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Good evening everyone. When you look at the cross of Christ, what do you see?

Have you ever noticed how some beliefs or ideas are so polarizing? Brexit, climate change, sexuality and gender identity, abortion and euthanasia. People cleave to one position or another and often can’t understand how others can even contemplate different viewpoints. Debate becomes toxic and the rhetoric polemic as attitudes harden. The cross of Christ (the central doctrine of Christianity) is the most polarizing event in all of history. As we’ll see this evening, once you truly understand it, there are only two valid reactions. Either you see in it the wisdom and glory of God supremely displayed and love it with all your heart, or it seems like utter foolishness, repellent and futile. These are weighty matters, so let’s pray for God’s help as we begin:

Father, we want to see Jesus. By your Spirit and through your written word, please help us see the wisdom and glory of your Living Word. Amen.

Have any of you read the book The God Delusion? I tried to borrow a copy, but strangely none of the staff here admitted to owning one. It’s written by Richard Dawkins, respected academic and professional atheist. I’m going to quote him, because we should listen and engage with what our culture is saying, but what he says is blasphemous and it is offensive and full of hatred, so feel free to cover your ears or sing a favourite hymn under your breath for the next ten seconds. (If you’re a student you can consider that your trigger warning). Dawkins writes the following about the cross:

Ever since Paul expounded this repellent doctrine, Jesus has been worshipped as the redeemer of all our sins…I have described atonement, the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sadomasochistic and repellent. We should also dismiss it as barking mad, but for its ubiquitous familiarity which has dulled our objectivity.

That’s strong language, even for Dawkins, who doesn’t pull his punches where matters of religion are concerned. To purge the unpleasant echoes of Dawkins’ voice ringing in our ears, let’s quickly refocus on Jesus, speaking through the Gospel writer John. He, on the other hand, sees the cross as glorious. Look back at John 17 starting at verse 1, where Jesus says (John 17.1-5):

…Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Jesus looks forward to the cross and resurrection, the hour that he has been heading towards his whole life, as the moment where the Father will glorify the Son and the Son glorify the Father, giving his people eternal life in the process. So what’s going on? How can this event inspire on the one hand, such hatred and condemnation, and on the other hand such reverence and wonder?

Our epistle reading gives the answer. Look down with me at 1 Corinthians 1.18, where the apostle Paul says:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul sees the only two valid perspectives on the cross; it’s either folly or it’s the power of God. And how you see it is of eternal significance; it reflects whether you are perishing, or being saved. It’s a sobering message. Why does God design things in this way? Paul goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 27-29:

…God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

The most learned academic (even Richard Dawkins himself), cannot reach God through merit of intelligence and powers of reason, just as none of us can contribute anything to our salvation through our works. Every form of boasting before God is excluded. It’s worth also pointing out that the cross is the moment in history where God’s glory was most fully displayed, and it is also the moment in history where humanity’s utter foolishness and deepest shame was laid bare for all to see, as we murdered the perfect Son of God. No wonder the cross is a stumbling block to human wisdom as well as pride. So how should we approach the cross, to see its glory and wisdom as Jesus saw it?

Perhaps I sounded too negative towards human powers of reason just now. Paul isn’t saying, turn off your brain and blindly believe. Although Richard Dawkins mocks Christians for what he considers their lack of reason, the God who created reason itself has nothing to fear from it. There is nothing contradictory or unreasonable about Christianity. Your wisdom just needs to start from the right place. Proverbs 9.10 says:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

Your wisdom needs to start with a recognition of where you stand with respect to God. You need to fear him, which means treat him with the respect and reverence that he deserves. And to get to know him, open your Bible and pray for God’s Spirit to help you understand. Rather than building the foundations of your worldview on your powers of reason alone – reason, which, Paul says in Romans 1.21, has become futile, warped and darkened by sin. Instead, build them on the fear of the Lord and knowledge of the Holy One. And build your foundations also on the historical truth of Jesus Christ, who entered our world 2000 years ago and changed the course of history forever.

When you look at the cross of Christ, what do you see? If you’ve joined us tonight and you don’t yet see the cross as glorious, then, first of all, welcome. We’re so glad you are here and thinking about these matters of such importance. And then let me encourage you to look deeper: read what the Bible says about the cross of Christ, dig into the historical truth of Jesus’ death and resurrection. If it doesn’t fill you with either wonder or horror, dig deeper, because you haven’t understood it. And if you are already a believer and follower of Jesus, place your wisdom firmly beneath God’s wisdom, and pour contempt on all your pride. The cross is where you see the infinite contrast between your sin and God’s glory and power and love and justice and mercy. Because of the cross, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.30-31:

Christ Jesus, became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

The apostle Paul saw God’s glory, perhaps more fully than any man or woman other than Jesus. Let’s draw on his prayer in Ephesians 1 as we ask for God’s help to enable us to see the glory of the cross of Christ (Ephesians 1.17-21):

…Father of glory, we ask you to give us the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. [Amen].