Look to the Cross

Losing Focus

Have you ever lost focus on something really important because some lessor good took over your whole field of view, like your thumb covering up the Statue of Liberty? In these moments the rabbit trail becomes the trail. Examples of this can be found everywhere: from the $3000 car stereo in the $300 car, to the gaudy, oversized bathroom mural. It’s a pattern of human beings to lose sight of the truly important for the trivial and if we realize that this is happening we need to take a step back and reorient ourselves.

Quarreling

In our passage today, Paul is concerned about something important being marginalized. Let’s read.

1 Corinthians 1:10–11 NRSV

10 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose. 11 For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters.

Christians in Corinth are choosing teams and taking sides. They are identifying more with their distinctives than they are in the salvation they hold in common. I am of Paul. I am of Apollos. I am of Cephas. I am of Christ. Sadly, I’d wager that Paul, Appollos, Cephas, and Christ would gladly get together and share a meal. The Corinthians are compromising unity under the Cross because they have elevated their leaders to the level of their identity. And when people become our identity, we’re in the very dangerous position of elevating a good thing to an ultimate thing. And that is a great definition of idolatry. That’s from Tim Keller. Idolatry is often elevating a good thing to an ultimate thing. You can only have one ultimate thing. When it’s the wrong one, when it’s anything but God, we need to take a step back and reorient ourselves.

Unity language

Paul sees this problem creeping into the church at Corinth. And everything about his choice of words is meant to foster unity.

1 Corinthians 1:12–16 NRSV

12 What I mean is that each of you says, “I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,” or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.” 13 Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)

He uses his apostolic authority and charges them, he even takes the Lord’s name, for them to be in agreement and to get rid of divisions. He wants them even to be of the same mind and to have the same purpose. It’s impossible to be of the same mind and the same purpose if you are quarreling, separating yourself as belonging to someone different from the brothers and sisters with whom you gather for worship. Baptism as the way to enter into Christian faith and worship is becoming a point of contention. Paul has had enough! He literally thanks God that he didn’t baptize more people so that he could stay out of the insanity ensuing in Corinth.

1 Corinthians 1:17–18 NRSV

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18 For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

He goes on to show that baptism is not his main task as an apostle. Because his main task is bringing an instrument of reconciliation, the message of good news of God’s work in the world in the sending of his Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins on the Cross.

At this moment, I hope that everyone listening to this letter as it was read in Corinth had an epiphany. The scales should have fallen away, and the divided focus of everyone in the room fell away and they looked. Where? Up there. At that! At the cross. What is that?! That is the picture of the Son of God leaving his throne to have nails driven through his hands and feet into a piece of wood and raised up for ridicule! When one thinks of that, there’s a pause before you can even ask why. It’s just a reality that commands our focus in its equal horror and beauty. It is absolutely confounding. It’s the most meaningful thing masked as the most meaningless, tragic death. That is one aspect of the power of the Cross. Like all the matter in the universe before the big bang exploded, was confined to the size of the tip of a pin, all meaning worth knowing is captured in the picture of the crucified Christ Jesus. That picture commands our attention. It shows everything else to be meaningless in contrast. Who cares about what Christian author is the best? Who cares about even what denomination is the best? Who cares about who is right or someone calling you a name or whatever they did to you when THAT HAPPENED? “I am of Apollos” sounds absolutely ridiculous when THAT happened. Paul needs the church in Corinth and everyone else hearing his letter to get some perspective.

And what isn’t expected is that in dwelling on the Cross of Christ, it reinterprets our reality. It anchors what’s important. It causes us to reinterpret our reality in its light, in its horror, in its beauty, in what it accomplished, and in who it was accomplished for.

And if it doesn’t reinterpret your reality, your circumstances, it is a picture of foolishness, mere tragedy, a life thrown away for no reason. Did something happen to reality at the Cross? Your answer determines whether you are being saved or whether you are perishing. The good news and the warning is that you can change your answer. Paul is calling the Corinthians to ask this question and to come up with the right answer. He wants them to drop their miserable and petty cares and regain their focus. And we would do well to listen too.

The Corinthians are so easily and idolatrously distracted that Paul doesn’t even want to look wise in how he proclaims the gospel. That would only rile up the Team Paul crowd again, and he’s trying to get them to focus. He wants ALL of the Corinthians to shake off their petty concerns and look at the cross. Even the ones who say “I am of Christ” are being divisive. They are still setting themselves apart from other Christians. Paul knows that the holier-than-thou kind of division is the most unbearable.

All of these divisive distractions are just a symptom of a bigger problem. Their unity as people who have been reconciled to God is being pushed to the side. Paul’s way out of all there divisions is to lead them back to the message of the good news of the crucified Christ. In doing this, Paul is also accomplishing something else Jesus said his disciples would do. He’s fishing for men. Fishermen catch fish on some trips and sometimes they catch nothing. When they catch nothing, that doesn’t make them stop being fishermen. What makes them fishermen is that they are going fishing. They are presenting something wonderful and appealing to fish in order to win them over. And in Jesus’ declaration that his disciples would be fishers of people, I think he has that in mind as well. As his disciples, we are called to hold the Cross of Jesus and show it in all its glory, beauty, and meaning to those who have never had a chance to apprehend it before. We also need to show it to each other. To tell of its beauty and power, to show how it reinterprets who we are and the meaning of our lives’ events. One of the ways we do this is during Communion. There we partake of the moment of Christ’s crucifixion and all it accomplished for us.

My prayer for us, and I think what both Paul and Jesus himself were getting at, is the hope that as we look to the Cross, our lives and the lives around us will be changed: the meaningless to the meaningful, the petty and selfish to selflessness, emptiness of hearts to fullness, and conflict to unity at the foot of the Cross.

The Bronze Serpent

One last point. In the wilderness, after one of the many times the Israelites complained about their miraculous but difficult situation, God sent out fiery serpents in the camp. And people were dying. And they repented and asked Moses for help. God told Moses to make a fiery serpent, made from bronze, and put it on a pole. And whoever was bit could look at the bronze fiery serpent and live. In that moment their lives were changed, reoriented. God had used an image of death and made it so just looking at it in faith, they were healed.

For some, the cross is foolishness. When they see it, they see tragedy, something meaningless, or any number of blasphemous things I can’t even say. But for us who are being saved, it is the power of God. The cross is the moment of our reconciliation with God. In weakness, in sinfulness, in sorrow, look again to the Cross, and be reoriented and be saved. And we can’t let it stay with us. We can’t keep it for ourselves. What would you think of the Israelite who figured out they could be healed simply by looking at the fiery serpent, and then they didn’t tell anyone else, and went for a casual walk instead? That can’t be us. No, we need to go fishing. We need to tell others so they can find the same healing and reconciliation to God and fellow man, and eternal life. Look to the Cross and help others to do so, and be saved