March 17: Christ Crucified: The Preaching of the Cross
♫ Music:
WEEK SIX INTRODUCTION
TITLE: CHRIST CRUCIFIED: THE PREACHING OF THE CROSS
March 17 - March 23
We discover in Paul’s writings the emergence of a sophisticated theology regarding Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul is the New Testament author who fleshes out concepts like atonement, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, justification, and the blood of Christ.
The “preaching of the cross” with all that entails, was and is at the very heart of Pauline teaching. Without the cross of Christ there wouldn’t be any point in preaching, because there would be no solution for a fallen and sinful race.The cross is essential. It stands at the crux of all time, as the great focal point of the Bible and God’s eternal plan of salvation. One of the most powerful proclamations of Paul’s gospel surrounding the cross is his thoughtful admission that it is only in the saving work of the crucified Christ that he or we have any hope or reason to boast!
With these thoughts in mind, let us humbly contemplate the cross of Christ in the coming week and what his great sacrifice means to each of us personally. May our hearts overflow with deep gratitude for the one who gave his all that we might experience life and that more abundantly.
Day 33 - Sunday, March 17
Title: WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED
Scriptures: 1 Corinthians 1:23-24, 1 Corinthians 2:1-5 (NKJV)
But we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God…And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Poetry & Poet:
“Descending Theology: The Crucifixion”
by Mary Karr
To be crucified is first to lie down
on a shaved tree, and then to have oafs stretch you out
on a crossbar as if for flight, then thick spikes
fix you into place.
Once the cross pops up and the pole stob
sinks vertically in an earth hole perhaps
at an awkward list, what then can you blame for hurt
but your own self's burden?
You're not the figurehead on a ship. You're not
flying anywhere, and no one's coming to hug you.
You hang like that, a sack of flesh with the hard
trinity of nails holding you into place.
Thus hung, your ribcage struggles up
to breathe until you suffocate, give up the ghost.
If God permits this, one wonders how
this twirling earth.
manages to navigate the gravities and star tugs.
Or if some less than loving watcher
watches us scuttle across the boneyard greens
under which worms.
seethe and the front jaws of beetles
eventually clasp toward the flesh of every beloved.
The man on the cross under massed thunderheads feels
his soul leak away,
then surge. Some windy authority lures him higher
till an unseen tear in the sky's membrane is rent,
and he's streaming light, snatched back, drawn close,
so all loneliness ends.
WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED
What message would we have without the testimony of the Cross? It was certainly the heart of Paul’s message wherever he went, and yet, it was also the cause of much suffering for him, especially in Corinth.
Pride, self-reliance, and a servile respect for status were not easily overcome there. Just like their Corinthian neighbors, the church was not immune to the pride of the place, and they felt a great need to prove themselves. The stratifying sensibilities of the city invaded the little church and began to wreck their common bond in Christ. So, the particular challenges of the place called for a specific type of ministry.
For this reason, Paul tells them, “I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Not only was the message offensive, but the messenger was also equally embarrassing. While among them, Paul assumed a lower social rank by surrendering any status as a public orator (who performs “with excellence of speech or of wisdom”), and instead went back to day-laboring as a tentmaker.
Unlike his recent stay in Athens, Paul was not quoting Greek poets and philosophers in eloquent speeches to city officials (Acts. 17). Instead, he intentionally limited himself to preaching the Cross. We can probably approach how difficult and awkward Paul’s message was for the Corinthians by reading poet Mary Karr’s brutally honest retelling of the Crucifixion. Unpleasant doesn’t begin to describe it.
Such direct assaults feel necessary to remove the stubborn veil of human pride, disdain, and reproach for the Cross. There’s no use in trying to go for the soft sell. It’s better to face the stark, seemingly absurd truth of it.
The enigmatic, ironical work of the artist Kris Martin often revisits this dynamic. Either poking fun at Christianity’s soft spots or foregrounding the strength of its apparent weakness, the artist seems to foist the burden of decision on the viewer. Martin’s Summit is no different. These works rely on an imbalance of visual assessment. In other words, do we trust our eyes too much? In this case, what is the effect of combining the obviously impressive mass and permanence of the stone boulders with the ridiculously miniscule paper crosses atop them? You must get close to see what’s so easily missed. And yet, if you can see them, they change the mountains completely.
The Cross will always make the proud uncomfortable, and it will never not offend. We preach “Christ crucified” at Jesus’ own insistence, and not because it’s enjoyable or easy. It’s his chosen means for disarming our pride and inviting us to surrender to his love.
Through coming face to face with the fierce love of that sacrifice, we can join Paul in his resolute, yet joyous confession: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:10).
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, where else can we go? You know us better than we know ourselves and, despite our many failings, you still call us to yourself in love. Overcome our pride with the glory of the Cross. Transform our weaknesses into vessels of hope, to hope in you – the God who resurrects the dead and tells us that, “What is sown in dishonor; is raised in glory. What is sown in weakness; is raised in power. Set our hope more and more firmly in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Dr. Taylor Worley
Visiting Associate Professor of Art History
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois
For more information about the artwork, music, and poetry selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Art:
Summit (three views of installation)
Kris Martin
2009
Raw granite and cardboard cross
22 × 15 × 26 cm.
Appearing like a vast mountainous landscape from a distant land, the installation entitled Summit by Belgian artist Kris Martin is composed of eight megalith-like boulders. Each stone, unique from the others, at first seems to be “unconquered” and towering defiantly over the next. However, upon closer inspection, one finds that placed gently upon each summit is a small paper cross: these seemingly insurmountable monoliths have indeed been conquered. By altering found objects, re-creating canonical works of art and literature, and staging conceptual interventions, artist Kris Martin challenges notions of time and history. As he claims, his riddling works are “invitation[s] for the viewer to reflect.”
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5709383
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/kris-martin-summit
About the Artist:
Kris Martin (b. 1972) is a Belgian conceptual artist. Martin's sculptures, photographs, and installations reflect his preoccupation with the great themes of human existence and its contradictions. The oeuvre of the artist examines the passing of time from a variety of angles, often contrasting the distinctive pace of individual life with an abstract vision of global continuity. Martin often works with found materials, making minor alterations or additions to effect shifts of meaning, modifications that charge the objects with narrative as well as metaphorical potential. His works are part of renowned collections, such as the MCA Museum of Olbricht collection, Berlin; Sammlung Boros, Berlin; Contemporary Art, Chicago; K21, Dusseldorf; the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.), Ghent; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
https://www.koeniggalerie.com/collections/kris-martin
About the Music:
“Christ and Christ Crucified” (Single)
Lyrics:
The wages of my sin was death.
You knew I couldn’t pay the debt.
You paid it with Your final breath.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
You took the wrath that I deserved.
Your holy blood broke every curse.
Your mercy had the final word.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
We sing Christ and Christ crucified.
In You we’re raised from death to life.
We sing Christ and Christ crucified.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
No sin is bigger than Your blood.
No shame is stronger than Your love.
You said it’s finished, it is done.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Death couldn’t keep You in the ground.
You rose in power and took hell down.
That power’s living in us now.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
In You we’re raised from death to life.
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
In You we’re raised from death to life,
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Death couldn’t hold You down.
Hell couldn’t steal Your crown.
There’s resurrection power,
In Your name, in Your name,
Let all the earth cry out.
Lift up a holy sound.
Give all the glory now to
Jesus' name, Jesus' name.
Death couldn’t hold You down.
Hell couldn’t steal Your crown.
There’s resurrection power.
In Your name, in Your name.
Let all the earth cry out,
Lift up a holy sound,
Give all the glory now to
Jesus' name, Jesus' name
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
In You we’re raised from death to life.
We sing Christ and Christ Crucified.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
About the Composer/Performer:
Lindy Conant-Cofer with Circuit Riders Music
Lindy Conant-Cofer is an American missionary, singer, songwriter, and worship leader with Circuit Riders. She is now married to Chase Cofer, and they are continuing to follow the calling that God has placed in Lindy’s life through leading worship for events, tours, and missionary outreaches. She is quoted as saying, “I want my life to be a catalyst for mobilizing mission movements in our generation, the way I will do that is through leading worship.”
https://lindycofer.com/
Circuit Riders is a YWAM (Youth With a Mission) mission and training community that launches global movements to reach the next generation for Christ. Circuit Riders Music describes their mission by saying, “We never set out to ‘make it’ as musicians or artists. We set out for our whole generation to be gripped by the message and mission of Jesus.” In 2016 that message went national with the release of Lindy Conant-Cofer’s first album, Every Nation. It wasn’t long before other musicians joined and Circuit Rider Music’s first collaborative project was launched. Garage Sessions Vol.1 was a reflection of songs inspired and written on Circuit Rider’s Carry the Love tours on college campuses. The music continues to go out with Lindy & The Circuit Rider’s album Driven by Love, followed soon by their latest collaboration project, entitled Jesus People.
https://circuitriders.com/
About the Poetry and Poet:
Mary Karr (b. 1955) is an American poet, essayist, and memoirist from Texas. She rose to fame in 1995 with the publication of her best-selling memoir The Liars’ Club. She is the Jesse Truesdell Peck Professor of English Literature at Syracuse University in Lima, New York. Her memoir The Liars’ Club, which delves vividly into her deeply troubled childhood, was followed by two additional memoirs, Cherry and Lit: A Memoir, which details her “...journey from blackbelt sinner and lifelong agnostic to unlikely Catholic.” Karr won the 1989 Whiting Award for her poetry, was a Guggenheim Fellow in poetry in 2005, and has won Pushcart Prizes for both her poetry and essays. Her poems have appeared in major literary magazines such as Poetry, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly.
https://www.marykarr.com/
About the Devotion Writer:
Dr. Taylor Worley
Visiting Associate Professor of Art History
Wheaton College
Wheaton, Illinois
Taylor Worley is visiting associate professor of art history at Wheaton College and director of a research project on conceptual art and contemplation. He completed a Ph.D. in the areas of contemporary art and theological aesthetics in the Institute for Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews and is the author of Memento Mori in Contemporary Art: Theologies of Lament and Hope (Routledge, 2020). Taylor is married to Anna, and they have four children: Elizabeth, Quinn, Graham, and Lillian.