Jesus and His Cross (1Corithians 2:1-5)

Jesus and His Cross

 

1Corithians 2:1-5

 

I sometimes ask myself, “What would I preach if I have only one chance to preach?” And what Paul says in today’s passage tells me what it should be. Paul said, “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” This means that his teaching and preaching were focused on Jesus and his cross. It is interesting that he didn’t say, “Jesus and him glorified,” but said, “Jesus and him crucified.” Furthermore, there were numerous exciting stories and wonderful wisdoms in the Scripture, but Paul decided to concentrate on the tragic life of a Galilean man who was crucified by the Roman soldiers. So I believe that all the heavenly treasures are hidden behind the cross of Jesus, and my preaching should be an effort to open the door of this treasury.

 

 

The three diagrams above are what I often use in order to explain Jesus’ cross. These diagrams, respectively, represent three types of life that we can see in this world. The first diagram is for the life of ordinary people, namely, those who do not believe in Jesus. The second one represents the life of Jesus. And the last one shows the life of Christians who believe in Jesus and follow him.

 

Before explaining these diagrams, in order to help your visualization of the ideas, I would like to show you the last scene of movie ‘Papillon.’ Papillon is an American movie in the 1970s based on the true story of French convict Henri Charrière, and starring Steve McQueen (Papillon) and Dustin Hoffman (Louis). Papillon, the hero of this movie, was sentenced to life imprisonment for a wrongly charged murder. He tried to escape several times but was captured again and again, and finally, was sent to a remote island called ‘Devil’s Island’ and had to spend the rest of his life in the island with Louis, another lifetime prisoner and Papillon’s long-time friend. Still Papillon did not give up his hope of freedom, and planned another escape from Devil’s Island. He carefully examined the flow of the waves, and prepared two floats for himself and Louis. At last, it was the moment to jump into the dark-blue sea. Out of fear, however, Louis gave up the risky journey. This scene is the last conversation between the two on the top of the cliff:

 

           Papillon: Ready?

Louis: I must tell you something...

Papillon: Louis, you don’t have to say anything...

Louis: I meant to ... I’m sorry.

Papillon: I know.

Louis: You’ll be killed ... you know that!

Papillon: Maybe...

           Louis: Please don’t do it.

 

Going back to the diagrams, in the first diagram, ‘life,’ which is the white area, is surrounded by ‘death,’ the black band. This is ordinary people’s life. They are living, but are confined in death. Furthermore, the area of life keeps shrinking little by little everyday, and finally, it dies out into the darkness. Although it looks alive, it is as good as dead. It is like Papillon confined in Devil’s Island. This small remote island is surruonded by the sea. He may be able to keep his life for a while, but his death is only a matter of time. People want to escape from this situation but they are surruonded by the sea of death. When they see the violent waves of the sea, they cannot jump into the sea. Their life, which is full of fear, cannot face death. What they can do is spinning around inside the trap as long as possible, and surrender themselves to death at the end.

 

In Hebrews 2:15, people who are in this helpless situation are described as “those who all their lives held in slavery by their fear of death.” Simply speaking, these people are “slaves of fear.” We may think that fear of death is a natural human instinct, and therefore it should not be regarded as a problem. But in the Bile, God never takes fear of death for granted. Why is that such a serious problem to God? It is because as long as we fear death, we are never able to obey God. According to Exodus or Numbers of the Old Testament, the Israelites, who had left Egypt under Moses’ leadership, met serious problems in the wilderness such as having no water to drink and no food to eat. Whenever they were faced with such ‘deadly’ difficulties, they complained to Moses and to God. They cried, “Have you brought us to the desert to die?” They remembered the ‘better life’ in Egypt and tried to go back to the land of slavery. Furthermore, when they found that the Promised Land was inhabited by the giants, all the people were panicked and wept aloud through the night. They cried again, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert!” In this way, a life trapped in fear of death cannot obey God, and thus, cannot be guided by God. Fear of death is unpleasant to God. With this fear, people commit many sins of disobedience through their lifetime, and after all, they are devoured by death and eternal condemnation.

 

The second diagram also has both ‘life’ and ‘death,’ but here, ‘death’ is at the center of ‘life.’ This is the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus is life itself. At the core of this life, however, is death. We can say that Jesus’ life comes from his death. In other words, his death is the foundation of his life. It is because Jesus’ death is ‘perfect obedience’ to the Father. Death is not the result of an old age. It is the consequence of disobedience to God. It happens when one commits sins and is separated from God, the true source of life. Jesus knew that his life is in the Father. Thus, instead of disobeying God in order to grab life, he held onto God and obeyed His will up to death on the cross. With regard to this, Hebrews 5:7 says, “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

 

The story of gaining life through death is not limited to Jesus. In fact, this is the truth told by God to us continuously throughout the Bible. For example, Abraham obeyed God’s command to sacrifice his one and only son Isaac, more precious than his own life, as a burnt offering to God. Then, God blessed him and gave him descendents as many as stars in the sky. When the Israelites exiled to Babylon were all about to be slaughtered as a result of Haman’s false accusation, Queen Esther went to the King against the court regulation, saying, “If I perish, I perish.” And through her petition at the risk of her life, she saved the Israelites from the enemies’ hands. In the Revelation, risen Jesus says in the letter to the Church in Smyrna, “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.” As in these cases, death is the core ingredient of true life in God.

 

The third diagram represents the life of Christians who follow Jesus. As mentioned above, people are trapped in the helpless situation that they live in fear of death and die in their sins. How can they get out of this miserable situation? There is only one way. It is the death of ‘life’ trapped in the sea of death. If the ‘life’ dies, there is no more fear and the person comes to have the courage to cross the sea of death. In the last dialogue between Papillon and Louis, Louis says to Papillon: “You will be killed. You know that!” Then, as if it doesn’t matter, Papillon answers, “Maybe…” He admitted death. In fact, he already gave up his life trapped in Devil’s Island. However happy and rich it would be, however peaceful and joyful it could be, Papillon didn’t have any desire for the life in Devil’s Island. To him, it was equal to death. He was already dead to the life in Devil’s Island. Then, the dark blue sea was not fearful to him any longer. Rather, he saw “the dream of freedom” beyond the sea. With this courage and hope, he opened his eyes, and examined the flow of the waves. Then, he found that they were not killing waves. They were waves of hope that would carry him to the other side of the sea.

 

Jesus gave us his death on the cross as “a gift.” This gift has double effects. one is killing us to the world in the same way that Papillon was dead to the life in Devil’s Island. The other effect is that Jesus’ cross, which is God’s righteousness, gives us the hope of resurrection and eternal life. With this gift, we don’t have to live the miserable life trapped in death. With this gift, we don’t have to fear death. With this gift, we can set out a fearless journey toward the Kingdom of God like Papillon jumped into the sea for his hope of freedom. Now the only light we have is Jesus’ cross and the hope of resurrection in the cross. The Devil puts many glittering things around us in order to wake us up to the hope of life in the Devil’s Island. But they are not true lights. They are false lights. They are delusions. The only true light is in Jesus and his cross. Christians’ life is turning off all lights except the cross, and crossing the “sea of death” by relying on the light from Jesus’ cross. Then, as long as we see the light of the cross, we will never turn back out of fear.

 

Jesus’ cross is the summary of the Bible. Jesus’ cross is his obedience to God up to death. Jesus’ cross is his forgiving love of sinners up to death. Jesus’ cross is his humility up to death. And Jesus’ cross is his resistance to Satan’s temptations up to death. If we read the Bible carefully, we can find that every teaching in the Scripture is actually pointing at Jesus’ cross. And the cross is the acme of God’s goodness and His truth. Jesus’ cross is God’s power of forgiving and correcting our sins and restoring the order of life toward God. Now everyday and in doing anything, we have to decide whether to stay in fear of death or to stand up and follow the way of Jesus’ cross. Jesus’ cross is not for troubling or killing us at all. Rather, it is opening our eyes to “the realities beyond the realities,” the true eternal hope beyond the sea of death. In this hope, we can live a life of true freedom and happiness that death cannot ruin. I pray that the way of Jesus’ cross to this hope may be built in each of us, and the light of Jesus’ cross may guide you throughout the journey to the Kingdom.