Sermon manuscript:
You’ve noticed, I’m sure, graffiti etched into the walls or
etched into the stalls of bathrooms. The grafitti might say, “So and so was
here.” Often, at least in the men’s bathroom, they are off-color. Sometimes
they can be about other people. So and so likes to do this or that, and the
this or that is usually not flattering.
I’d like to begin today by speaking about some ancient
graffiti that scholars believe is from around 200 A.D. in the city of Rome.
Somebody drew a picture of a cross with a man’s body hanging on that cross. But
instead of that body having a man’s head drawn atop it, this fellow drew the
picture of a donkey’s head. So there’s the body of a man with a donkey’s head
being crucified. Then, to the side there’s a figure of a man drawn next to that
cross. Finally, there is a caption to help the viewer understand what is being
depicted. This caption is of the kind you might find etched into a bathroom
stall. It says, “Here is Alexamenos worshipping his God.”
Evidently Alexamenos was a Christian, and this associate or
friend or whatever of Alexamenos was making fun of him. This friend of
Alexamenos believes that it is absolutely ridiculous to worship a dead man
hanging on a cross. Just to make sure you wouldn’t miss his point he drew
Christ with an ass’s head. Probably something else that’s going on here is the
contempt that Roman people had for those who were crucified. Only losers, white
trash, and slaves were crucified. So the whole thing is contemptable and
embarrassing. Maybe to put yourself better into the mindset of this friend of
Alexamenos you should think of a turd. Here’s Alexamenos worshipping his God.
Here’s Alexamenos worshipping a turd.
Because we hear the word “cross” so often, and because we
even hear Paul’s words in our epistle reading fairly often—that we preach
Christ crucified, we can easily lose sight of the offensiveness of our God being
crucified and dead. We, of course, are eager to add: “and resurrected.” I don’t
worship a crucified, dead man. Jesus rose with power.
But note that Paul does not have those words added on to
what he says. He says, “We preach Christ crucified.” He doesn’t say, “We
preach Christ crucified and resurrected.” This does not mean that Paul doesn’t
believe that Jesus was resurrected. Paul obviously believes that Jesus was
resurrected. He gives a powerful and extended defense for the resurrection
later in this very same letter, in chapter 15. But even though Paul obviously
believes that Jesus was also risen from the dead, he purposely only says, “We
preach Christ crucified,” instead of “crucified and resurrected.” And, in
fact, as you’ll hear in the reading next week he says, “I had no intention
of knowing anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.”
So why is Paul so focused on this turd-like thing that is so
offensive and foolish? This seems to be what was in the back of the minds of
the Corinthians too. When you become familiar with 1 and 2 Corinthians it
becomes plain that the Corinthians are a little fed up with Paul. Why does he always
have to talk the way he does? Why can’t he be more like Apollos? It’s always
gloom and doom and weakness and humility with Paul. We don’t want weakness. We
want power! I have the power! That’s a message that will sell; not this
turd-like cross stuff.
But, as you will also hear next week, Paul by no means came
to sell them anything, much less the cross. That’s not how Christianity works.
Nobody gets sold on Christianity. Nobody is converted by the persuasiveness of
the message or the charisma of the preacher. That is, nobody is truly converted by such things.
Preachers, certainly, can gain a following by doing any number of different
things. But Christians are created
and sustained only by the Holy Spirit doing a miracle in them. The Holy Spirit
makes them like Alexamenos. They worship that crucified and dead ass, that
turd-like cross.
What does such worship look like? How can we picture it?
Let’s apply it to the end of our lives by looking at a couple of well-known
hymns. Maybe one day I will sing this at your graveside: “Hold Thou Thy cross
before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies.
Heav’n’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O
Lord, abide with me.” “Hold Thou Thy cross before my dying eyes.”
Another hymn, “O Sacred Head, now Wounded,” prays this
prayer to Jesus: “Be Thou my consolation, my shield, when I must die; Remind me
of Thy passion When my last hour draws nigh. Mine eyes shall then behold Thee,
Upon Thy cross shall dwell, My heart by faith enfold Thee, Who dieth thus dies
well.”
This hymn verse is saying that when my last hour has come,
and I’m gurgling away on that deathbed, let me think of Jesus, bloody, gory.
Grim death with cruel rigor has robbed him of his life. This very old hymn says
that that’s the way to die: “Remind me of Thy passion When my last hour draws
nigh.” The one who dies that way, this hymn says, “dies well.”
I feel that we all have something to learn from these hymn
verses, do we not? It’s so easy to dismiss such a suggestion for the deathbed:
“Uh! Yuck! Gross! The last thing that I want to be thinking about on my
deathbed is the pain and misery, the gasping, gurgling death of Jesus on the
cross.” Why would anyone want such a turd wafted under their nose at such a
stressful time?
The answer, of course, is that this is no turd. True, as
Paul says later to the Corinthians, the knowledge of Christ the crucified is
the smell of death to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved
it is the smell of life leading to yet more life. For what is the cross of
Christ? It is the Son of God saving you. He is being punished for your sins.
Jesus didn’t cry out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” “My God, my God,
why have your forsaken me?” because of sins that he committed. Those were
your sins. And the forsakenness of God is what should happen to you at your
death if it weren’t for Jesus’s cross. Jesus’s death reconciles you to God, for
the punishment that you deserve was instead poured out upon him.
So if we are not supposed to think about the cross of Jesus
when we are dying, then when should we think about it? When is the appropriate
time to be reminded of Christ’s passion? There is, in fact, no more appropriate
time than when our own turd-like nature is being made manifest. What is death
but the conclusive proof that we are not God, we are not strong, we can’t fix
this. We are stuck! But there is hope.
However, there is only one
hope. The doctors can’t do anything. Trying harder can’t do anything. But Jesus
died on the cross to set me free from death. He defeated death so that it can’t
hold on to us forever. The hope of the Christian who is dying is that because
Jesus died on the cross I will be resurrected just like Jesus was resurrected.
The one who dies with faith in Jesus’s cross dies well. Such a death isn’t hardly
a death at all. It would better be understood as merely a sleep, the lightest
of naps, from which we will so easily awaken to everlasting life.
So instead of being ashamed of Jesus the crucified being our
God we should proudly embrace him, particularly at his death, as our very own.
He died for us to set us free. We are too weak and sinful to do anything, so he
takes our place. Thus we are saved by the foolishness of such a preached
message.
And make no mistake, this message is still regarded today as
foolish. Consult the self-help gurus. I guarantee you that they will not say
you are blessed if you do what Jesus says—if, for example, we are poor, or
weak, or merciful. Or consult our experts on dying well. I guarantee you again
that they will say nothing about bringing to mind how Jesus was tortured and
killed. If the world would only be honest, they’d have to admit that they hate
what is said in the Bible. It all looks like terrible advice designed to make
people miserable.
But let us hear again from our reading. These words are as
applicable to our times as they were to the Corinthians’: “But God chose the
foolish things of the world to put to shame those who are wise. God chose the
weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are strong, and God
chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, and the things
that are not, to do away with the things that are, so that no one may boast
before God.”
Paul is actually being quite bold and if people will pay
attention to him here they will be offended. You think you’re wise? You think
you’re strong? You think you’re a good person? You think that you’ve lived a
good life? God pulls down all these things with the cross. No one may boast
before God.
If we want to boast, then we can boast in the Lord. If we
want to boast, then let’s boast in the cross. The message of the cross has this
ever recurring refrain: “I am weak, but he is strong; yes, Jesus loves me.”
To go back to the graffiti with which we began, we don’t
know how Alexamenos reacted to that graffiti which was designed to mock him.
The fellow who drew and wrote those things wanted to shame Alexamenos for
worshipping such an obviously worthless God. But if Alexamenos understood what
Paul teaches in our reading today, he shouldn’t have been phased by it. So also
we should not be surprised if the word of the cross is foolishness to those who
are perishing, as Paul says. The works of God have always been thought of as bizarre,
offensive, unlikely to succeed. That was even what Jesus’s disciples thought
when they saw Jesus die. Their hopes of Jesus being the Messiah were dashed.
But what we think, what people think, doesn’t matter nearly
so much as what God thinks. Lots of people look for power. Christians say,
“Christ the crucified is power.” Lots of people look for wisdom. Christians
say, “Christ the crucified is wisdom.” Thus, as Paul says, “We preach Christ
crucified, because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness
of God is stronger than men.”
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