Still Offensive After All These Years

God has not called me to do film reviews but to preach the Gospel, administer the Sacraments, and order the life of the Church. With that in mind I do want to share with you some observations I have made over the last few weeks and connect them to the passage we just read from 1 Corinthians 1 and 2. I have marked the reaction that the recent film, The Passion of the Christ, has generated among many in the media and intellectual elite in this country.

Generally speaking, the loathing and the vitriolic anger expressed by some is not because they are reacting to Mel Gibson or the film itself but rather it is the SUBJECT of the film that offends them. It is the faithful depiction of who Jesus is, and the scourging, mocking, and agonizing death on the Cross that really sets some people afire with revulsion and indignation.

On Thursday of this past week CBS commentator Andy Rooney told Don Imus when asked if he would be seeing The Passion: “I don’t need to spend 9 bucks just to get a few laughs.” Is the execution of Jesus Christ a source of merriment for Rooney? I can’t imagine him saying this about any other person revered by other religions.

Also this past week NPR’s “All Things Considered” evening news program mocked the procession of Jesus Christ as he carried the Cross to Golgotha by presenting a satirical piece in which an imaginary focus group said things like, “Maybe his robe should be shorter so he wouldn’t trip as much.”

You get the point. But my response is that this shouldn’t surprise us at all! You see, the message of the Cross – that God came in human flesh, was wrongfully condemned as a criminal, and brutally executed for the sins of humanity – is gross foolishness to the unbelieving world. Jesus Christ, his atoning death, and glorious resurrection are a source of profound offense for the godless world. The apostles knew this well!

⁶For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” ⁷Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone,” ⁸and, “A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” 1 Peter 2:6 - 8 (NIV)

A. In the Cross a God is revealed whom we cannot know by virtue of our own intellect or wisdom. All the great scholars and philosophers humanity has produced still have no power to know the ultimate truth about God and humanity because such knowledge is alien to the human mind distorted and twisted by sin.

⁸“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. ⁹“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)

There is no room for intellectual pride. You cannot get to God by figuring this thing out. This is not a head-trip. This cross tells us that we don’t come to God by amassing enough INFORMATION, but rather by TRANSFORMATION God brings about in the life of a repentant sinner.

B. The message of the Cross is offensive to us because in it God REFUSES TO JUMP THROUGH THE INTELLECTUAL HOOPS WE SET UP in order for him to have the HONOR of us believing him or trusting him.

²²Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1 Corinthians 1:22-23 (NIV)

· The Jewish religious establishment of Paul’s day rejected Jesus because he died accursed on a cross. Jesus did not comply with their expectations by performing some mighty sign of deliverance – like kicking out the Romans!

o God still does not comply with our demand to act in a way that will justify our belief.

· The Gentiles rejected the message because Jesus refused to meet their philosophical presuppositions. They deemed it absurd that God who was pure spirit would pollute his existence by taking on flesh and succumbing to death. The attitude that Cross is intellectually offensive is revealed again by Andy Rooney’s comments on the Imus show:

“Yeah. I think the real legitimate question about religion is whether or not it can be a force for good, even though it can’t be defended, you know, historically, logically, or scientifically. I don’t think so, but it is possible that religion has done so many bad things and is the source of so much evil in the world and yet there are people who are led to a better life because of it, so I suppose you could say that it has been good, even though you can’t defend it intellectually.” [Feb. 26, 2004 MSNBC, “Imus in the Morning”]

o God still doesn’t feel compelled to fit himself into the latest intellectual fad.

· IT OFFENDS US BECAUSE WE DON’T GET TO SET THE TERMS BY WHICH WE CAN COME TO GOD.

II. SOCIALLY OFFENSIVE. The message of the cross is offensive because of the people it attracts: The poor, the uneducated, the unrefined.

A. In the world’s mind it is the religion of bumpkins, trailer trash, third world ethnic types, and narrow-minded bigots. It is the faith of the little people in “fly-over” country who don’t count as much as those within the beltways of power politics, jaded entertainment, and insulated academia.

²⁶Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, ²⁹so that no one may boast before him. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (NIV)

B. Jesus still seems to have poor taste in friends and followers. He attracts broken people, people who have “issues.” Just look around you!

God uses broken things. Broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.

III. SPIRITUALLY OFFENSIVE. In our rebellious spirit we do not want the world to be the way the Cross shows it to be. Thomas Nagel, professor of philosophy, New York University has honestly remarked:

“In speaking of the fear of religion, I don’t mean to refer to the entirely reasonable hostility toward certain established religions… in virtue of their objectionable moral doctrines, social policies and political influence. Nor am I referring to the association of many religious beliefs with superstition and the acceptance of evident empirical falsehoods. I am talking about something much deeper—namely, the fear of religion itself.…I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and naturally, hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that.”

A. The Cross shows the NARROWNESS OF THE TRUTH. We are offended that God does not make alternate plans. You see, the Cross only makes sense if Jesus is the only provision made for our salvation.

I hear people say things like, “The thing that bothers me about you Christians is that you believe you have THE TRUTH! What about the Muslims or the Buddhists? Huh? You are so narrow and exclusive!” They don’t realize that all the religions they name also make exclusive truth claims. Is Christianity the only religion that cannot be exclusive? Folks that ask this question don’t realize that they are being exclusive as well – they are excluding Christianity because they perceive it to be narrow and exclusive. Truth, by its very nature, excludes error! To say otherwise is incoherent.

B. The Cross offends us spiritually because it reveals the truth of just how grievous our sin is and just how desperate our situation is. We cannot live with the lies we tell ourselves in the face of the Crucifixion. Lies like, “My personal actions don’t hurt anybody else.” Lies like, “I am a pretty good person just as I am.”

CONCLUSION: But to those who humble themselves to hear and receive and obey the message, Jesus Christ crucified is the wisdom of God and the power of God.

POWER: Mahatma Gandhi made the comment that of all the truths of the Christian faith, the one that stood supreme to him was the cross of Jesus. He granted that it was without parallel. It was the innocent dying for the guilty, the pure for the impure. This evil cannot be understood through the eyes of the ones who crucified him, but only through the eyes of the Crucified one. It is the woman who has been raped, who understands what rape is, not the rapist. It is the one who has been slandered who understands what slander is, not the slanderer. It is only the One who died for our sins who can explain to us what evil is, not the skeptics…. What emerges from all these thoughts is that God conquers not in spite of the dark mystery of evil, but through it. [ Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods, p. 136]

The cross reveals that God’s wisdom is the wisdom of love. It is the kind of love that is willing to share our suffering and remain by our side when we are so unlovable.

WISDOM: J. Robertson McQuilkin was at one time the president of Columbia Bible College. In a book called A Promise Kept he chronicles the story of his heart gripping love for his ailing wife, Murial. She walked down the grim and lonely world of Alzheimer's disease for twenty years. At one point he tells this story:

Once our flight was delayed in Atlanta and we had to wait a couple of hours. Now's that's a challenge. Every few minutes, the same questions, the same answers about what we're doing here, when are we going home? And every few minutes we'd take a fast paced walk down the terminal in earnest search of --- what? Muriel had always been a speed walker. I had to jog to keep us with her!

An attractive woman sat across from us, working diligently on her computer. Once when we returned from an excursion, she said something without looking up from her papers. Since no one spoke to me or at least mumbled in protest of our constant activity, I asked, "pardon"?

"Oh," she said, "I was just asking myself, "Will I ever find a man to love me like that?"

"Yet in her silent world Muriel is so content, so lovable. I sometimes pray, "Please Lord, could you let me keep her a little longer?" If Jesus took her home how I would miss her gentle sweet presence. Oh yes, there are times when I get irritated, but not often. And besides I love to care for her. She's my precious." [Adapted by Jonathan Gibson, St. Augustine’s Anglican Church, Calgary, from Ravi Zacharias’ book, Jesus Among Other Gods]

The wisdom of the Cross is the realization of the unspeakably vast, deep, passionate love that God has for me personally.

That’s what drove me to my knees in repentance – not the threat of hell, not the soul-shaking fear that life in the end is meaningless, not even the promise of life after death. It was the realization that God loved me enough to come and get me when I was lost.

One bit of verse speaks to this wonderful realization. The last time I read it to you was back in October of 2000. Please permit me to share this poem with you again:

1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5

^1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. ¹⁹ For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
²⁰ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? ²¹ For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. ²² Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.
²⁶ Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. ²⁸ He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things-and the things that are not-to nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no one may boast before him. ³⁰ It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God-that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. ³¹ Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

1 Corinthians 2

^2:1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. ² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
NIV

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