Zion Lutheran Church

“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”  (1 Corinthians 1:18)

As we continue to unpack the Trinity in this three part series, we turn our attention to the second person of the Trinity, the one we know as the “son.” We meet the son in Jesus, a Jewish man who lived among us and taught and healed in an itinerant ministry. He understood the core of Jewish faith like no other. He challenged the people who were in charge of faith and government in ways that threatened them. His ministry, as powerful as he had shown himself to be, ended in a surprising place – at the cross.

The cross seems an odd place for Jesus to finish. That’s why Paul talks about the cross as such a watershed in our understanding of God. No one had an image of God that could suffer and die. Such things were for mortal failures, not for amazing Gods.

The cross turns our image of God on its head. We still struggle with this. We all want the almighty and powerful God, especially when it is our turn to line up and ask for a miracle. But all of us have stories where we were disappointed that it seems like the all-powerful and almighty God failed to come through for us. How we make sense of those times (or don’t make sense of them) ends up determining a lot about our faith or lack of faith. Many a person has had their faith crushed when God didn’t do what they hoped and wanted to happen. If we aren’t careful, we can turn God into a genie who grants us wishes.

The cross reminds us that God although God is strong, God is also weak and even vulnerable. Sometimes God’s action or failure to act leads to the surprising loss of something dear to us. God is no stranger to that. Jesus shows us that God’s greatest commitment to us can be found in love. God will be with us in all things, loves us in all things, and bears all things. Each of our mortal lives will end in death – that is a given. But the God we meet in the cross stands with us in that death and experiences it with us and for us. We need not fear it. Jesus has gone there first. We need not give death the last word. The risen Christ returns to witness that love and life are more powerful than death.

This can seem foolish to those who wish for a God who would simply fix our problems. But the God of the cross lives with us and loves us in the midst of the realities of life. If you want a genie, Jesus is not the answer. You will have to keep searching for the magic lamp. But if you want a God who will stick it out with you, what seems foolish to many in our world will bring you hope and life. This is the message of the cross. This is the God we meet in Jesus.