Scripture Reference: 1 Corinthians 1:18-31

When it comes down to it, the cross was, after all, not an event outside the realm of politics. The largest, best-organized, and relatively most just empire in world history was executing a nonviolent Teacher on the grounds that He represented a threat of national liberation. We would not be reading the story today if it had not turned out that:

Though the cause of evil prosper,
yet tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold
and upon the throne be Wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
and, behind the dim unknown,
standeth God within the shadow,
keeping watch above his own.

Adapted for use as a hymn by the American poet, editor, and diplomat, James Russell Lowell

Martin Luther King Jr., often quoted this when feeling overwhelmed by the power of evil that seemed to be persistent in the world we live.

The cross is what makes sense of life, even if to our neighbors, and to our doubting selves at times, it looks crazy. The cross is what makes history move forward toward God’s final plans, even if we’ve been told the opposite in our national mythology, according to which world leadership is measured in destructive megatonnage, and in our media morality dramas, where every plot problem is resolved by a gun, and in our local economic dramas, where every employment problem is resolved by a federal weapons contract.

The cross of Christ has stood the test of time in its purpose, in its symbology, in its strength, and in its ability to give hope where there is hopelessness.

“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’ ” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31).

The cross will always be the wisdom and power of God through Christ Jesus. It will always be the believer’s beacon for hope!

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, ESV © 2016 by Crossway Bibles.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.