The Foolishness of Preaching the Cross of Christ

            Do you ever struggle with the question, is it really worthwhile to get up and go to church? Do you struggle with the idea; does it do any good to hear a sermon? If you are on line, does it do any good to read or listen to a sermon over the internet or TV? Perhaps you might ask me, do you ever wonder as a pastor, does it do any good to write a sermon? Is it really worthwhile to put all the work in week after week? Do you really see any fruits of your work? Does it really change anybody’s life? The Apostle Paul gives an interesting insight to preaching, in particular preaching about the cross of Jesus. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. It was God’s call that the story of the cross would be proclaimed. It was Jesus’ choice to give to this world, pastors and teachers to build up God’s people. Even God recognizes that some may view it either from the work of preaching or to the listening of a sermon, its all foolishness. That will set our thoughts, The Foolishness of Preaching the Cross of Christ.

The Apostle Paul writes: 22} Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom. As a pastor, sometimes in our frustration, we might be tempted to try to do our work with something other than preaching the word. Do you realize how many pastors have wished they could do some miracles just to get some peoples attention? Personally I have wished that God would at least have some lightening bolts trim some toenails of people who are totally negligent in their spiritual life. One bolt striking so close that it would really wake them up and drive them back to the Lord. How about fire from heaven consuming the charcoal grill in their back yard with a voice from heaven rejecting their burnt offering? 

            Perhaps members have been wishing that their pastor was more intelligent, like the Greeks looking for wisdom. Could you imagine the surprise for a district president if the congregation requested only straight A graduate for their pulpit?   Then the pastor could win those arguments about religion. It would be nice to have someone be able to argue with those with their doctorates in philosophy and science and argue them into faith. 

            Whether we would go with miracles or education neither is the choice that God has made for this world. It was his decision through the foolishness of preaching to bring salvation. The people of this world consider the message of the cross foolishness. But perhaps not quite like a man named Akagame San. I would like to tell you his story, a story of his foolishness and the power of God. 

I came upon the story of a man named Akagame San. He told his story that he didn’t believe in the living God. “I actually laughed at and ridiculed him and was determined to fulfill a promise to myself that promise was that I was going to draw everyone I possibly could away from believing in this silly God of Christianity. I challenged God, and the war between God and my self continued unabated for three years. During this time I went to church alight. I went to mock the Christian and in this I found the highlight of my week. I actually laughed aloud in order to ridicule Pastor Meier and what he was saying in his sermons. During those years I said terrible things, mocking my wife and her faith in order to draw her away from Jesus.” In interviewing Pastor Meier he explained how rude this was in the Japanese culture. Pastor Meier was trying to learn Japanese. When he made a mistake, the Japanese would be polite and understand a foreigner was trying to speak their language. But Akagame San would burst out laughing at the mistakes and openly ridicule the message.   In the days that followed, Pastor Meier did conduct their Christian wedding. In the days that followed, Akagame San brought other Japanese to get married. When Pastor Meier explained he could not ask God’s blessing on them if they wouldn’t want to learn about God. When they refused, he refused the wedding. Akagame San walked out of that meeting. Pastor Meier was sure that would be last he would see of the man. What happened though, “Pastor Meier’s faith and especially the faith of my dear wife surely was sustained by the Lord himself. Through them the Lord absorbed all my ridicule and finally I was forced to admit that I had challenged the living God. His law had cursed the false pride in my heart. Even though I lost my struggle with God, I found real joy for the first time, peace for my soul.” He went and sold the box factory he had inherited from his parents. He was baptized and began intense study to become a Christian pastor. Hear again Paul’s words: For 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.

            The message of the cross is very personal, for we are confronted by our relationship to the living God. Our wisdom and power have to face the wisdom and power of God. With our minds we have to reflect on what have we really thought about God and our relationship to him. Do we in our wisdom reject or despise the laws that he as creator has established for his creation? Do we believe we know better than our creator how we are to live and by what rules? Have we in our wisdom though not outright in church disrupt the sermon, yet quietly, dismiss what God has said in his word to us? Do we intend not to change, but to keep on doing just what we want or feel like doing, regardless of what God says to us? This Lenten season takes us to the foot of the cross. Let’s be honest, tell Jesus as you see him hanging on the cross, why you think it is foolish for him to be there. 

Each one of us needs to see that Jesus on the cross is there for me. It was my sins that were placed upon him. It was his blood that was shed, that I might live. Here is what so challenging in preaching about the cross. Here we see the full impact of sin. We see the agony of hell being experienced by a person who has taken our place. At the foot of the cross a person cannot minimize the sins done against the holy, living God. We are confronted with the failure of our own wisdom, the limits of our human reason.

At the foot of the cross we are also confronted by our own limitations and weaknesses in the face of death. When we are young and strong we might believe we are invincible. We can handle anything. I remember the first time one young man realized his limitations. He came into my office with a broken nose. He had lost his first bar room fight. He started to wonder if he needed God’s help. But it wasn’t until a few years later he finally kneeled before the cross of Christ. He had been deer hunting with his father near Bemidji, MN. As his father lay dying in the ambulance that rushed his to the hospital the son followed in a car. How helpless, how weak! What a reminder at the cross of the Savior who said he was going to die, but also rise again the third day. Jesus is the wisdom and power of God. 

We are also confronted with another aspect of the living God whom we do not always respect or revere, that aspect is the love by which he loved us.  Jesus explained, (John 15:13 NIV) Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. That is exactly what he did. At the cross of Christ we experience an unconditional love. This was love given without first expecting something from us. We did not have to meet some condition before he was willing to die for us. At the same time we are reminded of the sacrifice of love. He gave us his all, his back, his hands, his life. In addition to all this it was an all encompassing love. When he died he paid for all sins, every sin. With this peace and comfort we are to leave the foot of the cross. We are to go home knowing that our God has lavished us with love that we should be called his children. 

In my preaching I cannot pick words other than those our Savior picked to explain and describe his cross. I cannot make it more beautiful than it already is. My fear is that some how in my human limitations I do not do justice to the cross of Christ. That because of me, some one might not appreciate the cross, God forbid.   My prayer is that for you who know, trust and find your hope and joy, that none of us bring shame to the cross of Jesus by our words and actions in this world. Rather may we lift high the cross! Amen.