The Lutheran Hour
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"Cross Words–Words of Power"
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Text: 1 Corinthians 1:17-18
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God’s Word for us today is 1 Corinthians 1:17-18. Paul writes, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
I’m sure you are much better at these than I am. In fact, you do one of these almost every day. You’re so good at these, you’ve been a little bored lately. It’s almost too easy now. But no matter, easy or hard, you going to keep on doing them.
I’m talking about crossword puzzles. Crossword puzzles: those daunting, challenging, mocking puzzles that ask me to know words I’ve never heard of before. Crossword puzzles with their rigid rules of 6 across, only 6 spaces, even though I have a great answer, but it has 7 letters. Crossword puzzles that divide the world into two directions, across or down, insisting that my down answers link up with at least one that goes across. I have an answer all by itself, but it’s that intersection that stumps me. Crossword puzzles—I’ve read that doing them is good for your memory, that they keep you mentally sharp. I’m sure that’s true; I’m just not sure I’m going to pull it off.
Well, we’re talking about crossword puzzles today because they give us an insight into our text. Crossword puzzles will give us first an image of the Corinthian church as they’re listening to this letter from Paul. They were sharply divided with few, if any, intersections with each other. But beyond the Corinthians’ need to come together, Paul’s words also direct us to the wonderful message of the Gospel. As our text just read tells us, the word of the cross is the power of God and in that cross word, we find our lasting hope.
So let’s begin with a hearing of this letter by the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, Paul notes the divided nature of the Corinthian church. They, like a rigid crossword puzzle, have divided themselves into strict camps. Picture them as a crossword puzzle but with answers that go either across or down but never intersect each other. You can’t do that in a crossword puzzle, but the Corinthians have divided themselves that way. Here is how Paul describes them: “I appeal to you, brothers, by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’”
But Paul says that’s not the Christian church, a divided set of separated camps. No, he insists that they find a link between themselves and others. We are one body, so we’re connected to each other.
But the Corinthians didn’t see themselves as needing connection with each other. Their separation from each other was a bit like a strange crossword puzzle. The thing that’s challenging about these puzzles—besides knowing the name of some city in a country I’ve never heard of—is that I have to answer the question with the exact number of letters. Then, at some point, I have to intersect with the other answers. Well, just let us answer the question with any number of letters we want, I’d say. And don’t make us worry about linking up with the answers going the opposite way. Let that other direction answer their own questions, but don’t let them come around, taking one of our letters for their answer. Let them get their own letters!
That was the problem with the people of Corinth. They had separated themselves into small groups that, almost surely, kept their distance from one another. They were either across answers or down answers and had no intention on linking up with these others. Each group must have been certain that they alone knew the answer to the questions of life. They alone had a clear grasp on the Christian faith. But that separated them from each other. They were solitary, lonely answers surrounded by the empty spaces between them.
They were a failure as a crossword puzzle. There was no intersection between them and no care for the ideas and answers of others. So, to correct them, Paul takes them to Christ. He leads them away from their individual answers and groups and asks them one simple question: “Is Christ divided?” In terms of our crossword puzzle, is Christ an answer only for the boxes across or only for those going down? Can Christ be claimed by only one group so that they can insist that no one else can use His Name? In a crossword puzzle, you can use an answer only once, but Christ is the answer for all people in every place and time. Christ is not divided and is not owned by anyone. So we can ask many questions for which there is only one answer.
Ask the right questions, and you’ll find a simple, single answer. In fact, I was reading this week about crossword puzzles and, according to at least one source, the most commonly used letters are S R E T D A I L. Let’s see if we might use four of these eight to build our own most common answer. The answer for each question will fill six boxes.
Who was sent by the Father to save the world? The answer: Christ
Who is the reason for Christmas hope and joy? Christ
Who alone has carried the sins of the world? Christ
And finally, who has risen from the dead with the promise that he will return to open the graves of all? ChristTherefore, there is one, undivided Christ who is not only found in every group but He binds us together past our own boundaries. Paul takes the Corinthians beyond their divided groups and points them to the power of the cross and the Gospel that he preached. Paul’s words do the same for us. Led to the cross, we’re brought out of our divisions. The answer that completes us is the cross where God shows His salvation. Paul makes this clear in verses 17 and 18 of our text: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
God’s Cross-Word is the story of Jesus, His sacrifice and His resurrection, all of which is the very power of God. Paul’s preaching didn’t depend on his wisdom or his eloquence. Paul would preach only Christ crucified, the God who would allow Himself to be put on the cross to save the world. The power of God is the word of the cross. That’s the puzzle He opens for us so that we know the Name that saves the world. Only one Name fits this Cross-Word. Paul said it powerfully in Philippians 2:8, “Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the Name that is above every name, so that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” There’s only one Name that binds the world together and that Name, brief as it is, only five letters long, is Jesus.
There is no other name given among us by which we might answer all the questions of life and the life to come also. Peter said it so well: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Left to ourselves, life is a crossword puzzle with far too many unanswered questions. But knowing the Name of Jesus fills in all the blanks.
Thinking back to crossword puzzles, I was reminded this week why I don’t do them very often. They’re too hard! So, I went to our public library and I searched for books on crossword puzzles, and I found two of them: one comforted me, and the other one overwhelmed me. I started with a book dedicated to complete amateurs in the crossword world. It seemed like a perfect way to step into maybe doing a crossword puzzle or two. And the first pages were encouraging; the author said anyone can do these puzzles. She also pointed out that, if all else fails, the answers are always printed on the back. All right then, bring a puzzle on, I say.
But then I went to the other book. It was a book with 1,500 words I need to know in order to succeed at crossword puzzles. I suppose I know 1,500 words, but I have never thought of them as answers to a puzzle. Well, that’s what this book does. I’m sure it’s a great resource, but take a quick tour through the book and you’ll be wondering, “Who knows all this? Who knows the capital city of San Marino is San Marino or the capital city of Zambia is Lusaka? It listed acronyms that might come into your crossword world. I felt a bit better here. I do know that APO is the Army Post Office. But who knows that EMI was a British music label operating from 1931 to 2012? Read enough of these helps and you do learn a lot of interesting details, but you also learn you just don’t know enough. If all of these are fair game in crossword puzzles, I’m not getting past 3 across.
The point that I got from these two books is that crossword puzzles have a range from the simple to the completely baffling, at least for me. But isn’t it wonderful that God has one answer for all our across and down questions of life? The answer that fills all our empty boxes is the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. We don’t need to belong to a particular group or have certain demonstrated skills. We can come with the simplicity of a child and hear the message of the Gospel.
And that proclamation of the Gospel can come without eloquence. Paul made that point very clear to the Corinthians. He was worried that they would base their faith on the external manner in which the Gospel was proclaimed. That could lead to more of the division that he already saw. They might divide again according to the perceived brilliance of different speakers. To stop all that, Paul described his preaching of the Gospel this way: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:17-18).
So, let no one be attached exclusively to Paul. Let no group claim him as their own leader and certainly not as their savior. Paul came to point us to Christ alone. If our preaching were judged by its eloquence, if we gathered in groups limited to a certain wisdom, there’d be no need for the cross. The attraction of our message would be the thin claims of our own skill. And these claims would forever be challenged and outdone by others seeking the same answer. The answer and debate that would follow would certainly become only cross words: words of anger, criss-crossing through us, tearing us apart.
But that is the expectation of the world. It seeks a show of wisdom and eloquence. And therefore, the word of the cross makes no sense to this world. The crossword of the Gospel is the answer that the world cannot understand. Ask the world this; “How will God save the world?” The crossword answer is the death of God’s own divine Son. But this answer will never cross the mind of the world. The world might imagine God’s salvation comes through words like these: victory, conqueror, mighty, eternal, untouchable.
But those words rob the cross of its power. If we imagine that God saves the world by crushing His enemies, we don’t know the cross. Jesus saved the world by being the ransom for the world. As Paul said, the world sees that ransom poured out on the cross as complete foolishness. How could God gain the world by losing His Son? How could eternal life come through the dead tree of the cross? Where is the eloquence and beauty in the darkness of Good Friday? The world can ask these questions, but plan of God remains a mystery to them.
But consider the crossword puzzle this makes. It’s only a pair of answers that are so simple, they might be ignored by some. But to us, two questions and their two answers are the plan of God. Let’s use the two key words of our text. Start with the word “power.” Make it the answer to question 1 down. The question: “What does God display through His Son?” Besides many qualities, none of which fit the five spaces going down, the one answer that works for us is “power.” While it fits in five small boxes, let’s see this answer as larger than just five boxes. God stretches His power from heaven to earth. The five-box answer of “power” goes from the heights of heaven to the depths of creation. Then for the intersecting word, number 1 across, see another five boxes going across, with the middle box shared with the “o” of the vertical “power.” The question: “Where does God show His love for the world? And let the answer be the “cross.” Sharing the letter “o,” power going down and cross going horizontal, together they make the perfect crossword image: the cross itself. God’s power strikes downward from the height of heaven to the depth of earth. His power is a lightning bolt, frightening and, to anyone it strikes, fatal. But God demonstrates His power in this, that the cross is the lightning rod that drew God’s power to earth. That power brought life for us, not the death we expected. When God displayed His power in judgment upon sin, that lightning bolt of justice struck only one, the Son of God on the cross. He withstood the judgment upon the sins that were placed upon Him. Hanging on the cross, Jesus knew both the power of judgment against sin, but also the healing power of God. On the cross, He promised paradise that day to the repentant thief, and on the cross He committed Himself to the Father’s hands and power. By Jesus’ cross, the power of God intersected the east and west of all creation, bringing to us forgiveness and life.
Therefore, for us, the word of the cross is power. The words of the cross break down the barriers between us. Here is the power and wisdom of God. Let the cross of Jesus be our lasting answer to the great questions of life. Let the words that pour from the cross point not to any of us but let the words of the cross point only to Jesus. See at the cross the bridge He makes from heaven to earth and heaven again and the draw He has upon all people. These are the crosswords that bring that life to all who hear them. Amen.
We pray: Heavenly Father, thank You for sending Your Son to us and finally to the cross. Help us to see the power and mercy found simply in the cross. And make our message effective to bring others to the Christ on the cross, where they find the power leading to eternal life. We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Reflections for January 25, 2026
Title: Cross Words–Words of PowerMark Eischer: Joining us now, here’s Lutheran Hour Speaker, Dr. Mike Zeigler.
Mike Zeigler: Thank you, Mark. Today I am visiting with our guest preacher, Dr. Dan Paavola. Dan, thanks for staying to talk with us today.
Dan Paavola: It’s always a joy to be on The Lutheran Hour.
Mike Zeigler: So Dan, in your message, you said that the cross is God’s power, quoting 1 Corinthians, “power to save us.” But this, I’ve got to say, seems odd. And the world would agree with me, because a man being crucified, which we’ve got to remember, is publicly shamed, tortured, death, as a condemned criminal–that certainly does not look like power, at least as we would normally understand it. And this relates to a theme that you have written about in a book, your book titled Patience and Perfection. And you notice a pattern all throughout the Bible, which says that our ideas about greatness and power, they sometimes match up with what God thinks about greatness and power, but not always. And you offer this analogy that I think is really helpful that I was hoping you would share with our listeners. It comes from your days as a college professor, and you say that you witnessed the greatness and the power of an All- American runner and athlete, but then, after she graduated, you witnessed another kind of greatness from her. So would you share this analogy with us?
Dan Paavola: It’s been wonderful to be at Concordia during those years of great athletes coming. And the young lady that I’m thinking of here was nine-time All-American. Holy cow, nine time. And she could do remarkable things running. And I am proud to say I have run alongside her for miles … on a treadmill. Now, I could never keep up with her out on the road, of course.Mike Zeigler: Different paces on the treadmill, I’m assuming.
Dan Paavola: Oh, my heavens, yeah. I’m looking at mine and I’ll sneak a peek over and look at her, it’s like, holy moley. Also, my feet hit the treadmill like two mortars going off, and she just glides, glides. And effortlessly. She would ask me questions, and I’d [be panting, out of breath]. But the beauty of her as a runner was remarkable, that I’ve also seen little video and pictures from her walking with her one-year-old daughter. Isn’t that the cutest thing? Now it’s a different pace than what she had when she was racing and winning. But I would think that for her, that slow walk, holding the hand or hand holding her finger with a one-year-old is maybe even better. So where do you see greatness? Well, you certainly can see it with an athlete, with a nine-time All-American record, dashing and winning. Or you can see greatness in that same woman being a patient mom, walking with a one-year-old. Isn’t that a great picture? God’s greatness is found both in the obvious, but also in the small and the hidden, the Savior who welcomes children and says, “The kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Mike Zeigler: So the cross then is that other form of greatness that doesn’t look like greatness, that looks like weakness and suffering and shame and defeat. How is that also God’s power?
Dan Paavola: Well, that’s the reaction that Peter had. For instance, the first time he heard Jesus saying, “I must suffer, be killed, rise again.” Oh no, no, that can’t be. Well, we understand. Peter would say, “You can’t leave us! What good would come from death?” But isn’t that His idea? Remember the analogy of a seed. Unless the seed is planted, it remains alone. But when it’s planted and we see [it] as though dead, then it comes to life. Isn’t that a great picture of Jesus? Dead on the cross, yes. But three days later, after buried in the tomb, what do we have? We have a life and not just a life for Himself, but by that, a life that opens the tombs of all people. His resurrection is our resurrection, but there is no resurrection unless first there’s His death, willing on the cross, and that’s power to take that on.
Mike Zeigler: Back to your opening analogy that the cross is when Jesus stooped down to our level as a loving parent would to meet us where we needed Him and to slow down His pace, so to speak, to humble Himself like that All-American athlete does as she becomes a mother.
Dan Paavola: We need both. I think when we pray, we would like an instant, powerful answer. We would love to be at the center of another miracle story. I’m all for those. The illness is gone, no treatment needed, fantastic. And God certainly does that. We all know there’s stories and occasions where He has instantly, perfectly healed somebody, great. But don’t we also, thankfully, know that there’s a God who walks with us every single day, every day. And whether the tests come back positive, negative, it never drives Him away. And so we have a God who knows the cross, who walks beside us when we carry our very small in comparison cross, and also promises us in the end, His greatness and glory will be seen. Heaven, the resurrection of the dead, eternity. In the end, He shows us a power that is without question, greatness looking like greatness.
Mike Zeigler: And by slowing down and meeting us at our pace, He’s also forming us to do that for other people as we walk with them.
Dan Paavola: Oh, absolutely. If I could go back to running the treadmill next to Amanda. Again, the kindest woman on the planet, she would ask me, “Oh, Dr. Paavola, how are you and how are your children and all these things?” And I said to her once, “Amanda, I am just barely taking in all the oxygen in the universe. Why don’t you tell me about—I don’t care—eighth grade, how was it for you, or something?” And we just had a wonderful time. And I think that anybody who was running alongside us would have wanted to be a part of that conversation. I mean, who gets to run next to a nine-time All-American? Well, I was just lucky that occasionally I did. And isn’t that the truth, though? If we see a conversation of God and His people, I want to be in on that. And God says, “Of course, come here.” This is not an isolated one-on-one. You come, you come and be a part of that conversation in greatness or in patience.
Music Selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“Crucifer” by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
“O Christ, Our True and Only Light” arr. Peter Prochnow. Courtesy of The Hymnal Project of the Michigan District, The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
“O Christ, Our True and Only Light” From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.