We’re deep into our “Whispers of Grace” series, and today we’re tackling a powerful, perhaps unsettling, concept: the cross. More specifically, we’re exploring cruciformity – the idea of being formed to the way of the crucifixion. Sounds terrible, right? Jesus himself said, “If you’re going to follow me, every day you have to take up your cross.” This doesn’t exactly align with the “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life” sales pitch many of us heard when we first started walking with Jesus.

How do “wonderful plan” and “take up your cross daily” go together? It’s a tough question, and one we need to wrestle with. Our focus this morning, as we journey through these 15 New Testament words of life, is on First and Second Corinthians.

The Foolishness of the Cross to Corinth

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians can pretty much be summarized as: “What the heck, guys?” Corinth was a city much like a mashup of Nashville and Las Vegas – a place where people were incredibly proud and arrogant about being Corinthians. They even started their own Olympic games because the actual Olympics weren’t good enough!

Paul writes to this prideful church, beginning in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “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.”

The Corinthians, who valued outward appearance and honor above all else, found the message of the cross deeply challenging. The cross itself was humiliating – a brutal, shameful way to die. The Romans perfected crucifixion not just as a means of execution, but as a public display of power and a tool of shame. Victims were often naked, left to die of suffocation over days. This was designed to break a person from the inside out.

A Stumbling Block and Foolishness

To the Jews, the cross was a stumbling block. Death on a tree was considered unclean, and a dead Messiah was no Messiah at all. How could a Messiah who was “handled” by the Romans be the promised one? For the Gentiles, it was simply foolishness. Why would anyone follow a God who was so shameful and pathetic, who died like a loser?

But Paul turns worldly wisdom upside down. He asks, “What does real power, real strength, real wisdom look like?” We often imagine military might, conquering enemies, and domination. But Paul says, “Nope, it looks like a cross.” It appears shameful and weak, but from this position of weakness, God reveals true power – a power rooted in love.

Love, Sacrifice, and the Cross

Why did Jesus go to the cross? Out of love. It’s at the cross that we see justice, mercy, love, and grace all wrapped into one moment. God takes the shameful, weak things of this world and says, “Here is a new and better way.” Real power is rooted in love and found in places of weakness, powerlessness, and among the despised.

Paul reminds the Corinthians that when they were called to follow Jesus, they weren’t wise, influential, or of noble birth. They were “kind of losers” by worldly standards. Yet, even within the church, they began to recreate the very worldly hierarchies they experienced outside, leading to divisions and self-serving behavior.

This sounds familiar, doesn’t it? The church in America today often focuses on power and strength, trying to display it for the world. But we are called to be a cruciform faith, shaped by the cross, rooted in self-sacrificial love.

This is where 1 Corinthians 13 comes in. While often relegated to weddings, this chapter is the centerpiece of Paul’s letter, giving us a sense of what cruciformity looks like in action. Paul is essentially saying, “You need to live in light of the cross, embracing this upside-down way of living where power and wisdom look like worldly foolishness and weakness, and it’s all rooted in love.”

Love Never Fails

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 beautifully describes this cruciform love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Where is this love rooted? How is it ultimately demonstrated by God? On the cross, through the self-sacrifice of Jesus. Love is a giving of ourselves, a self-sacrificial act that puts others before us.

The cross isn’t just a transactional thing – Jesus died for my sins, I pray a prayer, I go to heaven. While being saved and reconciled to God are part of it, the cross is a deeper, broader demonstration of what love truly looks like.

An Aroma of Life or Death

“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.” (1 Corinthians 1:18)

In 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of carrying this message as either smelling like life or stinking like death. The message of self-sacrifice, of giving ourselves for the benefit of others, either attracts and draws people in or repels them completely. There is no middle ground.

To follow Jesus is to embrace a cruciform following. Our lives are to be changed and transformed by the reality of the cross. This means we are willing to put our comfort aside for others, to go to the margins, to walk alongside those on the outside looking in, and to give of ourselves. This is what taking up our cross daily looks like. It looks like the way of love described in 1 Corinthians 13.

Holding Love in Jars of Clay

2 Corinthians 4 reminds us that we hold these things in jars of clay – easily broken, easily showing the world this kind of love. My challenge for you this week is this: do you hold this gift of love in a jar of clay, readily displayed for all to see? Is your heart easily broken, cracked open with ease for people to experience this love, grace, and mercy? Or do you hold this love in a safe, hidden away, tied up in a desire to avoid shame and stay far from the fringes?

Do you hold this love in a jar of clay or a safe? What will you wrestle with this week?

A Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank You that Jesus showed us the way of love, that He demonstrated for us that love is costly, that love is ultimately rooted in this self-sacrifice on the cross. Father, we pray that we would be a people who holds this cruciform love in jars of clay, putting it on display for anyone who can see. Lord, would you help us to be a people who loves well, just like Jesus did on that cross? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Listen to the full sermon here: Whispers of Grace - The Cross (1&2 Corinthians)