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1 Corinthians 1:18-24

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
    the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 

“We preach Christ crucified,” declares the Apostle Paul in a letter he writes to the first century church he started in Corinth. We preach CHRIST, crucified. The center of our faith and life is Jesus. Christ is Lord and Savior, the beginning and the end. The church isn’t a political organization or cult of personality. No, Paul insists, we preach CHRIST Jesus.

Jesus is the incarnation and revelation of the God described throughout the Bible. God created the heavens and the earth with a Word. The Creator’s Spirit gives life to all living things. It has been noted that the name of God sounds like taking a breath: Yah. Weh. That life begins when we first utter God’s name: Yah. Weh. And it ends when we say God’s name for the last time: Yah. Weh.

 YHWH, the Bible teaches, over and over again, is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounds in steadfast love: “Hesed” in Hebrew. It is translated steadfast love, lovingkindness, mercy. The hesed of God: the steadfast love of God never ceases. God’s mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning… God is faithful. God is hesed. 

So when the creative Word of God becomes flesh—that’s how one writer describes the coming of Jesus into the world—it is no wonder that his life, ministry, and death all reflect and embody the hesed of God. We preach the hesed of God. 

We preach Christ crucified. The central feat or accomplishment of Jesus is his crucifixion—his death on a cross. For us and for our salvation, the creed says, he came down from heaven…for our sake he was crucified…suffered death, and was buried. The cross is so much more than a mere divine transaction: there was a price to pay for our sins and Jesus paid it. The cross demonstrates and symbolizes the hesed nature of God: a God who suffers, a God who sacrifices, a God whose love is unconditional and has no bounds. The cross is not primarily about God’s judgment or wrath, but rather a demonstration of and sign of God’s hesed: God so loved the world. For us and for our salvation. For Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world, but to save us—mostly from ourselves.