness or vulnerability, because it just opens you up to attack.
We see people acting on this world's wisdom all the time; & we know that it lives within us too. None of us is immune. We see it from kids on the playground all the way up to governments of the nations. We saw it in the attacks of 9-11, and dare I say, we saw it in our own responses of anger and revenge and fear. It's a natural human response; it's just the way of the world...
But the way of the world reveals, not wisdom, but our own sinful selves, the anguish of a broken world that cannot heal itself, a world that stands in opposition to the ways of God, rebelling against God's vision for a world of harmony & peace, a world where we love our neighbors as ourselves.
But this is the same sin-filled world that Jesus came to save; this is the world God loves so much that God gave the only Son – not to condemn the world, but so that the world, all of creation, might be saved through him.
Saved – not from a wrathful, vengeful God, but from ourselves, from our own self-destructiveness. Saved from our addiction to power and might, & our delusions that they are what this life is all about; saved from the notion that we must protect ourselves and those we love at any cost, that we are all that matters, and others can just fend for themselves. Jesus came into this world to save it and each of us, to set us free from our fears and anxieties, anger and hurt, worry and pain – all of the things that trap us and keep us from experiencing the lives that God wants for us.
What God wants is for us to have eternal life – Jesus tells Nicodemus that that's the reason that he came, the reason that he must be lifted up: so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. It's not just quantity he's talking about, but more importantly the quality of life. Eternal life is not just about life that never ends – eternal life is life that is lived in the unending presence of God, the never-ending love of God. Later in the Book of John, in chapter 17, Jesus defines eternal life for us: he says that eternal life is knowing God and Jesus Christ, the one God sent. It is newness of life that comes from this relationship – and it's available now! Eternal life begins in the present as we accept God's invitation to believe – to look to Jesus on the cross with trust and expectation about all that life holds for us, trust & belief that grows out of his love for us; the love that holds nothing back, but willingly gives it all so that we might know and experience that love.
The battle between God's ways and the world's ways is already decided, the victory was won 2000 years ago on the cross for you & for me – won not through the wisdom of the world, not through the love of power, but through the power of love, the power that triumphs over all, the power that even death cannot destroy! This is Christ, the wisdom of God, and the power of God, the power of the love that will never let us go.
Amen.
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