Good Morning Friends,
Paul gives three reasons for boasting only in the cross of Jesus Christ. He claims the cross has the power to free believers from the world’s bondage. This creative act of God’s Spirit has the power to do what the flesh cannot do. And it has the power to bring salvation from the evil of the world. It is a very foreign thought for those in the modern western culture who typically proclamation a faith in self-esteem over an evangelism of sacrificial love. So, Why Should We Boast About This Instrument Of Torture Used To Kill Jesus?
Scripture: Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her— that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious bosom. For thus says the Lord: I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bodies shall flourish like the grass; and it shall be known that the hand of the Lord is with his servants, and his indignation is against his enemies.
Isaiah 66:10-14 (NRSV)
May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything! As for those who will follow this rule—peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
Galatians 6:14-18 (NRSV)
After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’ And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But at the judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.”
Luke 10:1-20 (NRSV)
Message: The first missionaries in the Bible had it tough. Scripture says they were being sent out like sheep among wolves to be sacrificed. They had, at the time, an appreciation for repentance and baptism and atonement but no full awareness of the coming importance of the how future evangelism would be defined by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. One might think it reasonable in advance of the cross and the gift of the Holy Spirit and resurrection for them to throw in the towel and call it quits but they stayed engaged and more importantly Jesus did not quit, and Paul was not going to either. Post resurrection, the standard had been set for transformation and Paul is an example of it. In today’s lectionary text Paul is really pleading and at the same time commanding others to fulfill the ministry to which Christians are called. If you give up, you lose the fight. Well begun is half done but not nearly good enough.
Here the cross of Christ is the standard and worth to which we are to measure our own efforts.
Along this line of thinking Paul, instead of weighting his works and human effort, choses something utterly despicable, contemptible, and valueless to the modern culture as the basis of his own boasting—the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. For two thousand years the cross has been so variously and beautifully represented in Christian iconography and symbolism that it is almost impossible for us to appreciate the sense of horror and shock that must have greeted the apostolic proclamation of a crucified Redeemer. Putting it into another cultural context, it is like saying crudely it was a lynching that mangled and shamed the one crucified. Interestingly the marks of those proclaiming the gospel become unmistakable like a fighter who has suffered the results of many a conflict of hurt feelings and broken noses. Yet somehow this brokenness is used to transform not only the movement of Christianity but also those who embrace it. And this is hope. This is the transformational hope of the Messianic Age of not just a prosperity and comfort to come prophesied in the book of Isaiah but moreover an age realized in a peace like a river that rushes a change in the environment that brings confidence and enthusiasm to the cause of Christ.
And So, the weight of divine perfection required for standing before God cannot be met through human effort for it requires a miracle of transformation. What the world regards as too shameful to whisper in polite company, a detestable object used for the brutal execution of the dregs of society, Paul declared to be the proper basis for exultation. In this and in this alone he would make his boast, in life and death, for all time and eternity. And this despicable instrument of torture somehow becomes a symbol of love in the same miraculous way God redeems us. This reality demands that we must depend on the Lord, as our strength and not our personal wealth or ability. We must boast in the miracle of the cross for it too has been transformed into a symbol of love.
Pray we embrace the transformative love of Jesus on the cross as a guide to our own transformation. Pray we are not quitters who lose out. Pray we trust Jesus to the end. Pray faith wins out over fear. Pray we are motivated more by God than the glitter of this world. Pray we are prepared to share the Gospel. Pray we are prepared for rejection. Pray we keep a focus on the goal knowing that Jesus is objectively watching and will ultimately be the judge.
Pray we live our faith. Pray we stand firm in our faith. Pray we spread our faith. Pray that when we face adversity it brings out the best in us. Pray we never retire from praying. Pray we realize that there is no turning back. Pray we become victors with Christ. Pray we find joy and satisfaction in Christ. Pray we boast in a transformation that crucifies the evil in us and embraces a discipline of love. Pray we believe that Christ will restore those who serve by divine appointment. Pray we realize that joy comes from service even a service that includes suffering.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 