Christ Crucified

Focus Statement

The cross is not a decoration celebrating our religious identity.

It is the instrument through which

God overturns human ideas of power, wisdom, victory, and worth.

Point of Relation

Years ago, during my first pastoral appointment,

I was also leading the youth group.

I played TobyMac’s song “Irene,” with its language about picking up and carrying the cross,

and then led an activity about different instruments of capital punishment.

I had the young people imagine

different instruments of capital punishment

as symbols someone might wear.

They had to stand up and make a case for why their chosen symbol should be worn around someone’s neck.

Yeah…I know.

The exercise became uncomfortable very quickly.

Because a cross is not merely a piece of jewelry.

It was an instrument of execution.

If we were choosing a contemporary equivalent,

we might be talking about wearing a noose, a rifle,

an electric chair, or a lethal-injection syringe around our necks.

The young people were forced to see the cross

without the religious familiarity that usually protects us from its horror.

And that is where Paul begins.

Things to Consider

We have polished the cross and made it familiar, beautiful, and safe.

But Paul presents it as foolishness: an instrument of execution

becoming the place where God reveals divine power.

What Scripture Says

Paul writes to the Corinthians that the message of the cross

is foolishness to those who are perishing.

But to those who are being saved, it is the power of God.

That is a strange claim.

The cross looked like defeat.

It looked like humiliation.

It looked like Rome had won

and Jesus had lost.

It looked like the religious authorities had successfully silenced

someone who threatened their power.

But Paul says that the cross reveals the wisdom of God

precisely because it overturns the wisdom by which the world measures everything.

The world says power looks like control.

God reveals power through self-giving love.

The world says wisdom belongs to those who are impressive, successful, influential, and victorious.

God chooses what the world calls foolish and weak.

The world says you prove your worth by rising above other people.

The cross reveals a God who enters into the depths of human suffering

and refuses to save us from a safe distance.

That is why the cross is so disruptive.

It does not merely comfort us.

It judges our definitions of strength and success.

Paul will not allow the Corinthians to turn faith into another résumé.

He reminds them that God did not call them because they were already powerful, impressive, or socially important.

God called them—and in Christ,

God became their wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

So no one gets to boast as though salvation were an achievement.

The cross leaves no room for spiritual superiority.

And in 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us what this crucified love does to us.

Christ’s love controls us because we are convinced that one died for all.

Therefore, we no longer live for ourselves.

In Christ, we become a new creation,

and God gives us the ministry of reconciliation.

The cross is not simply something Jesus endured for us.

It is the shape of the life into which Christ calls us.

What This Means for You

You may be carrying something that does not look like victory.

The cross tells you that God is not absent from places the world calls weak or defeated.

Christ also frees you from proving your worth through control, achievement, recognition, or approval.

What This Means for Us

A church shaped by Christ crucified cannot be obsessed with appearing powerful.

We are called to tell the truth, surrender superiority, and become a reconciling people.

The cross is not a trophy proving that we are better than anyone else. It is where God gathers us into self-giving love.

Christ crucified is foolishness to the world.

But to us, it is the power of God?

Amen? Amen.

Written by Rev. Todd R. Lattig with the assistance of ChatGPT (OpenAI).