Preaching the Cross

In another place in another time in my life when I was pastoring a church, Holy Week showed up on the calendar.  The custom in that community was what is done in many places across this area.  Churches in the community all came together each day during Holy Week for a noon day service and lunch.  The preaching was assigned and topics were set up by the local Ministerial Association.  The preacher on Friday was to preach on a text that focused on Jesus's suffering and death on the cross.  When the meal was done, the preacher announced, "No one wants to hear about all that suffering and death stuff.  I am going to preach about Easter!"  And off he went.

 

I most likely raised my "it's not proper" eyebrows and set my auto pilot on "endure it,"  but, the truth is all of us would rather talk about Easter than Good Friday.  After all, how many people show up for Good Friday worship?  And, how many show up for Easter morning?  However, it is not just the people who show up which is an indicator of how no one wants to dwell on the cross because there is little preaching today which causes those who hear to linger under the shadow of that awful instrument of death where Jesus died for us.  In a church with a "feel good" theology, there is hardly any room for too much about the cross.  It is not a comfortable place, but a convicting place.

 

If the cross is preached seriously, there is going to be preaching about sin in our hearts.  If the cross is preached and taken seriously, people will hear preaching which is persuasive and not entertaining.  If the cross is taken seriously, both preacher and people will see it not just as a sign of God's love, but a sign that desperate action had to be taken to bring us back from the brink of being eternally separated from God and everything that is good and holy.  If the cross is taken seriously, it will be preached and preached until people like you and me start hearing the message about deliverance from our sins and doing something about it.