1 Cor 1: 22-23 NLT - It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
You might be thinking about Christians that you know and not really see anything altogether that radical about them, but let me show at least some of the craziness that is Christianity. If you buy into these beliefs (and I believe that we have reasonable evidence to do so) they will completely change your world.
If you buy into these beliefs they will enable you to walk through any suffering without becoming jaded/cynical or being crushed to despair by the weight of it. You can find joy no matter what your outer circumstances are. You can have peace even when your world is crumbling around you.
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So what exactly is so foolish, so radical about the cross?
The cross says that you are not okay. The cross says that we are not mosty good people that sometimes make mistakes. Allow me to illustrate.
Imagine that you have an invisbile tape recorder hanging around your neck and imagine that this tape recorder turns on everytime you are commenting on how other people should live. Whenever you are talking about, "so and so should be doing this, or they shouldn't be doing that." Imagine that this tape recorder filps on and records it.
Now imagine that there really is a God, and that one day you will have to stand before Him to be judged and He says to you, "I'm going to be very lenient with you. I'm not even going to judge you according to my laws that I've laid down in the Bible, I'm just going to evaluate your life based on your own morals."
Imagine that He reaches down and hits play on the tape recorder and then applies all the things that you've said about others to your own life.
Would you be able to live up to your standard that you hold other people to? I think for most of us the answer would be no. I don't even live up to my own moral standards let alone God's.
There is a saying, you know how bad a problem is by what it takes to fix it. The cross is a beacon throughout all time, it stands on a hill outside Jerusalem as the measure of what it took to fix the problem. The cross says that not only are you not okay, this is how bad off you are. This is what it takes to fix the problem, the death of Jesus, the Son of God.
The cross is foolishness because your eternal destiny, the most important relationship that you could ever have, is with a man that lived 2000 years ago on the other side of the globe who was treated, tortured, and crucfied like a criminal.
The cross is also foolishness because it is the measure for the amount of love that God has for you. Most people (men especially...i know...I am one of them) feel that it's silly to admit that you need love and even more silly to want love from a god. But nonetheless it is a desire that is at the core of our every relationship, the need to be loved and accepted.
The cross is our beacon in time to know that we are forever loved.
How is the cross love?
How do you measure love? If we measured love by what amount of energy, effort and sacrifice someone would go through in order to love another I think it's fair to say that God loves you immensly, completely, and ferociously...so much so that He left His home in glory and came on a rescue mission to save you. That the being who created all things allowed himself to be slandered, wrongly accused, beaten, whipped, stabbed, and crucified in order to love you.
The cross shows how bad off we are, but simultaneously shows us how overwhelmingly and completely we are loved. But there's more than that. It doesn't end there, it actually gets even better.
Jesus' story didn't end there, He actually defeated death and rose from the grave. The author of Hebrews says it like this...
Heb 2:14-15 NLT - 14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had* the power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
Death is not the end, death is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Christians are actually freed from the slavery of fearing death.
What would your life be like if you believed these things?
What if you believed that you really aren't that great, but also knew that you are loved completely in spite of it? You would be able to accept criticism without getting defensive. Even if it's unjust criticism you could accept it because you know that there are plenty of things you do wrong that do deserve criticism.
You would be free to take risks and go out on limbs in order to love others because you would know that you can never be completely rejected because there is someone so wonderful that is head over heels for you.
You could walk through trials and suffering and know that God isn't angry at you. You would know that no matter what happens in your life that you are still loved completely and not being punished. Because the cross stands for all of us to see you can look to it as often as you need to and see that all of the wrath we deserve, any anger from God that we feel we should be getting was poured out on Jesus so there is none left for us. You would know also that if God gave up His Son to save you, that whatever happens in your life He loves you completely because He's already shown you to what extent He will go to be with you.
What if you believed that death wasn't the end, that you didn't need to fear death because you know the one who has broken the power of it?
Your life would be reordered in such a way that being safe wasn't your top priority.
You would be free to take risks in order to convey this message because the worst possible thing that could happen to you actually has already been defeated because of Jesus.
You would be free to grieve the loss of loved ones and not be crushed by it because you know that it's not the end. You know that they will see Jesus and together you can see them later when Jesus has made all things new.
Christianity is radical because it sets you free. In Jesus you are set free from competing for jobs and salaries in order to know that you have worth because you can look to the cross and see that you are extremely valued by the only person that really matters. In Jesus you are set free from worrying about dying or losing others to death because you know that even there Jesus will be with us and has defeated the one who has the power of death. In Jesus you are set free to love others without needing them to love you back. In Jesus you are set free to try your hardest and know that even if you fail, He never will.
In Jesus we can know that we don't need to be pefect to be loved by God because He was, and God accepts His sacrifice on our behalf.
2 Cor 5:21 NLT - 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin,* so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
Do you want to be set free like this? I can tell you from my own experience, it is a difficult, terrifying, wonderful, exhilerating adventure. Once you try it, once you know it, once you feel what it's like to experiece the love of Jesus there is no going back. You will be forever changed and no amount of suffering, injustice, or pain that comes into your life will be able to wrest you from the love that God has for you in Jesus.
Rom 8:31-39 NLT - 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.
35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”*) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,* neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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