The Crucifixion

I've been meditating on the cross of Christ a lot lately, especially in light of leading weekly short-term mission trips that are primarily social action initiatives. I think upon the cross because I believe it is in the cross that Christian servanthood is defined. As the Holy Apostle Paul says in Philippians:

do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for you own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus.

Paul then particularizes this exhortation by quoting an early Christian hymn that describes the 'actions' of Jesus and thus shows what he means by having the attitude that was in Christ. This attitude Paul says, is exemplified in Christ who:

although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

It is this attitude and action of Christ that I believe shows us what true humility and true service looks like. It is this action of Christ that opens for us the door so that we may truly love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. With Christ as our archetype and his Spirit as our empowerment we are enabled to live the selfless live that Christ did. Thus it seems to me that it is in the Cross where we see what real service looks like, and it is in the cross that we see what real humility looks like.

With this in mind I was sharing a devotion with my adult leaders a while ago in which I explained my thoughts that the cross is the center for a Christian understanding of service. I also shared that my hope for the week is that the kids and all of us (staff and adults) would be shaped in the cross for as St. Paul says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”

I also shared Paul’s thoughts on the cross immediately preceding this verse in 1 Corinthians where Paul says:

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. For it is written “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wider than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

After sharing these verses I exhorted the adult leaders to realize that service is truly cruciform, and that our goal here this week is that the kids may indeed know Christ and him crucified so that they can more fully love God and thus more fully love their neighbor as themselves.

After the meeting one of the adult leaders came to me and gave me a comment card with the following written on it.

If we focus on the death on the cross, rather than on Jesus’ life of loving and afterlife of the community of Jesus followers, we keep people away from Christianity rather than draw them in. The majority of students in my classroom, new arrivals to USA, are Muslims. I try to show God’s love to them each and every day. My impression of Allah is not of a loving, forgiving God, but of an angry, rule-bound God. The God of Jesus is the big difference for us to show. Jesus, the crucified, is very awful to a non-Christian (“God would kill his own son! I could never love this God!”) So to me the most important thing to me about Jesus is not his crucifixion, but his life and the things he taught all of us while he was here.

Are you kidding me?! It seems to me that this statement encapsulates what is wrong with so much of western protestant Christendom. How have we ever differentiated the cross from the love of God?? This is absurd. It seems to me that the failure to comprehend that the crucifixion is one of the most wonderful acts of love stems from the lax teaching on the Trinity within much of Protestantism. If our churches were teaching their congregations the deep doctrines of the faith rather than fluffy nonsensical story-time sermons we would never be able to conceive of the death of our Lord and an atrocious act committed by the Father. If we truly taught about the Trinity so that our parishioners understood it, we would quickly realize that there is no room for any concept of a disjuncted Godhead in which the Father cruelly condemns his son to suffer.

If we taught more doctrine in our churches, not as stale dogma but as life-giving water, we would also realize that the life and teachings of Jesus cannot realistically be separated from who Jesus is – namely – true God of true God. It is who Jesus is that separates him from the Ghandis, the Martin Luther King Jrs. and the other great moral teachers of the world. Jesus is God and that is what gives his teachings and life weight. It is also his being fully God that makes the crucifixion and selfless act of giving and love rather than a reluctantly followed harsh command from a cruel father.

Yes, this may be hard to conceive, but if we decide (as this adult leader has) that the cross to mean or disturbing, then what have we to gain? We have just thrown our faith away by trying to cater to our pluralistic ‘let’s love everyone’ society. Does this person not realize what the cross accomplished? Does she not realize by his death our Lord made life possible? Does she not comprehend that because of our Lord’s death and resurrection the curse has be overturned and new life has been given in the new Adam? How can one look at the crucifixion and say ‘what a horrendous act’? How can one even begin to think about not talking about the crucifixion because it doesn’t have to do with love? The crucifixion changes everything!! Love is now free to reign because Christ has died and risen.

What kind of gospel are people accepting if they are not embracing one of Christ and his death and resurrection. To proclaim a gospel that does not include the crucifixion is paramount to condemning these people. It is as if we are turning and trying to proclaim another gospel. We cannot tolerate this breakdown of the gospel. Just as Paul says to the Galatians: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!”

So with all this as the foundation I still wonder why I am questioned when I tell people that we need to have Trinitarian worship services and that we need to speak about the Trinity in our churches. If we neglect the doctrine of the Trinity then we are bound to develop faulty views of the working of the Godhead and thus we will come up with kooky and zany ideas of how the Father relates to the son and will end up with proposed scenarios, such as we have here, where the Cross is a mean, viscous, and evil rather than what it truly is – life-giving, wonderful, and the epitome of love and service.

I know this post didn’t have much coherence, but this has been brewing for a few weeks and I needed to get it out. I am still awestruck by how easily this woman discarded the cross in the name of ‘evangelism.’ I can’t believe it!!