Tuesday in Holy Week: The Paradox of the Cross

Isaiah 49:1-7
Psalm 71:1-14
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
John 12:20-36

O God, by the passion of your blessed Son 

 you made an instrument of shameful death
to be for us the means of life: 

 Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ,
 that we may gladly suffer shame and loss 

 for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 

We continue as we have done all through Lent looking at and praying specfically with the collect of the day, and this week we look at them particularly within the context of paradox. We considered yesterday a paradox to be “a seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.” If we come to really examine the meaning of paradox, we very quickly come to discover the central place it had in Jesus’ teaching, but also the very central place the paradoxical, the counter-intuitive, has in Christianity. Indeed, at the very heart of our faith is this object of torture, humiliation and death – the cross. Our familiarity with this image makes it almost impossible to see our very strange relationship to it, but Paul speaking in the very early years of the Church understood all too well how strange this confession must have been to his contemporaries, both Jews and Gentiles: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 1:22-24) For neither Jews nor Greeks does the cross make any sense. It is foolishness clear and simple, and therein lies the nature of the paradox. 

 The paradox of the cross to which Paul alludes is echoed in today’s collect as we confess that this “instrument of shameful death” has been made “for us the means of life”. And so while the early Christians quickly discerned the cross as the a “noble tree” and the source of new life, to those living within the rule of Rome, the cross and crucifixion stood for one thing only – naked power and the most brutal use of violence. And as we peer into the truth of the cross we can see both realities, both salvation and devastation. In the cross is shown the depth of the divine love for human beings, but also it is a mirror in which is reflected humanity’s capacity for cruelty. If we are serious about the Christian enterprise, we cannot escape the two opposing and yet inextricably connected realities. The paradox of the cross ought to challenge us daily, because it gives the lie to games of power and one-up-manship we often play, and also humbles us in our narrow definitions of success and failure. For the Christian, real power seems to be revealed in obedience, and real strength in weaknes, and glory seems to have something to do with suffering. Certainly, this is how it is presented in the Gospels. Jesus in considering his passion does not shirk or wish to be saved from that hour, but instead asks that his Father’s name be glorified in his passion, and he proclaims that by his being lifted high up, he will draw all people to himself. 

The mystery of the cross, the mystery of death and resurrection, are the central mysteries if our faith. They represent the counter-intuitive wisdom of the kingdom, the counter-intutive wisdom of God; and they invite us to see the world as God sees it. It is a world where conventional failure is success and what appears as foolish and illogical to most people, is actually what makes most sense, because we have come to know in our own lives and experiences that God chooses what is foolsh in the world to shame the wise, what is weak in th world to shame the strong, what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are. It is a thrilling and a frightening prospect, and that’s a paradox too. As we come near Lent’s end, pray that God may give to you – and to all of us – eyes and hearts and minds to discern God’s wisdom among the voices of reasoned foolishness, and that we may have the courage and inisght to embrace the counter-intutive truth of the cross, and thereby come to both life and glory. O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.