3rd Sunday in Lent (B): March 19, 2006

Text: 1 Corinthians 1:22-25

Christ Crucified: God’s Power Masked

This time, three years ago, marked the beginning of the Iraq war. Through relentless heavy and accurate bombardment the coalition forces hoped to "shock and awe" the Iraqi army and regime into capitulating without a fight.

Shock and awe. This also seems to be what the Jews of Jesus’ day were looking for in a Messiah. They wanted a Messiah who would lead them to military victory over their enemies and usher in a new era of world peace. The fact that Jesus did not bring them political power was a stumbling block for many Jews who were expecting the Messiah. In his letter to the Corinthians the apostle Paul wrote, "Jews demand miraculous signs…" (1:22). The Jews were looking for a "shock and awe" display of God's power. However, we know that this approach for bringing peace does not work. Lasting peace and justice cannot be attained through military might.

The Greeks of Paul's day had another approach: They believed that the world's problems could be solved through "wisdom." Their philosophers developed new, more enlightened forms of government as well as ways to eliminate social evils through education and social engineering. They believed that evil or bad behavior could be corrected by providing the right education and environment.

This has been our basic approach in the West with our secularized education, and socialized welfare and medicare. A similar thing is happening on a global level as the UN moves towards a one-world government. But even this approach to engineer a world without diseases and wars will also fail. Either it will turn into a "Big Brother" dictatorship or it will eventually lead to moral chaos as God is replaced by so-called “science.” That is the lesson history has taught us when man tries to build a "perfect" world. Such utopias simply do not exist.

The reason these two approaches of military control and of social development fail, is because they fail to identify the real problem. The problem is not primarily the evil that is out there. The ultimate problem is not Saddam Hussein. Nor is it faulty socio-economic or political systems. The real problem of evil is here in my heart and in your heart.

Jesus said: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander" (Matthew 15:19). The heart of mankind needs to be fixed. We are all afflicted with a terminal condition called sin. And sin is not so much about lawbreaking, but about the orientation of our hearts towards God. Think about it: How often do we behave as if God did not exist? Oh, we may come to church and consider ourselves religious, but how often do we find ourselves struggling in prayer with God over the issues and problems we encounter in life? Our behaviour suggests that we are our own masters—that we basically run our own lives and are our own gods.

In the opening to the Ten Commandments we heard God say, "I am a jealous God." (Exodus 20) This means that He is deeply offended and hurt by how we can just talk about Him without a real sense of awe and wonderment or without deep passion and conviction. You see God is deeply passionate about you and about me. He is not willing to share us with any other gods. He is intensely interested in being a part of every aspect of our lives: Our families, our personal time, our friendships, our work, our finances and our decision-making. If there is any aspect of your life that God is not a part of, then you have got yourself what the Bible calls an idol. And it is often these idols in our lives that lead us to commit sins and do things that not only offend God, but also hurt our neighbour.

In order to take care of our sin-problem, God does not hurl smart bombs at us or send us to an institution for re-education. No, instead He Himself pays the price for our sins. He did this by becoming one of us. He was willing to be rejected, to suffer and be crucified for our sin. In doing this he demonstrates His true concern and love for us. For it is only His love that can change our hearts to truly love Him and to love each other.

"Christ crucified. A stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles." The message that God loves from the cross makes no sense to our world. For the cross is a symbol of utter shame and defeat. It involves terrible suffering and death: These are two things that any "normal" human being would try to avoid at any cost.

Another reason the cross is so offensive is that in it we see the consequences of our sin reflected. There the stark reality that we have fallen short of God's righteousness stares out at us. For those who do not sense any personal guilt towards God, the message of the cross is foolishness. And they fail to see the Saviour on the cross.

As God shows his "weakness" and "foolishness" by letting his Son be executed, God's power and wisdom are revealed most powerfully in another realm. For in this act of "foolishness" God wiped out the consequences of all the evil acts that have taken place on earth since the beginning of history. In this show of "weakness" God broke down the gates of hell and disarmed Satan of all his weapons, even robbing him of death itself. In Christ crucified, God made possible forgiveness, immortality and divine fellowship.

To our world these truly amazing realities don't mean very much. We are told that they are not "real," they are not “practical.” But tell me what is real? Do you really think wealth and health, comfort and success, or peace and the perfect family are more real? Then think twice. In our world of sin these are illusions that last but a short time. If these are the things you are pinning your hopes on, you will be disappointed. Some of us may enjoy some of these some of the time, but no one can escape what is really real: Getting hurt, feeling empty, struggling with illness, and facing death. That, together with taxes, is unavoidable and real.

You know when the Titanic went down, the only things that proved to be of ultimate worth were exactly those which were thought dispensable: The life boats. So when you wonder about what is real, remember that Jesus is the only one who has come back from death and that He promises to bring us through death as well. He is our only real life-saver.

One of our aims this Lenten season is to discipline ourselves to be spiritually vigilant; to be on the look-out for what is not real and to search out what is real. What is most significant about God and our world is not always so apparent to our senses. That's because God is a hidden God. Ever since sin entered the hearts of mankind, God chose to hide His raw glory and power so that it would not destroy us. Instead of punishing sinners He reached out to us in mercy. In order for us to be able to see Him at all, God had to put on a "mask" to conceal His true nature, allowing only a small part of Himself to be seen. Examples of the masks God has worn include the sounds God made approaching fallen Adam and Eve; the burning bush of Moses; the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night as Israel wandered in the wilderness. But the supreme mask was the Incarnation of Jesus. All these are all masks worn by God, worn, paradoxically, that we may know Him.

It is the height of folly to search out God’s bare majesty apart from the masks in which God chooses to come to us. Until Christ returns God comes to us through what we call His "means of grace," meaning, the Scriptures, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper. These are the only means of grace God gave us by which we may approach Him for forgiveness. There we find His faithful promises to us.

As you prepare yourself to come to the Lord’s Table next week, think about what He offers you. The bread and wine we consume is the "mask" God has put on in order to be able to personally come to you, to touch you and to enter into you for the most intimate fellowship. Here God allows us to enter into His holy presence even as it is hidden behind simple bread and wine. This is a serious matter that we do not take lightly and for which we must prepare our hearts. For we must all recognize that we are truly unworthy of this divine fellowship and we must desire the Holy Spirit to lead us to live a life that is holy and pleasing to God.

The Holy Spirit Himself was a gift God gave each of you when you were adopted as His child in Holy Baptism. There, behind the mask of ordinary water, you received the vast riches of God’s grace and became heirs of His kingdom. In these masks is hidden the most powerful reality of all—the Creator of the universe who was crucified for you. Through these masks of God we are included in the awesome love of God and are changed by it. Through the promises of God’s Word as we receive them in the Sacraments our faith is established in Christ. You can count on Him to see you through death, and on to immortality. Then, and only then, will you see God—no longer hidden behind masks, but in all His awesome glory, beauty and power—from then on and forever and ever. Amen.

And now may the love of the Father, the grace of the Lord Jesus and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit keep your hearts and minds in His peace. Amen