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2 Corinthians 5:16-21– The cross is
the wisdom and power of God.
Paul will admit that before coming to faith in Christ
he had a secular understanding of Jesus based purely on human considerations.
But now having been united with Christ through faith in Him and committed to
Him, now he is a new creation. Everything in his life now centers in Christ.
God takes the initiative in redemption. He sustains it and brings it to
completion. When the Savior died, God’s justice was satisfied, His anger was
appeased. At the cross, God was reconciled to the world.
The central message of Christianity – that Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, died on a cross and in that dying offers us forgiveness
and eternal life is a stumbling block; “folly,”
Paul writes. He makes it clear that the world did not come to know God through
wisdom, that is, through its intellect. Only through the preaching of the cross
of Jesus Christ crucified has humanity come to know God. The whole idea of
Christ, he says, is folly or foolishness –except to those who believe, for
whom Christ is the power of God.
In a sense, our reading for today is the key to the other readings for this Sunday. The Old Testament lesson (Isaiah 12:1-6) tells us of God’s coming salvation. The Gospel (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32) describes God’s reception of sinners. But how is salvation, forgiveness, and acceptance made possible? The answer is in the cross where the world of salvation is completed.
Because Christ and His atoning work the Father can receive with joy the one who
once despised him and ran off. As we approach Holy Week it is good for us to
think about the meaning of the cross in anticipation of Good Friday.
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