The Power of the Cross
by Pastor Greg
4/22/11
For the last several years I have been helped in my observance of Holy Week and especially Good Friday by reading Brennan Manning’s wonderful book, The Signature of Jesus. As I began this personal tradition again, this week, I was led to ponder this question: “Has the church lost something by putting almost all of it’s Holy Week emphasis on Easter, while Good Friday, the day we remember the death of Jesus, has almost become a relic of times past?”
(Before you read the rest of this short Good Friday devotional, please take one minute, get your Bible and read 1Corinthians 1:18-25)
I am old enough to remember when school was released on Good Friday, when stores were closed and when almost every church of every type held a service to mark the death of our Savior. As I contemplated this cultural change I wondered if we would be better served as a community of faith by giving emphasis to the death of Jesus rather than His resurrection. Obviously observing both would be the best option, if we lived in a perfect world.
Today, Good Friday, as we reflect on the death of Jesus and the supreme value of His sacrifice, I would suggest that what is lost when we do not raise up the cross, as preeminent in all of human history, is the power to live life in victory.
The Apostle Paul wrote this to the intellectual Greeks and religious Jews in the city of Corinth: “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross sounds to those who are on the road to destruction.” (1Corinthians 1:18ff) In other words it makes sense, that if you as a Greek were expecting a ruler with a greater intellect than Plato, than Jesus is surely a disappointment. And, if you as a Jew were expecting a Messiah to come along as a glorious liberator, then His death on a cross was the assurance that Jesus was not the one.
But the Apostle saw it so differently. He goes on in 1Corinthians 1 to say this: “But we who are being saved recognize this message (Jesus death on the cross) as the very power of God.” Think of it. Jesus death on the cross is not foolish or weak it is amazing and powerful!
“God’s way,” Paul writes in verse 22, “is foolish to the Jews because they want proof and foolish to the Greeks because they only listen to what agrees with their own wisdom”. But, he goes on to say “to those called by God to salvation,” Jesus death “is the mighty power of God and the wonderful wisdom of God”.
Could the reason why the “church” sometimes seems to be so lacking in power these days be we are not putting the emphasis on the cross that it deserves? There is no resurrection power apart from the power of the Cross.
Proof seldom brings power and wisdom never does, but the foolishness of the cross always does. “The power of the cross hasn’t lessened or dimmed. It’s where it’s always been, it’s where it’s always been”.
Give some reflective time today and tomorrow to the cross and the liberating power it is to change every area of your life. It matters. It really, really matters.
