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The problem of the crucified messiah
This letter of Paul to the Corinthians is a very powerful description of the basic problem at the time of Paul. And the problem was a crucified Messiah. Remember, crucifixion was as low as it could get. The Romans had cultivated the craft, so to speak, of crucifixion to maximize the pain and suffering. Those who were crucified were criminals for whom there needed to be a statement made.
In the case of Jesus, “Think like this guy, act like this guy, this will happen to you.” Others, “Don’t be committing these horrible crimes that those on the cross have committed, or it’ll happen to you as well.”
And so in the early preaching of the church, there was a real focus on trying to show how really something of real failure could be the very way in which the Messiah saved. For the Jewish people, the thought of a crucified Messiah was unthinkable. They couldn’t imagine that the great king they were expecting to deliver them to victory could possibly be the Messiah who died on the cross.
Likewise, the Greeks to whom Paul preached saw a stumbling block in the crucified Messiah because that was not a hero. All signs pointed to something really awful about the person who was crucified.
There can be a tendency in our own life to downplay the importance of the passion of the Christ. To downplay the importance of the crucifixion. And yet we know we live in a world of suffering and hardship. We understand that some people bear a cross today, even if it is not us, and maybe it is us. We need to remember that just as the crucifixion of Jesus led to the resurrection of new life, so too our sufferings, our hardships, our difficulties can do the same.
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