Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Audio: iTunes | Spotify

We preach Christ crucified…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

᛭ INI ᛭

(5. Oops!: We see a world of suffering and death.)

We see in our world suffering and death. It’s lightning quick. Not that such things are sudden, though they are. It’s how quickly we’re able to see tragedy and loss, suffering and death—around the world in 80 seconds!

We want to see something else. We hope for something else. But the great irony of the world is that the more the world strives for a utopian vision to be realized, the more that pursuit brings suffering and death to the fore. The more we strive to defeat death, death abounds all the more. The more we strive to supplant suffering with relief, it seems that, eventually, sooner or later, suffering will just be there instead.

News papers, news stations, news feeds are full of all these things. It’s almost inescapable! Death is in this life. Suffering, too. And the world sees all this, and looks at the event and says, “See, there is no god. At least no good god. The proof’s in the pudding! I see suffering, and God wouldn’t, shouldn’t allow that.” To the world, suffering and death prove God doesn’t exists. Maybe that same worldly doubt sometimes creeps into your heart, too…

(4. Ugh!: We see and experience suffering and death, too.)

But suffering and doubt aren’t just out in the world. They’re often in your world, too. Those chickens always come home to roost, don’t they? Sooner or later they will. Maybe they already are! We see and hear things usually from doctors that let us know suffering and then death’s on the way. We hear it from the talking heads, too. There’s an economic apocalypse around every corner! They’re usually wrong, but we do often complain about and feel the pennies pinch in our pocketbooks…

And in the midst of the suffering and death or pain and misery we see hitting close to home, we know we’re supposed to trust the Lord God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that we’re not supposed to lean on our own understanding and knowledge, but that truth terrifies us all the more! “I should trust the Lord more,” we often say, “if only He knew!” He does! He knows, even more than you do, how deep your doubt is within your heart, soul, mind, and strength. He knows more than you do the scope of suffering and the reality of death in the world.

(3. Aha!: THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE.)

There are those who want signs, actions, policies that will put suffering and death to an end. They want God to do something about it! There are those who want some sort of wisdom, ideology that will help us navigate our way through suffering and death, to welcome us to the other side, into a peaceful, happy utopia.

But the LORD God doesn’t give us either of those things. He doesn’t give us signs and wonders. (Though He does occasionally do them.) He doesn’t give us wisdom. (Though He has all the wisdom there is to have!) All He gives us is a dead guy on a cross.

In a world where all we see flooding the airwaves is suffering and death, the Lord wants us to see something else. And to the world who wants some sort of show of power or wise words that will bring action, the Lord says, “Look here! My Son given into death for you.”

THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE.

In a world where we see many things we wish we didn’t or can’t unsee, in a world where a diagnosis lets us know what we will see, the Lord Himself points us in a different direction. Paul preaches us into a different direction. When some Greeks ask Philip, “Sir, we wish to see IHS,” Christ answers by preaching His cross! That’s the Christ He wants them to see and to believe in. Same with Paul, “Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified!” Why? Because

THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE, and THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE because Christ crucified is God’s power and wisdom.

(2. Whee!: Christ crucified is God’s power and God’s wisdom.)

CHRIST CRUCIFIED is God’s power because God doesn’t do power like we do power. I mean, God has all power. He’s omnipotent, Almighty. But God doesn’t necessarily reveal His power to us in what’s beautiful and wonderful, majestic or even what we humans might consider good. Kings, rulers, presidents are all known for their accomplishments. They will go to the ends of the earth to find or do something, not necessarily the Lord. As Proverbs 25 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”

The Lord hides His power, or rather His power is revealed in weakness, in suffering, in death—His own death! CHRIST CRUCIFIED is God’s power because Christ crucified cripples suffering of its fear. Christ dying and dead destroys death itself. When suffering and death is afoot in this life, let us turn our hearts and minds and eyes to THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST. He’s really THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE. As Paul reveals, “The Lord said, ‘My power is made perfect in weakness,’” most clearly God’s power is made perfect in the cross, weakness, and ultimate death of Christ.

When the sights and tragedies of life weigh us down, we don’t need to get away. We don’t need to be looking for peace and God’s majesty and power. Rather, we must look to the cross. For God is hidden and not for you on “purple mountains majesty” or in “shining seas.” “[It’s] not enough nor is it beneficial for anyone to recognize God in His glory and majesty, unless he recognizes Him in the humility and shame of the cross.” (Heidelberg)

There’s wisdom here. THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE, because Christ crucified is God’s wisdom. The world wants some sort of explanation for the suffering of the world. Why do such things happen? I don’t know why. God doesn’t reveal a “why” for the suffering, a “why” for the death but the true and living God isn’t a God that’s aloof or far way from suffering. Christ the Son of God suffers. In His suffering He trusted His Father 100%. (His trusting counts for you.) Christ, the Son of God, died for all our sins and died to set right a world gone wrong with things we find detestable, like the sufferings and tragedies in this life. In fact, His death proves that God hates these all the more!

Christ crucified is the power of God over your sins. He hides His Almighty power, that is, His almighty merciful power in the drops of blood shed at Calvary. He hides His power over suffering and death in His very own death, giving His life for the life of the whole world. This is what it means for all Christians to proclaim Christ crucified to a suffering and dying world. And when it comes to the unknowables, the only place to look for the power to move forward or the wisdom to look forward is Christ and Him crucified, to look deeply into the wounds of the eternal, Almighty Son of God, IHS Christ.

(1. Aha!: You will see the crucified Christ in glory forever.)

THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE, and with eyes fixed on Him we suffer. We take up our cross and follow Him, suffering for the sake of our neighbor as we serve them in our vocations. But in the midst of suffering, God is at work in you. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God… For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren…For, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8)

But the finish line of Christ crucified isn’t taking up your cross and following Him or being conformed to the image of God’s Son only in your death. No, it’s being brought into Christ’s resurrection, too. “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” The power of God is make perfect in your weakness, your death, for from there He will bring you back to life, so that you will then fully and eternally be conformed to the image of His Son—died and raised forever.

To this you were sealed in baptism, receiving Christ’s death and resurrection already as your own. For this you are given the fruits of Christ crucified—His body and blood. For “whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood,” Christ says, “has eternal life and I will resurrect him on the Last Day.” And then on that day, the day that will never end, THE CRUCIFIED CHRIST IS THE ONLY ONE YOU NEED TO SEE, for you will see Him face to face forever in glory. He is eternally and forever your Christ, your Crucified, who forever “looks like He’s been slain.”

᛭ INI ᛭