Articles Number Five

The Apostle Paul’s preaching and ministry were dominated by one theme:
CHRISTCRUCIFIED
In the first century, putting these two words
together sounded absurd: “Christ” (or “Messiah”)
means chosen one and refers to God’s chosen
saviour king, long promised by his Old Testament
prophets, and expected to arrive with irresistible
power and glory. But “crucified” refers to Jesus
suffering the Roman punishment of death by
crucifixion - designed to be the most hideously
cruel and obscenely humiliating death imaginable!
To proclaim “Christ crucified” was ridiculous: like
proclaiming “dry water” or “fried ice”.
Indeed, Paul says the message of the cross was a
“stumbling block” (something disgusting) to those
from his own Jewish background and “foolishness”
(something insane) to those from other nations.
You see back then, Paul says, “Jews demand
signs” because they respected impressive power
and influence – they longed for liberation from
Roman occupation and loved spectacular temple
religion. It’s similar in London today. We respect
impressive people who have wealth (people are
ranked by what they earn and own) and celebrity
(Graham Norton interviews people because
they’re famous not because they’re righteous).
Those from religious backgrounds will respect a
teacher who is powerful and popular – like the
Pope. But apart from Christians, no-one admires
Jesus for volunteering to suffer in such dreadful
agony, degradation and weakness on a cross.
Neither do they admire the churches who proclaim
him!
Moreover, Paul says, “Greeks look for wisdom” because they respected
impressive learning that resulted in successful living and religious
teachers who were entertaining orators and scholars. So, in London
today we’re obsessed with education and qualifications and prefer
our religious gurus to be witty writers of best-selling books that don’t
challenge our behaviour – like the Dalai Lama! We find it hard to respect
a despised tradesman from Galilee who challenged and offended
people. He said that we’re all so sinful that we deserve eternal torment
in the fires of hell. Yet he also proclaimed that he loves us enough to
suffer on the cross in our place, taking the pain and shame and hell
we deserve. In this way he saved his people to live in heaven with him
forever - if we turn from our sin and follow him. This sounds as foolish in
today’s world as it did then. In his best-selling book, The God Delusion
the secular atheist, Richard Dawkins, wrote of Jesus’ death on the cross
in these scornful terms: “I’ve described atonement, the central doctrine
of Christianity, as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent. We should
also dismiss it as barking mad.” He just couldn’t see that this divine
“madness” is really God’s passionate love – for us!
Paul goes on to explain that God has deliberately chosen the cross as
his means of salvation to contradict and shame worldly notions of power
and wisdom. He wanted to reveal his divine power and wisdom through
a salvation that seems weak and stupid to us. He did this so that we have
to abandon our confidence in human religious ideologies and trust him
instead.
For Christians, called to God by his Spirit speaking through his Word,
“Christ crucified” is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” for
our salvation – his effective and coherent way to save guilty sinners
without compromising his holy justice. Although the cross will always be
a “stumbling block” and “foolishness” to religious and secular Londoners
alike, scandalous and ridiculous to the wealthy and educated, pathetic
and stupid to our sceptical friends and family, this message of the cross
is what our city needs to hear more than anything else.
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