The Lutheran Hour
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"Enemies of the Cross"
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Text: Philippians 3: 18-20a
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! That resurrection truth transforms the cross, the ancient symbol of death and sin, into every believer’s hope of forgiveness and life. The cross and empty tomb turn sinners into saints. Today, by God’s grace, we rejoice that the Savior’s substitution has won our salvation.
Let’s talk about tears. Do you cry? Are you a weeper? Most of us are. Oh, us manly men, even in this age of social enlightenment, may not want to admit it, but most of us have been known to shed a tear or two. I remember, about 20 years ago, renting a movie. It was a VHS tape of a Disney film called “Old Yeller.” You’ve seen it, haven’t you? You know what’s coming. Well, I rented “Old Yeller” and played it for my family. Pam and I, along with our three children enjoyed that touching story of a boy and his dog. Everybody likes stories about boys and dogs. We liked “Old Yeller” until we got to the last ten minutes of the film. For those of you who don’t remember, the boy is attacked by wild animals-pigs, I think it was-and his dog saved him. That part was OK. But things didn’t stay OK. Because of his fight with the pigs, the dog came down with rabies, and the boy had to shoot his pet.
I didn’t look around at my wife or the children, but I could hear some sobbing going on. Then I heard the pfoo, pfoo of Kleenexes being snatched out of the box. Then there was a nose blow… a bunch of blows, and our youngest went running out of the room, sobbing. Me, I was rational. I kept saying to myself, “It’s only a movie. It’s only a movie. The dog is still alive. The boy in the movie is getting paid more than you are.” Nope, I didn’t cry when I saw “Old Yeller”… that time. Of course, I had seen the movie years before, and I knew what was coming. Since then there have been other movies where no matter how many times I tried, the tears kept flowing. What movies? I’m not going to tell you. If I did, all my friends would give me those movies as Christmas presents. Every time I went to their house, they would put them on, and wait for me to cry. After all, you can only watch Bambi’s mother get shot or Dumbo be separated from his mother so many times.
Most of us cry. Most of us weep. In this world where catastrophe seems to be a constant, where tragedy and terror, sin, sadness, and sorrow, are almost customary and commonplace, the sorrowful shedding of tears is familiar and frequent. Almost everybody weeps over a personal sadness. Think back upon the last time you cried. Maybe your tears were the result of some Hollywood manufacture, but more likely it was because of a personal problem, a soulful sorrow, a horrible ache within your heart. Even Jesus shed tears. In His divine self, Jesus was true God. He was immortal, invincible, and all-powerful. Still, Jesus was also true man, and not immune from sadness or sorrow. Centuries before His Bethlehem birth, the Old Testament prophet, Isaiah, had, by the Holy Spirit’s direction, in detail, described the Savior. He had said Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering” (Isaiah 53:3).
Look at Jesus and you will not see a general who sits far removed in a command center while His troops march off to engage the enemy in battle. He is not a chairman in a walnut-paneled board room who dictates commands to his company while the men on the assembly line sweat to take those commands to completion. No, Jesus became one of us so He might, in our place, fulfill the laws which we daily disobey. He became true man so that the damnable price that our sins demanded might be paid in full. A man of sorrows-who could doubt it-as, one day, He stood before the tomb of His friend, Lazarus.
Days before, Lazarus had suffered the fate that comes to all humanity, the destiny that each of us will someday have to face. Lazarus had died, and Jesus had come. He had come too late to heal His friend. He had come too late to say kind words. He had arrived too late for the funeral. He arrived in time to stand in front of Lazarus’ tomb… and cry. In one of the shortest verses of the Bible, the eleventh chapter of John says, “Jesus wept.” So touching were His tears that those watching His sadness, commented: “See how (Jesus) loved him.” And it was true. Jesus did love His friend. Jesus loved Him enough to grieve; loved Him enough to shed a tear; loved Him enough to do something.
You see, while every one of us would be confined to those feelings of lostness and loneliness, Jesus did more. Setting aside His tears, Jesus instructed the stone to be removed from the front of Lazarus’ tomb. Then, with a loud voice, He called into that cave-like grave, “Lazarus, come out.” And a living Lazarus did shuffle out. Still wrapped in the tight bindings of death which were the custom of the day, Lazarus came out. Some of you listeners might wonder why Jesus said, “Lazarus, come out.” Scholars have commented, if Jesus hadn’t been specific in His charge to Lazarus, His command to resurrection would have brought the entire graveyard back to life. They may be right. After all, Jesus said He was “the Resurrection and the Life.” He promised, “Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die.”
The comfort that Christ’s words have given to countless mourners over the centuries cannot be calculated. Jesus is the Resurrection. Those who have been washed of their wrongdoing by Jesus’ cleansing blood, are confident that the day will come when they will be raised to life, a new life, a better life, an everlasting life which will never again be spoiled by sin or soiled by life’s uncertainties. Listeners, understand the full and powerful impact of the Savior’s promise. Jesus’ words mean that when a soldier’s body is brought home from a war, taps will not be the final note to be heard. Judgment Day will begin with another trumpet call. This blast will not carry emotions of sadness or be confined to sorrow. This heavenly trump will be God’s roll call for believers-His recall to an eternity of happiness in heaven. In Jesus’ words, believing parents who have stood helplessly beside the freshly turned earth of a child’s grave are given the resurrection assurance that while death has ripped your little one from your hands, it cannot do the same to Jesus. Christ’s nail-pierced hands are stronger than death. Those loving hands hold your child, and in heaven they will reunite your family, now made healthy and whole. You who have said an earthly good-by to a faithful life’s partner are assured that with faith in Jesus who is the Resurrection and the Life, your loved one shall live again.
In the Old Testament, stressed and struggling Job echoed humanity’s question: “If a man die, shall he live again?” For Christians, the answer is, “yes. ” Yes, you can live again if you join the Centurion at the foot of the cross, and with a repentant heart say, “Truly this man is the Son of God.” The answer is “yes” to all who look, with eyes of faith into resurrection Sunday’s empty tomb and know that Jesus lives. The answer is “yes” for all who believe in Jesus Christ who is the Resurrection and the Life. The answer is “yes” for all who know that their loving Father will, because of His Son’s perfect substitution for imperfect humanity, “wipe away every tear from every eye. ” That is God’s promise to all who believe.
But what about those who do not believe? I told you a few minutes ago the story of Jesus crying before the grave of His friend. The Bible records another time when Jesus cried. The Gospel of Luke says: As (Jesus) approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it and said, “If you, … had only known on this day what would bring you peace-but now it is hidden from your eyes.” As Jesus looked upon that city, His pain over its lostness reduced Him to tears. As Jesus looked upon that city, He saw that future years would bring destruction and death. He saw that many of those people who were shopping, and visiting, and raising their families; people for whom He was going to suffer and die, would remain lost in their sins and doomed to damnation.
Jesus had come as the medicine for their sick and sinful souls, but they declined His free cure. Jesus’ suffering, His death, His resurrection are the keys for release from the jail of sin, freedom from the prison of death. How it must have saddened Him to know that the thorns which would crown His brow; the whipping and beating He would endure; the lies that He would suffer; the mockery and jeers; His painful death on the cross would be-for those who refused His sacrifice- be unnoticed, unheeded, unwanted, and ignored. Yes, Jesus cried.
And tears have also been shed by those who have told the salvation story to a world that has too often turned a deaf ear to God’s grace. Almost a quarter-of-a-century after Jesus cried over Jerusalem, Paul, one of God’s called Apostles, also found himself in tears. Writing to the church in Philippi, Saint Paul wrote: “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” Physically, Paul was strong enough to wander much of the Roman world. He survived shipwrecks, stonings and earthquakes. He crossed deserts and sailed the seas. By God’s grace, He was a strong man physically. Mentally, Paul was sharp enough to be a Pharisee, one of the elite of the Jewish intellectual community. And although Paul was able to endure hunger, poverty, and all spectrums of weather without complaint; the knowledge that some people were living as enemies of the cross reduced him to tears.
Years ago, when I first read Paul’s words, I thought them … rather unusual. I wondered, “Why would anybody consider a cross to be their enemy?” After all, nobody considers a triangle to be their foe; nobody hates circles or squares. Why should a cross be a bother? That’s what I continued to wonder until, well it couldn’t have been more than a year ago I was visiting with a family who had a little boy who was two-years-old. I won’t mention the family’s name. They know who they are. The adults in the room were trying to conduct an adult conversation, which to a two-year-old boy is just about the most boring thing in the world. That two-year-old boy didn’t want to discuss and to debate, he wanted to move! He had just reached that advanced stage in life where his brain told him he could do just about anything. His knew he was faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Of course, the family’s living room had no speeding bullets to race or powerful locomotives against which a two-year-old boy could test his strength. The family didn’t even have any tall buildings for the lad to leap. In fact the only thing that looked leapable was the coffee table. So, beginning way back in the dining room, the boy took a running start. He raced around the corner, past dad’s Lazyboy and with a cry of victory, launched himself into the air. Not having had a great deal of life experience in leaping coffee tables, the boy caught his foot on the way up, and his elbow on the way down. This, he felt, was terribly unjust. He expressed his pain with tears, a veritable tsunami of sobs.
His experienced mother seeing what was happening, swept up her child and cradled his head in her neck. She patted his back. She whispered comforting thoughts in his ear. And then she said and did something that struck me as being rather unusual. While her boy was calming down, mother said, “That was a bad coffee table, wasn’t it? That coffee table shouldn’t hurt you, should it? Maybe we should spank the bad coffee table…” And she did. Once, twice, four times she struck the coffee table saying, “Bad coffee table. Bad. Bad. Bad.” Feeling that I had no right to intrude upon a woman who felt the need to discipline an inanimate, and quite innocent, coffee table, I left.
But I left having learned something. I learned that coffee tables and crosses, when left on their own are pretty inoffensive and unthreatening. But sometimes things happen which transform coffee tables and crosses. For the boy, that coffee table meant he wasn’t superman and he couldn’t do anything he wanted. That coffee table showed him for what he was: a little boy with little boy limitations. And, as I’ve already told you… he didn’t like it. As a result, the coffee table got a spanking. I imagine that’s not much different for people who are living their lives as enemies of the cross. I mean, think about it. A cross is one line crossing another; one stick crossed by another stick. A cross, on its own has nothing which should make anyone love it, or hate it. But 2,000 years ago, on a skull-shaped hill outside of Jerusalem, something happened which transformed the cross. When God’s Son was crucified; when He gave His life to buy back the life of everybody in the world, the cross was, for all time, transformed.
Jesus’ cross exposes us for who we really are: hopeless, helpless sinners in need of a Savior. Now, you may consider yourself to be self-sufficient, self-motivated, a self-starter, and self-contained. The cross tells you that you’re not. On His cross, Jesus did something you could not: He paid the price for your sins. If you don’t like that idea, you are what Saint Paul calls, “an enemy of the cross.” You may want to think of yourself as indestructible, invincible, and imperishable. You’re not. The mortality rate for humanity is still pretty close to being 100%. Now, if you don’t like to think about death and dying, you probably don’t want to think of the cross either. That makes you an enemy of the cross. You may think of yourself as captain of your ship, but I’ve got news for you, your ship has a leak. You’re going down. You’re sinking and you’ve only got so much time. How much time? I don’t know, but neither your time, nor you, are going to last forever. You may not like that, either-if so, you’re an enemy of the cross.
You need to understand… this enemy thing is a one-way street. You might be an enemy of the cross, but the cross is not your enemy. Indeed, it is your salvation. Even as Christ’s cross exposes you for the sinner you are, it shows Jesus for the Savior He is. If any change is going to be made, it won’t be by your reason, power, or strength. You can escape, be forgiven, be saved, be promised heaven, only by the power of the cross and the victory which can be found at Christ’s open and empty tomb. There we see what great love the Savior had for us. At the cross and empty tomb we see Jesus did not come “to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
That truth, unbelieved by so many, could easily make me cry. Why? Because Jesus gave His life so that the world might receive the gifts of forgiveness and a future in heaven. Sadly, all too many have been unappreciative, leaving Christ’s gift unopened and unwanted. In truth, some of you who are listening to me have been turning down God’s gift for years. You still are. Your children beg, your spouse prays, and you can recite from memory your reasons to reject the Redeemer. You put them off saying, “Maybe tomorrow.” Now here’s the part that makes me want to cry: some of you will not be around next week to hear the next Lutheran Hour message, or any other message, for that matter.
That makes me want to cry. Sound sappy? I know it does. You’re probably thinking, “He doesn’t know me. He’s just spouting words like ministers do. That’s what he gets paid for.” Well, and now I’m going to get personal. Look, my friend, you may not believe in the glories of heaven, or the pains of hell; but I do. I don’t have to know you. It’s enough for me to know that hell is real, and I don’t want to see you there. I may not know you, but my Savior does. He knows you, and He loves you, and He died and rose to save you. Today He’s offering you a gift that cost Him… everything. I hate to see you turn it down. I hate to see you finish your life as an enemy of the cross. Please, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Let us help you see Christ’s cross for what it really is: God’s elevator from hell to heaven. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions and Answers) for October 16, 2005
THE REST OF THE STORY: “GOD IS LOVE.”ANNOUNCER: Now it’s time once again for Questions and Answers with Pastor Ken Klaus. I’m Mark Eischer, and for the next few weeks we’re going to devote this segment to exploring some common theological ideas and statements that are true, but do not tell the entire story.
KLAUS: So, Mark, what is the “sort-of-true” thought we’re going to look at today?
ANNOUNCER: I’d like you to comment on something we often hear: “God is love.”
KLAUS: That sounds pretty straightforward, at least in the Christian religion.
ANNOUNCER: And, you put a qualifier on that.
KLAUS: Absolutely. Take a look at the other religions of the world and you will find all kinds of false gods which could hardly be described as “loving.” Some of these “pretend” gods are aloof, they don’t care what happens to their worshippers. Some gods are angry, expecting their people to go through all kinds of suffering in order to win forgiveness. Some gods are capricious. One day they are gentle, the next day they are furious.
ANNOUNCER: But Christianity has the true God who is loving.
KLAUS: Absolutely. It is not by accident that God is often described as a wonderful, loving Father.
ANNOUNCER: But far better than any earthly father.
KLAUS: Far better, but always loving, always ready to hear us.
ANNOUNCER: So, what’s the problem, then, when people say God is love?
KLAUS: There can be two problems with that simple statement, Mark. Problem #1 is to think that the loving God is a God who lets anything go. More and more, I hear people say that God doesn’t really care what you believe as long as you are sincere. Or they say God isn’t interested in doctrine, He only wants people to worship Him and do their best.
ANNOUNCER: Which, by the way, is a doctrinal statement in itself.
KLAUS: That’s right. God isn’t like that. Still, our heavenly Father is a God of love. It was out of His gracious love that He promised Adam and Eve that He would send a Savior who would rescue us from damnation. It was God’s gracious love that sent His own Son into the world to take our place under the law, carry our sins, and die the death we deserved on Calvary’s cross. It was God’s love that now promises forgiveness and salvation to everyone who, with a repentant heart, is led to believe in our risen Savior.
ANNOUNCER: Well, so far, I don’t see any problems with the statement that God is love.
KLAUS: No, the problem comes in when we say, “God is so loving that He really isn’t going to expect Jesus to be the only way that people can get into heaven.” Or, “God is so loving that He wouldn’t be so cruel as to send anyone to hell.”
ANNOUNCER: In other words, God’s love will not make Him set aside the single method He has given for us in order to be saved.
KLAUS: Exactly. God made the promise. Jesus fulfilled His Father’s promise, and now we can be saved by grace through faith in that promise fulfilled.
ANNOUNCER: It would be terribly wrong for anybody to say God ought to just forget what Jesus has done.
KLAUS: It would be wrong in the extreme, Mark. It would be like saying Jesus wasn’t really necessary. His suffering, His agony, His pain, His death, just weren’t that important.
ANNOUNCER: You said there was another problem with this “God is love” idea, and what is that?
KLAUS: It would be limiting God to just being a God of love. He is far more than that.
ANNOUNCER: He’s multi-faceted?
KLAUS: That’s one way of describing Him. God is a complex being, made of many different attributes or qualities. Certainly, God is a God of love… but He’s also a God of justice. In His Word, He says very clearly that He is going to come on judgment day to call His believing people home and send unbelievers to hell.
ANNOUNCER: And that’s why The Lutheran Hour encourages people to hear the Holy Spirit’s call while they still can.
KLAUS: Indeed. There are other qualities that go into making up God’s description. He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He is just. Now, when we say God is “just,” we mean that He is fair and impartial. If He says this is the way things are, you had better believe that that’s the way things are. He is not going to be talked out of His justice by someone who has a million-dollar smile, or someone who has spent a million dollars performing good deeds to bring to the Judge’s bench. God is going to be fair. Period.
ANNOUNCER: And part of that fairness is keeping His Word which says, “Jesus is the only name by which we can be saved. ”
KLAUS: Exactly.
ANNOUNCER: So, if you were to sum this up for us in 25 words or less…
KLAUS: God is a loving God, but His love doesn’t trump the rest of His qualities. God is a loving God, but that doesn’t mean you will be able to schmooze Him on judgment day. How’s that? Not quite 25 words, but close.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections from this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“In You, Lord, I Have Put My Trust” by Samuel Scheidt. From Agnus Dei by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 1996 Concordia Seminary) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Healey Willan. From Agnus Dei by the Concordia Seminary Chorus (© 1996 Concordia Seminary) Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“In Thee Have I Placed My Trust” From Frederick Hohman & J.S. Bach by Frederick Hohman (© 1988 Pro Organo) Used by permission