| March 8, 2000 | The Cross is our Theology | 1 Cor. 2:2-5
(Thanks to Rev. Steven Hein for source material for this message)
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1 Corinthians 2:2-5 For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
We are now at the beginning of Lent - Ash Wednesday. Lent is that journey lasting 40 days of Mondays through Saturdays and 6 Sundays that leads up to Easter. Perhaps it is more important, however, to see Lent leading up to Good Friday. Every year this season becomes a journey toward Good Friday. It is a time of preparation and a time of reflection. It is a penitential season, where it is very appropriate to demonstrate our sorrow over our sins.
This sorrow is the reason for the ashes. You know,...the ashes we use on Ash Wednesday. Well, I guess that tradition has fallen out of use. While a growing up, I can remember some Roman Catholics would spend the day walking around with ashes on their forehead. Later, prior to my entry into the Seminary, our church in Rochester, a LCMS church, reintroduced the custom of providing ashes, applied in a cross mark on the forehead. I found that the Seminary in St. Louis offered this also. It was to be considered a sign of one's repentance and sorrow over sins. It reminds us of the need to be washed. It is a custom which is increasingly being used in LCMS churches.
Ashes also remind us of death. For the tree or plant which is burned, the ashes are the final remains and the sign of complete death. The same could be understood when humans are creamated upon death. The ashes truly are the end. In the commital service we say, "ashes to ashes and dust to dust."
So, the ashes of Ash Wednesday are to remind us of a death problem we have. It is good to remember that death is a problem. The popular explanation of our day is that death is a natural thing, an essential part of the life-cycle of "mother nature." This idea should be replaced by the correct understanding that death is a result of the curse that God has placed on everything that comes from the ground as a result of sin of man. Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden of Eden to live under the curse of death because they sinned.
The ashes remind us of death and we are reminded of the most important death, the one on Good Friday. We are reminded of the death of our Lord upon the cross. So, now the cross becomes prominent again. The cross remains in view. The cross becomes an important part of our theology - our thinking about God. In fact, Martin Luther boldly asserted that the cross was not just part of our theology, but instead, "the cross is our theology." Luther came to this conclusion after his study of the Psalms and the epistles of Paul in late 1517 and early 1518. When Luther saw the truth that the cross is our theology, then he was underway on his recovery mission of the Scriptural Gospel in the Church. Thus, the cross being central brought the Gospel back in sight.
It was this same focus upon the cross which is expressed in our text. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Keeping that cross in our sights and on our minds keeps us securely under the grace of our Lord. If we wander away from the cross and loose sight of it then we are in spiritual danger. Our desire is to stay under the "theology of the cross." That phrase, theology of the cross, is used to refer to the this way of thinking. One major alternative to theology of the cross is "theology of glory." Theology of glory puts the cross away and instead focuses on the glory of we Christians. Once you become a Christian, you are in pure glory. It is thought there is no more need to mention the cross, or sin, and even in some cases no need to mention Christ. The cross is replaced by glory. Sin is replaced by supposed sinlessness. There is also no talk of suffering in a Christian life. In fact, according to the theology of glory, if you suffer, then you must be doing something wrong in your faith. If you are ill, then you must not be praying enough. If you are poor, you must have brought that on yourself. This type of thinking can saturate most areas of our life. The cross and all thought of sin, and repentance, and forgiveness, and suffering for Christ's sake are put away. Suddenly, Christianity becomes very hollow and what is missing is the the Good News.
We come back to the theology of the cross, where we find that Good News. The cross remains in our focus and keeps us on track. The Cross is our theology.
Now the cross is both Law and Gospel for us. The cross first reminds us of our trespasses. It reminds us that our sin was the reason that Christ needed to go to the cross. To keep the cross in sight means we each need to come face-to-face with our own sins. We need to confess our failures to our God. The cross strikes us with the Law and that Law brings us to our knees.
Thank God that the cross is also Gospel. It reminds us of the sacrifice that took place for us. The cross shows us that the punishment for our sins has been paid. It shows us that we are freed from the death we deserve and instead can follow the one who was on the cross and now lives and reigns forever.
Let us determine, this season of Lent not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Let us keep the cross as our theology and keep the theology of the cross. Then we will keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfector of our faith, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.