Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Trinity: July 4, 2021 jj
Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝
I wonder if there will be a cross in heaven. Now, before you quickly say yes or no to that possibility, think a little more about what the cross is. The question by itself doesn’t mean all that much since the Bible doesn’t definitively say anything about this specific fact, whether or not there will be a cross in heaven. But perhaps asking such a question, even if you don’t find the exact answer now, it still could help you grasp and understand and believe what Holy Scripture does say about this well-known standard of Christianity. For you know as the hymn proclaims, the cross of Jesus Christ is a glorious tree and a triumphant sign. You would suppose that anything that could be called glorious and triumphant now, here in this world, would be something that you’d be sure to see around God’s magnificent, heavenly throne.
Now, perhaps the cross is only the treasured symbol of the Church Militant. That is, if you are still on this earth, fighting against the devil’s attacks, fighting your own sinful desires, and fighting the false gods of this world, then the cross is your comfort, for it promises you that Jesus has fought all your battles and He has won the war. And then someday, when you have arrived in the joyful presence of your Heavenly Father, you will exchange that old rugged cross for a crown, and you will celebrate forever the glory and triumph that the cross brought to you in this life.
Most often though, the cross and suffering do not bring glory and triumph to mind. Rather, these are better recognized to most in this world as signs of defeat. Many people think that bad events in someone’s life, even tragedies as bad as the terrorist attacks of nearly twenty years ago, or just recently the high rise collapse in Miami, that such things come as punishments. On the other side of it, if you are a good person, and you have truly committed your life to the Lord, then it’s often held that you’ll avoid those terrible things and get some fringe benefits, too: like a happier life, you’ll build a more loving family free of conflict, and your temptations to sin will flee away. When seemingly indiscriminate pain and tragedy blow away this kind of thinking, there’s no further foundation on which to stand. And yet, human nature keeps chasing after the dream that what you do and how good you live your life is going to be rewarded. And because of that, the cross will never escape the label of “foolishness” that St. Paul describes in First Corinthians.
For he knew of two groups of people who right off the bat would treat the cross of Christ with scorn and derision. Those were Jews and Greeks. The Jews (of course, the Jews who didn’t believe in Jesus) they didn’t like the cross because many of them were convinced that the Messiah would be a glorious earthly king. They read the prophecies concerning the Christ’s reign as if life was suddenly going to be perfect. Everyone will have plenty to eat. The land would belong to them forever without any more war or foreign rulership. The whole system of doing good things to earn the favor of God would still be in place. But when Jesus was crucified, all those fantasy dreams were shattered. God’s own people could not bring themselves to believe that their Lord would save them by dying. The Jewish religion became one of rejection of their own Messiah, and they and their children after them threw away the salvation that their ancestors had so fervently desired and hoped for.
When you have expected earthly blessings to come your way because of your faith, then that is the moment that you have stumbled at the cross just like those Jews did. You in the same way have hoped that everything was going to be perfect for you. The most important thing God does, at least in your mind, is to take care of your needs and give you a few of your wants, too. Because God is a loving God (and it seems everyone at least knows that) He would want you to be happy and get a raise every year, that everyone close to you would live to a long, ripe old age, or that you’d have not a single care in the world. And you cannot shake the thought that if you’ve been nice enough to others and got involved in your church, then God would have no choice but to reward you. But the shame and humiliation of the cross, the challenges that seem to be too much for you to handle, all shatter that fantasy so that you end up despising God for doing this to you.
Why, then, did the Greeks see the cross as a foolish thing? It wasn’t because they didn’t tolerate different points of view. In fact, when Paul visited a gathering of these philosophical people, he couldn’t help but notice that they were extremely devoted to learning and even intent on finding out spiritual truths. They thought, Man was the measure of all things, and the Greeks looked to cultivate and preserve all the best that man could be. Take the Olympics, for an example. Not only were they thoroughly ritualistic and considered worship of various gods, which the 2004 Athens Olympics ceremonies did so well to depict, and I’m sure we’ll see something similar this year broadcast from Tokyo, but also the games themselves displayed the all-around virtue and strength of the human being.
When, however, the message of Jesus dying on the cross comes in the hearing of the Greeks, not only is there shock at the statement that man is sinful and corrupt, but also the whole claim that the only true God is a man, a criminal, who exposed Himself to the shame of being crucified in order to save man from destruction. It seems that Jesus could not successfully provide for Himself the rescue that He promised to give to others. Anyone who was not clever enough to escape such a fate is too foolish to be worth listening to. Another problem the Greeks had was that the Christian confession of faith did not allow for other religions to exist side-by-side with it. Later on, the Romans persecuted the Christians, not really because they worshiped Jesus, but rather because they wouldn’t also worship the Roman gods along with Him. Such a religious teaching that was so exclusive and incompatible with other beliefs was simply foolish to those who were perishing.
You would share the same offense at the cross along with the Greeks if you were to follow the world’s illusion that people are basically good and hold that there is more than one way to worship God. For as long as you see your life as a Christian in terms of what you are doing, then the cross and the gospel of what God has done for you will continually get in your way. You get caught in the temptation to measure all things compared to yourself, especially when it comes to your feelings and emotions. Your human nature gets easily offended when the law condemns you. You resist accepting forgiveness because it’s just too good. You don’t want it to be a “cheap grace” that doesn’t require a life-commitment on your part, or spur you on towards living a victorious Christian life. And then the suffering of the cross becomes something you do rather than God’s blessing placed upon you.
The cross still means death. First of all, it was the death of your Savior and His blood that was shed so many centuries ago that destroys your sin. No matter what you have done, even if you had questioned the very truth of Christianity itself, you can be certain that Christ took your sin with Him and He allowed Himself to suffer and die the punishment that was intended for you. The cross not only means Jesus’ death, but it also means death on a daily basis for you. It means that you must constantly deny yourself, and receive whatever happens to you in this life as God’s precious gift, even when life brings hurt and grief. In order to be forgiven and renewed, you as a sinner must die; you must be killed on the cross that was laid upon you when you were baptized.
So if the cross means death, why should you even think that there might be a cross in heaven? Wouldn’t that be like bringing a Good Friday mood into an Easter celebration? In the Father’s house where you and I have our permanent residence being prepared, there is only life. And yet, there are also the signs of how that eternal life was achieved for you. Jesus rose from the dead with a perfect body full of the Glory of God, and yet the wounds of His crucifixion remained. When Moses and Elijah appeared straight out of heaven in order to speak with Christ during the Transfiguration, the Evangelist Luke wrote that they talked about Jesus dying on the cross. The book of Revelation describes Christ over and over again in His state of exaltation as the “Lamb who was slain.” And you may have heard that without Good Friday, Easter would be just as exciting and joyful as a motel “Vacancy” sign. He’s not here, folks! No, He rose specifically from the tomb of death. So while the cross does still mean death, it is still death that is your means to obtaining eternal life. You are still drowned in baptismal water when you confess your sins. At this altar you still have the Body and Blood of Christ brought to you straight from the Holy Cross of Calvary. The cross is a symbol of victory and triumph not because of the suffering it has brought to you, but rather because of what your Lord accomplished for you when He was nailed to it.
It is impossible to say for sure that you will or will not see a cross when you get to heaven. But if you happen to see one, don’t be surprised, because it is truly a symbol of joy for you, the redeemed Christian. Feel free to make the sign of the cross over you when you pray, in order to teach you to fix your confidence not on yourself but on the Cross of Christ. Thank God that He has gathered you into a congregation that proclaims nothing more and nothing less than the “foolish” word of the cross. And because the body of your Lord paid for your sins there, it truly is for all believers a Holy Cross. May that Cross of Christ that we proclaim here be your one and only source of your hope for eternal life until the time comes when you will experience that blessing first-hand.
In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Readings:
1 Kings 19:11–21 and after the fire a still small voice
Psalm 16 At your right hand are pleasures evermore
1 Cor. 1:18–25 the foolishness of God is wiser than men
or 1 Peter 3:8–15 always be ready to give a defense
Luke 5:1–11 Launch out into the deep and let down your nets