The ‘dead man’s cross and the living man’s empty tomb’
‘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’ (1 Cor 1:18).
Author Paul Tripp likes to remind people of two things that are natural to the human inclination.
The first is that we usually do not live life based on the facts of our experience but on our interpretation of the facts. We desire to make sense of life and so respond to what is going on around us according to the sense we have made of it. We all apply our own system of ‘wisdom’ to help us explain or understand what is happening.
Tripp’s second observation about the human condition is that no one is more influential in our lives than we are. We are in constant conversation with ourselves, ‘about God, others, ourselves, meaning and purpose’. We are always preaching to ourselves some kind of worldview or ‘gospel’. Think of St Paul’s comment about those who ‘measure themselves by themselves’ (2 Cor 10:12).
Contrary to these two human inclinations stands the ‘message of the cross’ which, as Scripture reminds us, is ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:24). The ‘dead man’s cross and the living man’s empty tomb’ are the only way to make sense out of life, the only lens through which we can see life accurately.
This is the only kind of wisdom that really does give a final and reliable answer to the fundamental questions of life. That wisdom is this: Jesus ‘was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification’ (Rom 4:25).
There is encouragement in this for those who ‘preach Christ crucified’ and those who hear and believe the message of the cross. The Christian vocation is the most important vocation on earth, even when the world considers it ‘foolishness’.
The opportunities God gives us each week to preach, hear, and receive the message of the cross are the most valuable hours of our lives. There, God regularly reminds those ‘who are being saved’ (1 Cor 1:18) to keep our focus on the person who, by his life and death, offers not only answers to the fundamental questions of life but the grace to be and do what we are called to be and do.
The preaching and the hearing of that message in our corporate worship provides a unique opportunity for God to ground us all in a perspective on life that has at its centre a dead man’s cross and a living man’s empty tomb. What a privilege we have!
As we especially focus on the ‘dead man’s cross and the living man’s empty tomb’ during Holy Week and Easter, may God’s Spirit work in us to keep us grounded in this message as ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’ (1 Cor 1:24) – as the only way to make sense out of life, the only lens through which we can see life accurately.
May he constantly remind us of the importance of the Christian good news, even when it may seem to be ‘foolishness’.
My prayers are with you all in these weeks as you preach, teach, and receive the message of Christ, crucified for our sins, and raised to put us right with God.
