Theology of the Cross

Summary

In his painting that everyone in the congregation could see as they worshiped, Cranach was proclaiming Luther’s main point of theology.  No one can be saved except through the death of Jesus, because all of us are incapable sinners.

Righteousness and sanctification are wholly the work of Jesus, and so gifts to us, unearned, and simply received in faith.  Luther, and Melanchthon after him, based the Theology of the Cross firmly in the Bible, focusing especially upon the Gospel of John and Paul’s writings in First Corinthians, Romans, Galatians and Ephesians.  Luther preached and taught that Christianity can only begin at the foot of the cross.  Christian faith begins in the promise that it is Jesus’ death which breaks the power of sin in our lives.  Because of original sin, the sin that Paul writes about in today’s reading from Romans, we are helpless, and incapable of doing good.  It is only Jesus’ crucifixion and death that breaks the power of sin, only Jesus can then save us from our sins.  Again as Paul writes, “one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.”

You see, it is in Jesus’ crucifixion that we encounter God, and see God’s nature in Christ.  He comes and acts in humility, as a servant, for those who can do nothing, and so, God, in Jesus Christ does everything. We simply receive and believe. Our salvation is a gift of Jesus, through his action, an act that is ever giving.  It is not simply a historical event, but a gift of grace that never ends.  Christ’s death breaks the power of sin in our lives today, and will do the same for sinners up until the day of fulfillment, and beyond.

So, then the question becomes, what does this mean for us in our lives.  How does Jesus’ death upon the cross, defeat of sin, and resurrection to new life play out, or be felt in our lives and actions.

Graham Tomlin writes about the Theology of the Cross and its effect on humans in this way, “the {Theology of the Cross} is a protest against forms of relationship between people, or between people and God, which are based primarily on manipulative power rather than love. It is not an ideology, but because of its insistence on the unity of God’s action in the past and the present, it makes demands on actual relationships within communities, the way leadership operates, and the way those on the margins are heard. Because the {Theology of the Cross} depicts the God who does not abandon power, but who uses it for the healing and salvation of his creation, exercising his own power in the foolish, powerless vulnerability of the cross, it can therefore offer an alternative model of power for the Christian community. The truth revealed in {Theology of the Cross} is not oppressive, but liberating, because it is inseparably connected to self-giving Love as its mode of expression. It tells of the God who places himself at the service of his people, and invites his people to follow suit.”

I like that last phrase, “It tells of the God who places himself at the service of his people and invites his people to follow suit.”

During the Last Supper Jesus does the work of a slave by washing his disciples’ feet, and then tells them to do the same, for it would only be then that the world would recognize Christianity, by the actions of Godly love.

We are not here to exercise our own power, but rather to share the affects of Jesus’ power through self-giving acts of love. Jesus’ church, and Jesus’ people need to act out of the humility that comes from knowing that Jesus is the only righteous one, and so we love our fellow sinners with the same grace that we receive. We serve with a humble love.

The painting of Cranach the Elder, hanging in the Stadtkirche spoke to me that rainy day in Wittenberg because it reminded me not only of what I am, a sinner incapable of redeeming myself, but of whose I am, God’s beloved child given salvation by Jesus’ death.  Even more though, it reminded me of my purpose on this earth, that is, to always point beyond myself to Jesus, and him crucified, and to do so, by trying to love others as the humble, broken, and yet saved person that I am.

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