[AI translation] According to the Bible reading guide commonly used in our church, as you know, at the end of Mark's Gospel today we read the story of our Saviour's crucifixion. That is, the story of the cross. What, then, is the word of the cross that our hymn is also about? I won't explain, but rather read Mark 15:20-41. And this is evaluated in a certain way by the apostle Paul when he says that "the saying of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."To our ears, the statement that the cross of Christ is foolishness is a blasphemous one. But Paul lived even closer to a time when people still felt well the shame attached to the death on the cross. Evildoers and murderers used to be put to death by crucifixion. What, then, does the apostle want with a saviour of the world who himself proclaims that he ended his earthly career in the most shameful death, in a place of perdition? No wonder many people were offended by his talk of the cross.
Today, this mark of shame has become the holiest emblem of Christianity. From the top of the skull, it has drifted to church steeples, cathedrals, street crossings, and adorns women's necks, hanging on golden chains. It is thus apparently surrounded by great veneration, yet behind all this outward honour and splendour, the cross of Christ remains what it was two thousand years ago: the foolishness and stumbling block of those who perish, and the power of God to those who are saved. The cross is a stone of stumbling, a critical point at which humanity is divided into two great groups: those who perish and those who are saved. "It is set for the fall and resurrection of many." What then is the folly and the power of talking about the cross?
First of all, it is human pride, the self-conscious or ignorant pride within us, which cannot bear to speak of the cross. For it is precisely this high self-consciousness that is broken and bent, when it declares the conceited, arrogant man to be a lost sinner, someone who could only be helped in this way, by the death of the cross, who could only be saved from damnation in this one way, by the sacrifice of Christ. Let us imagine a man of public esteem, of whom everyone knows and is accustomed to say only the best, who almost believes himself to be all the good things he hears from others: how shocking it is when the cross of Christ says to him the opposite of what everyone else says: 'Look, this bloody cross is for you! You are the reason I had to die on it! You are the one who sank so deep into your sins that God had to die for you so that you would not perish, so that you would not be destroyed, so that you could be saved!
It is humiliating when I am found to be such a great sinner! It's an instinctive protest against our sense of self! It must be like a patient who is horrified to see a pastor in a hospital bed: am I so bad that a pastor comes to see me? Or the way I felt four years ago when I was examined for stomach pains and they wanted to keep me there and operate on me. I wondered: is it that bad? Yes, at the mention of the cross, such amazement comes into one's soul: is it that bad? Is my situation that dire? Is this what I have come to? Nonsense! It is such an insult, such an attack on the self, that it is no wonder that many turn away from it in dismay, as senseless folly.
Then, too, I am offended by the talk of the cross, because here I see that I can only be saved, and enter into the grace of God, in the same way as the greatest evildoer, by trusting in the merit of Christ's death. God desires no less of me, and no more of the other. From the crucified bullfighter, the indifferent centurion, the cruel priests, the weeping Mary, the despairing apostle John, all of them only need to recognize in Jesus their Saviour, that it was for him that the Son of God was given up to die!
It is stumbling to speak of the cross, because it proclaims that God paid the same price for me as He did for you, or as He did for the man you despise most! Is there really no difference in God's sight between one man and another? Is it really so much a figment of human pride to see the many differences of level that we see between ourselves? There are only two ways to respond to such talk: either to turn away from it as foolishness in disgust - or to resolve to take off the mask before one another, for at the foot of the cross of Christ we are all miserably alike: sinners worthy of damnation!
And the cross of Christ is also foolish because it simply defies common sense. Who can understand that Christ died for it? Who can understand that Jesus is a substitute for me in the execution of punishment and death? There are things that can only be done personally, not by substituting others. A hungry man cannot be well fed by another, a sick man cannot be substituted for in taking medicine or in standing up for an operation. The parent cannot learn the lesson for the student. For the murderer condemned to execution, no one can put his neck in the noose. And yet on the cross, something like this substitution happened. Literally what happened is expressed in one of our beautiful hymns:
What punishment hath the world inflicted on thee?
The good shepherd suffers for his sheep;
For the sin that servants have committed,
The Lord will pay.
The good will die who have been faithful and humble,
He lives who rebelled against God;
The guilty man is unharmed, and in fetters
God is there.
(Canto 340, verses 4-5)
Who understands this? Is not all this contrary to common sense? Is not the whole doctrine of vicarious suffering, vicarious satisfaction, foolishness to man? But even if I accept, with great difficulty, that Jesus died for one man, there is the further folly: how can His death be enough for all men? A deaf and dumb student once wrote on the blackboard, "I don't understand how Jesus' death could be satisfaction for all men? His tutor did not know what to answer for a moment, then suddenly went out and returned with a large apron of dry leaves. He poured the leaves out on the table, pulled off his brilliant ring and placed it beside them. The deaf-mute's face lit up: 'I see,' he wrote on the blackboard, 'Jesus, the ring is worth more than all the other people! But isn't it foolish to give a diamond ring for a pile of dry leaves? Yes, it is foolish! Since we can't find a better word to describe it, we'll call it mercy! The grace of God is always foolishness to the human mind, and this foolishness we either spit upon or bow down and worship!
Foolish as it is to speak of the cross to those who are perishing, to us who are saved it is the power of God! Yet it is through this foolishness, this talk of the cross, that the power of God flows into this wretched world. Through this alone can I experience the power of God to save us from damnation. It is wonderful that where one hears the word of the cross in faith, eternal life begins! There, as in a room with stale air when there is a draught, the air of eternal life pours in. Once a man who feared death asked the pastor to give him comfort. "But one thing," he said, "don't talk about Jesus! You may speak of God, I have known him since my youth. The pastor began to talk to him about God's love. The next day about the omnipotence of God. The patient visibly began to calm down. On the third day he talked about the holiness of God. The patient began to feel restless. On the fourth day the pastor spoke about God's justice. The patient could not take it any longer, he sent him away. On the fifth day he did not come. On the sixth day the patient called him. I feel, he said, as if I were already in hell! Then the pastor began to talk to him about God's grace, the cross, Christ's redemption death. The patient did not protest, but gladly embraced grace and eternal life! I too have often seen the light of eternal life shine in human eyes during quiet spiritual conversations. But always only when the talk of the cross was heard among us. Have you ever known this saving power of the word of the cross for eternal life?
But it is not only saving power that flows from the cross of Christ, but also purifying power. Have you not noticed what superhuman power it takes to live a holy life? To overcome in yourself all those bad qualities, passions and nervousness, which we call sin? Have you not noticed what a formidable power Satan is in our lives, how we cannot escape his influence? In vain is education, culture, all human effort, all human punishment, to wash away the sin that clings to our souls and bodies. To be made better, to be changed, to be sanctified, is only possible through the power of the word of the cross. During the wilderness wanderings, poisonous snakes devoured God's people. Moses had a copperhead snake made at the Lord's command. Those who looked upon it were healed of the deadly bite.
In the blood of Christ alone is the antidote, the antidote to the poison of sin. Something wonderful and inexplicable power flows from the crucified Christ. Whoever looks earnestly with his spiritual eyes upon Him, who sees Him unceasingly before him, the power of God pours into him, and in the possession of that power he is no longer at the mercy of the power of Satan. "And we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as of the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Cor 3:18) "Behold" Christ as a sick man beholds the sun! Expose yourself to the rays of His glory! "They that look unto Him shall be exulted, and their cheeks shall not be red." (Psalm 34:6)
Power for you too is the word of the cross, the redeeming and cleansing power of God. It is not this power that is weakened or diminished, but our faith in Him. Let us then be in the attitude that this song expresses:
In you my faith now looks,
My Saviour, my God,
On Calvary:
Hear my prayer,
And take away my sin,
From now on let me be
I am yours alone.
Fill my heart
The power of Thy grace
With fervour!
You died for me;
Give: my heart and my life
May my life burn for thee,
With a hot flame!
(Canto 466, verses 1-2)
Amen
Date: 17 February 1952 (Mon)
Lesson
Mk 15,20-41