The Cross: God's Wisdom and God's Power (Looking at the Bible Lessons for Sunday, September 14, 2008)

[Most weeks, I try to publish at least one post dealing with the appointed Bible lessons for the upcoming Sunday. My hope is that I can at least help the people of the parish I serve as pastor, Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, to prepare for worship. Others may find these explorations helpful because we use the same Bible lessons used by most other North American Christians each Sunday. For information on the Church Year and the plan of lessons called the lectionary, see here.]

The Bible Lessons:
Numbers 21:4b-9
Psalm 98:1-4
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
John 3:13-17

The Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross so that he might draw the whole world to himself. To those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
Comments:
1. We take a detour from the Bible lessons we would ordinarily use this coming Sunday--the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost in Year A of the three year lectionary cycle--in order to commemorate Holy Cross Day. Holy Cross Day is one of the Lesser Festivals of the Church Year. When such a festival falls on a Sunday, the appointed texts are frequently set aside.

2. Holy Cross Day happens on September 14 of each year and can be traced back to that same date in 355AD. It was then that the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem was dedicated. It was constructed under the direction of Saint Helena, mother of the Roman emperor, Constantine the Great. Helena found what was thought to be the true cross near the site shortly thereafter.

In the ensuing centuries, Holy Cross Day has been a day on which, in contrast to Good Friday, which emphasizes the sacrificial elements of Christ's crucifixion, other aspects of Christ's cross are featured. The Bible lessons emphasize the cross as the way to salvation for all who look to Christ in faith and the cross, as the ultimate disclosure of the power and wisdom of God, marshaled in our favor. Whereas the mood of Good Friday is somber and penitential, the mood of Holy Cross Day is celebratory and joyful.

There is only one set of lessons appointed for the day, the same ones designated for use each year.

For Holy Cross Day, as for other lesser festivals of the Church Year, as well as for Pentecost Sunday and for the ordination of pastors, the color is red.

3. Numbers 21:4b-9: God's people, the Hebrews, have been in the wilderness for about forty years when we meet them in our first lesson. God sends poisonous serpents to bite and take the lives of His people who have "murmured" over their limited diets and their nostalgia for the food they had--along with the enslavement from which God set them free--back in Egypt.

This isn't the first time while they were in the wilderness that the people complained about how God was performing His job as God. Earlier, their complaining resulted in water, quail, and manna. But this time, God reacts very differently. God punishes them. What accounts for the difference?

Very simply, those other incidents happened before God gave the commandments and made His covenant with the people at Mount Sinai. God has revealed His will and character, along with His commitment, to the people. They are called to trust and obey. Instead, though they should know better, they become whiny.

4. Moses intercedes for the people, who come to regret their ingratitude. (You would too, probably, if you and your neighbors were getting bitten by poisonous snakes, right and left.) God tells Moses to create a bronze serpent and to put it on a pole. Those bitten by the poisonous snakes will look at it and be healed.

This, of course, can seem read like a story of superstition. But it isn't.

God could have chosen any means to bring about the healing of the people. Why a bronze serpent?

Here's what I think. The serpent on the pole symbolized the means by which God was punishing His people. In their bodies, they bore the consequences of their sin, consequences which followed from their rejection of and separation from God, the source of life.

But, in the midst of this "cross experience," God called His people to own the reality of their rebellion--the bronze serpent reminded them of this--and look to Him for restoration and healing. It was as though at that moment God was saying, "Meet me in the bronze serpent. Look to Me and be restored."

In a similar way, centuries later, the New Testament says of Jesus on the cross, "For our sake [God] made [Jesus Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). God makes it possible for all people to be restored to relationship with God and life forever when they turn to Christ. (You can find more information on this passage here.)

5. Psalm 98:1-4: There are two elements of this brief passage from the Old Testament song book I want to mention: (1) The reality of God and God's goodness aren't apprehended by analysis or intellect. God reveals Himself. God does this, vindicating Himself--and the faith of those who believe--by acting in accordance with the steadfast love He bears for those who trust in Him. God's actions are discerned not by those who demand that God prove Himself and aren't seen by those who expect God to do our selfish bidding, but by those who humbly trust and look to God. God is seen by those who are willing to see God on God's terms, not their own. (2) The "right hand" refers to God's power. God uses His power on our behalf.

6. 1 Corinthians 1:18-24: The cross was probably the worst form of execution ever devised. Yet, Paul says that God, Who has always shown a penchant for doing the unexpected, used the cross of Jesus as a way of displaying His wisdom and power. Paul's fellow Jews demanded signs of Jesus' Lordship and Greeks (Gentiles...non-Jews) wanted Jesus to earn His Lordship on debating points. Instead, God established Jesus' cross as the sign of His love to which we, like the Hebrews in the wilderness, must turn to acknowledge our sin and receive the restoration that comes to all who trust in Christ.

7. John 3:13-17: Christ goes to the cross and bears the burden which He, the sinless Savior of humanity, doesn't deserve. He does so that we can turn to Him and live. Jesus underscores this in the last verse of our lesson:

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Not a part of our lesson is the next verse, also words said by Jesus to Nicodemus:

"Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Thank God for Christ's cross!