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One of the reasons Holy Cross Day is celebrated has to do with building of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, which is the church built around the supposed site of Calvary and Christ’s grave. So, why keep the day? Well, it’s a day to glory in Christ’s cross, to rejoice in His death, to magnify the preaching of His death. This isn’t Good Friday, the sequel. Today’s adorned with red not black. It doesn’t take much to convince a Lutheran to talk about Christ’s death, and so why not keep the day christened for His cross! We correct some things, but keep what is good, never throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Besides all that, as far as our readings are concerned, and as the Holy Spirit gave me wisdom from His Word, we’re able to tackle the important topic of God’s glory and His power and His wisdom.
(3. There are many “shadows” of God’s glory.)
When it comes to God’s glory, what comes to mind? Let’s just take a few minutes here on this pretty simple question. What do you think of when I say, “The Glory of God”? [PAUSE] Where or how does God reveal this glory? [PAUSE] Have you experienced God’s glory? [PAUSE] Where can you experience or where have you experienced God’s glory? [PAUSE]
Now, there are all sorts of ways to answer questions of course. They’re pretty opened ended, but I’ve some good guesses as to what comes to mind when the topic of “God’s glory” comes up:
- Creation is a good contender—the power and beauty and wisdom of field and forest, of valleys and mountains, of seas and lakes, of the stars in heaven.
- Miracles is another one—Christ reveals His power and glory in miracles, using His whiz-bang power to do something great and awesome.
- Heaven is the final one—the other realm or dimension where God Himself dwells in unapproachable light, the realm of angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven, the patriarch, prophets, apostles, and people you know that have departed to be with the Christ.
But what if I told you, that doesn’t jive 100% with what Christ says today in John 12, or what Paul has to say either in 1 Corinthians, which we heard just a little bit a go? Now, creation does have a glory, but it’s not the clearest and fullest revelation of God’s glory. In fact, creation just reveals “His eternal power and Godhead, so that [people] are without excuse.” (Rom 1) Miracles aren’t meant to be spectacles but rather are sign posts pointing to who Christ is and what He came to do. And heaven is a glory, but it is a glory that is not revealed. It’s a glory we are ushered into, and it’s only truly glorious rather than terrifying because of the clearest revelation of God’s glory.
No, Christ is abundantly clear today, and so is Paul. Christ says and Paul is inspired to say what the clearest revelation of God’s glory and wisdom and power actually is. It’s Christ crucified!
(2. We want anything but that!)
We want anything but that! We want the glory of God to be something more beautiful than that. We want God’s power to be something more impressive than that. We want God’s wisdom to be something more appealing and winsome than that! It’s why we’re so quick to bring up Christ’s resurrection, even though Paul doesn’t do that in 1 Corinthians 1. (His great resurrection chapter is a whole 14 chapters later in 1 Corinthians 15!) Christ also—He doesn’t speak of His resurrection Himself. It’s His Father who hints at that event, but Christ is satisfied to speak only of His “glorification,” His “dying,” His “being lifted up.” To Christ they’re all one and the same.
We want something more appealing, however. Our flesh doesn’t like to suffer, and certainly doesn’t want a suffering Savior. We shy away from crucifixes. Yet, even for the angels at the tomb He is “Christ the crucified.” “By His wounds” the Prophet says, “you are healed,” forgiven. We don’t like the idea of Christ having scars. But Christ calls Thomas to plunge his hands into the gash in His side, and John’ vision in Revelation shows seat of glory in heaven is is filled by “a lamb that looks like it was slain!” The proper field dressing of a sacrificial lamb is clearly described in the Old Testament… That’s the sort of lamb seated on the throne…
Anything but that! We prefer precious moments baby Jesus the best, but the Christ crucified for the sins of the world? We say it, but quickly want to brush it, brush Him under the rug. Say there’s something else, anything else. Other points of doctrine, other emphases we can have. But you can’t dodge it, the Bible won’t let you get around Him. Genesis already speaks of it, His miracles point to it, heaven is glorious because of Him, not an almighty, beautiful redeemer, not a wise sage of a teacher, or motivational speaker, or a practical preacher. It’s not “purple mountains majesty,” it’s not “phenomenal cosmic powers,” it’s not visions of heaven. In Christ you’ve got “a beaten, bloodied, and powerless Jewish criminal fastened” with nails “to a stick in the ground.” (Ristau, 19)
(1. THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED.)
And that Christ, dear saints of God, that Christ is, in fact, the clearest revelation of God’s glory—His wisdom and power, too.
THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED FOR YOU.
That is what Paul says today. “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.” “We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” “God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,” “for,” to repeat it again from 1 Corinthians 1, “we preach Christ crucified…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED FOR YOU.
That’s also what Christ says today. “The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.” “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.” Christ’s glory, the glory of His name, is not that He’s almighty, but that He is “Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews.” That is the name above every name, the name placarded on His cross. He only draws all people to Himself as the crucified one, not only drawing all sins to Himself, but those who are His gather around Him where He is most wise, most powerful, most glorious—crucified. “For where the corpse is there the eagles with gather.”
(Conclusion.)
“It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED FOR YOU.
His power is made perfect in weakness, His glory in ignominy, His wisdom in foolishness. The God who created out of nothing, makes saints of sinners by the preaching and delivered of the nothing, the foolishness, the weakness, and shame of the cross. That is indeed the salvation and glory of God, for God’s nothing is something, His foolishness is wiser, His weakness stronger, His shame more glorious, than anything we bring to the table or think or imagine.
Now, just to be clear, we can speak in some sense of creation or miracles or heaven having glory, but they are a mere shadow, for Christ’s cross, where He died for your sins, is THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY. So we magnify the preaching of His cross. We magnify baptism which unites you by faith to His cross and death. We magnify Communion because by taking communion (His crucified body and shed blood for your forgiveness) we together “proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
It is no wonder that the LORD says through Isaiah: “I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.” For no other god, no idol of carved wood, would ever say that his or her glory is most clear by being nailed to a tree of wood for sinners.
May the Lord by His Spirit lead us to repentance and faith that we too would confess and believe THE CLEAREST REVELATION OF GOD’S WISDOM, POWER, AND GLORY IS CHRIST CRUCIFIED FOR YOU.
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