讲道：十字架的愚拙与上帝的大能

经文：哥林多前书 1:18-25；马可福音 15:33-47

愿恩惠、怜悯、平安，从父上帝和我们的主基督耶稣，归给你们所有仰望祂十字架的人。这十字架是为你而设的。阿们。

不要以为那些不来教会的人是没有宗教信仰的。外面的世界有着它自己的“自然宗教”。当我们出生时，这种宗教就根植在我们的良心中。我给你举几个圣经中的例子。

在马耳他岛上，保罗被一只剧毒的蛇咬了。当地人立刻彼此说：“这人必是个凶手”（使徒行传 28:4）。他们认定他死定了。等了一会儿，见保罗安然无恙，他们就“转念说，他是个神”（6节）。

甚至连门徒有时也难免陷入这种自然宗教的思维中。“拉比，这人生来是瞎眼的，是谁犯了罪？是这人呢？是他父母呢？”门徒这样问耶稣，正如其他所有人也会问同样的问题一样（约翰福音 9:2）。

当西罗亚楼倒塌压死18个人时，耶稣挑战了他们基于自然宗教的假设：“你们以为这些西罗亚人比一切住在耶路撒冷的人更有罪吗？”（路加福音 13:4）。

现在，耶稣正悬挂在十字架上。“从午正到申初，遍地都黑暗了”（马可福音 15:33）。看到了吗？甚至连宇宙都在揭示上帝的愤怒与审判。人们认为耶稣肯定是个罪人，才配受这种酷刑。旁观者听到他在求救时便嘲笑祂。“看哪，他叫以利亚呢”，而以利亚早就去世了。甚至有人拿海绒蘸满了醋，绑在苇子上送给祂喝。他们明知耶稣拒绝接受任何缓解痛苦的东西，却仍旧这么做，不是出于怜悯，而是为了戏弄祂。“且等着，看伊利亚来不来把他取下”（马可福音 15:36）。

耶稣，上帝的儿子，作为人，在申初（下午三点）大声喊着说：“以罗伊，以罗伊！拉马撒巴各大尼？”翻译出来就是：“我的上帝！我的上帝！为什么离弃我？”（马可福音 15:34）。祂是真正的人，和你我一样。祂为什么不这样哀求呢？在如此极端的境遇下，祂为什么不假设上帝已经离弃了祂呢？

毕竟，当我们孤身一人躺在病床上，面对死亡的威胁，或是为失去挚爱而哀恸，或是为夭折的婴孩、甚至胎死腹中的孩子而哭泣时，我们都会有这样的感受。

然而，基督受难并受死，经历了上帝所有的嫌恶与离弃——无论是肉体上的还是情感上的——这一切都是为你。祂大声喊叫，并非因为这样能让上帝听得更清楚，而是为了让当时的旁观者、门徒，以及今天的我们能够听见，听见祂和祂的祈求。基督确实是我们的中保，代表我们向上帝大声呼求。祂的肩膀扛着全世界罪孽的重担，包括你和我的罪；这句原本出自诗篇22篇的祷告，承载了所有的怀疑与质问。

“我的上帝，我的上帝！为什么离弃我？为什么远离不救我？不听我唉哼的言语？……犬类围着我，恶党环绕我；他们扎了我的手，我的脚。我的骨头，我都能数过；他们瞪着眼看我。他们分我的外衣，为我的里衣拈阄。……救我脱离狮子的口；你已经应允我，使我脱离野牛的角。我要将你的名传与我的弟兄，在会中我要赞美你。”

基督祷告了诗篇22篇的第一节，但祂心中怀着的是整篇诗。这是一个出于对上帝的信心与把握的祷告，而非出于绝望；而这一切都是为了你的益处。

真的，以利亚并没有来把祂取下来；祂的上帝也没有营救祂，或差遣天使来帮助。上帝没有任何回应，只有全然的静默。祂的遗体被彼拉多——那个有罪的审判官，交给了约瑟——一个像你我一样的罪人。亚利马太的约瑟是议士，是个尊贵人，但他也是个罪人，“素常盼望上帝国的”（马可福音 15:43）。耶稣被罪人的手取了下来。毕竟，这就是上帝的旨意。“上帝爱世人，甚至将他的独生子赐给我们……”（约翰福音 3:16）。彼得在五旬节讲道时说：“他既按着上帝的定旨先见被交与人，你们就借着无法之人的手，把他钉在十字架上，杀了”（使徒行传 2:23）。

耶稣大声喊叫，“气就断了”（马可福音 15:37）。祂是为你而断气，好叫祂的圣灵可以吹在你身上，使你对祂的真理有信心，这真理借着祂的血洁净你、赦免你、安慰你。祂临终前的这一声大喊，首先震醒了了那个外邦百夫长，“对面站着的百夫长看见耶稣这样喊叫断气，就说：‘这人真是上帝的儿子！’”这是何等的认信！这是何等的信心，竟能穿透所有的黑暗、残酷、嘲弄、愚拙与软弱，抓住了那永恒的光、智慧与力量。

这就是主的道路，在我们的自然宗教、世俗标准或罪恶肉体看来可能是愚拙的，但这正是上帝的智慧和大能。十字架必须是我们基督教信仰的中心，除此以外别无其他。尽管十字架并不总是能吸引人群走进教堂建筑；如今我们许多基督徒都受到诱惑，想用更好的设施、更好的项目、更多的趣味、更多的娱乐来“增长教会”，什么都想要尝试，唯独不想高举“钉十字架的基督”。保罗说：“上帝就乐意用人所当作愚拙的道理拯救那些信的人；这就是上帝的智慧了。犹太人是要神迹，希腊人是求智慧，我们却是传钉十字架的基督，在犹太人为绊脚石，在外邦人为愚拙；但在那蒙召的……基督总为上帝的大能，上帝的智慧”（哥林多前书 1:21-25）。

也正是这同一个十字架，承载着我们基督徒走过世上朝圣旅途中的所有苦难、破碎与忧伤。路德曾说：“当信心开始时，上帝并不会丢弃它；祂将神圣的十字架搁在我们的背上，以坚固我们，并使信心在我们里面产生力量……在苦难和十字架所在之处，福音才能彰显并运用它的力量。福音是生命之道，因此它必须在死亡中运用它所有的力量。若没有垂死挣扎与死亡，它便无所作为，也没有人能意识到它拥有这样的力量，并且比罪恶和死亡更强大”（路德文集 AE 30:126）。

赞美上帝！罪人在受难星期五从十字架上取下的那具尸体，在复活节主日竟成了复活的生命。那看似全然绝望的祷告，竟成了在上帝面前为所有罪人所做的中保代求。在圣餐中，那看似迷信的身体与宝血，在饼和酒之中，交在罪人的手中，结果竟然是赐予生命的，并使我们在永恒中与上帝联合。

上帝那出人意外的平安，必在基督耶稣里保守你们的心怀意念。阿们。

1 Corinthians 1:18-25; Mark 15:33-47

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord to all of you who look up to His Cross, which is for You. Amen.

Don’t think that people who don’t come to church are religion-less. The world out there has its own natural religion. It was embedded in our conscience when we were born. I will give you a few examples mentioned in the Bible.

On the Malta island, Paul was bitten by a deadly viper. People immediately said to one another: “No doubt this man is a murderer” (Acts 28:4). They thought for sure he was a dead man. After waiting for a while, Paul suffered no harm, and they “changed their minds and said that he was a god.” (verse 6)

Even disciples are sometimes not spared from this kind of natural religion. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” The disciples asked Jesus, just like everyone else would have the same question (John 9:2).

When the tower in Siloam fell and killed 18 people, Jesus challenged their assumption based on the natural religion: “Do you think that they were worse offenders (sinners) than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?” (Luke 13:4).

Now Jesus is hanging on the Cross. “When the sixth hour (noon) had come, there was darkness over the whole land” (Mark 15:33). See? Even the universe reveals God’s anger and punishment. People thought Jesus must truly be a sinner, deserving this kind of cruelty. Bystanders mocked him when they heard he was crying for help. “Behold, he is calling Elijah,” who was dead long time ago. Someone even fetched a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. They knew Jesus refused to take any of that for relief of pain. Yet, they did it anyway, not out of mercy, but to mock him. “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down” (Mark 15:36).

Jesus, the Son of God, himself as man, cried with a loud voice at the ninth hour (3’ o clock), “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34). He is truly human, like you and me. Why wouldn’t he cry out like this? Why wouldn’t he assume that God has forsaken him in such an extreme circumstance? 

After all, we would, in the moment of being hospitalized, all by yourself, lying in our deathbed, or grieving over the loss of our beloved ones, or mourning over the death of infants or young children or even babies in the womb. You name it.

Yet, Christ suffered and died, experiencing all the disfavor, abandonment by God, whether physical or emotional, all for You. He is crying out with a loud voice, not because this would make God hear him more certainly, but so that the bystanders, disciples, and we today can hear it, hear Him and his petition. Christ is truly our mediator, crying out loud to God on our behalf. On His shoulders, carries all the loads of the sins of the whole world, including yours and mine; carries all the doubts and questions in this prayer, originally in Psalm 22. 

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?

For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet.

I can count all my bones, they stare and gloat over me;

they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

Save me from the mouth of the lion! You have rescued me from the horns of the wild oxen!

I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

Christ prayed the first verse of Psalm 22, yet He has the whole psalm in mind. It is a prayer out of faith and confidence in His God, not out of despair; and this is all for your benefits.

Truly, truly, Elijah did not come to take him down; His God did not rescue him or send holy angels to help. There is no response from God, but utter silence. His dead body was delivered by Pilate, the sinful judge, to a sinner Joseph, like you and me. Joseph of Arimathea, was a respected member of the council, yet, a sinner, “who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43). Jesus was taken down by the hands of sinners. After all, this is God’s purpose. “For God so loved the world, that he GAVE his only Son” (John 3:16). Peter preached at Pentecost: “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men” (Acts 2:23).

Jesus uttered a loud cry and “breathed his last” (Mark 15:37), for You, so that His Holy Spirit is breathed out upon you that you may have faith in His truth that cleanses you, forgives you, and comforts you by His blood. This loud cry in his last breath, first astonished the Gentile/Pagan centurion, “who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of God!’” What a confession. What a faith that sees through all the darkness, all the cruelty, all the mockery, all the foolishness, all the weakness, and grasps the light, the wisdom, the strength, which is eternal.

This is the way of the Lord, which may seem foolish to our natural religion, worldly standard, or sinful flesh, yet it is the very wisdom and power of God. The Cross has to be the center of our Christian religion, nothing else, despite that it doesn't attract crowds into the church building; so many of us Christians nowadays are tempted to "Grow the Church," with better facilities, better programs, more fun, more entertainment, what so ever, except for Christ Crucified. Paul says, "It pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called... Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:21-25).

It is also this same Cross that carries us Christians through all the sufferings, brokenness, and sorrow in this journey of pilgrimage on earth. Luth: “When faith begins, God does not forsake it; He lays the holy cross on our backs to strengthen us and to make faith powerful in us. . . . Where suffering and the cross are found, there the Gospel can show and exercise its power. It is a Word of life. Therefore it must exercise all its power in death. In the absence of dying and death it can do nothing, and no one can become aware that it has such power and is stronger than sin and death” (AE 30:126).

Praise God! what sinners took down from the Cross, a dead body on Good Friday, turned out to be the resurrection on Easter Sunday. What seems to be an utterly desperate prayer, turned out to be a mediation for all sinners in the presence of God. What seems to be superstitious in the Lord’s Supper, body and blood, with, in, and under the bread and wine, handed over into sinners’ hands, turned out to be life-giving and union with God in eternity.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.