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1 Corinthians 11:26  For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

In the famous sermon Paul preached at the Areopagus in Athens, recorded in Acts 17, his focus was on the Resurrection of Jesus; but as he writes this letter to the Church in nearby Corinth his central concern is the death of the Saviour by crucifixion.  Yes, in Chapter 15 he will go to considerable length to explain the significance and importance of the resurrection, but as he writes to these self-opinionated, personality-promoting, professing Christians in Corinth he needs to emphasise the centrality of the Cross in his proclamation of Gospel.

It is at the very heart of his admonition against their party-spirit in the early chapters, so much so that he even says: ‘For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’  (2:2).  The Cross is not about strength and point-scoring over others, it is about weakness and rejection; it is not about achievement and boasting, but about our shame and God’s grace (1:26-31).  The society in which we live is not unlike the Corinthian society of the first Century; and the Church today runs the same risk of being absorbed into the world’s attitudes and lifestyle – especially under the subtle, insidious influence of ‘influencers’ and social media. That is why, as we wait for the risen Jesus to come for his Bride, we need to be reminded constantly with the symbols he gave us to emphasise our focus on the cross – his substitutionary death for our sin.

We need to pay close attention in our present context to what he wrote to the Christians in Rome: “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.  Do not CONconform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:1-2).  Let us be active in resisting the pressure of our culture to conform our thinking to ’the pattern of this world’, and let us resolve to be unashamed of the shameful death of our Saviour on a criminal’s cross.

“Oh, to see the dawn of the darkest day: Christ on the road to Calvary.  Tried by sinful men, torn and beaten, then nailed to a cross of wood.  This, the power of the cross:  Christ became sin for us, took the blame, bore the wrath: we stand forgiven at the cross. … … Oh, to see my name written in the wounds, for through your suffering I am free.  Death is crushed to death, life is mine to live, won through your selfless love.  This, the power of the cross: Son of God, slain for us.  What a love!  What a cost!  We stand forgiven at the cross”  (Stuart Townend & Keith Getty).

– Bruce Christian