by Edward F. Markquart, Seattle, WA

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
- I Corinthians 1:18

The cross is, and always has been, the primary symbol of the Christian faith. No other symbol has so captured the imagination of Christians as the cross.

• For us Christians, no other symbol illustrates what it means to be a Christian and walk the "way of the cross."
• No other symbol so clearly illustrates for us the passionate love of God, the height and depth and length and breadth of God's compassion.
• The cross is the singular symbol of the Christian faith. For Christians throughout the centuries, the cross captures the essence of Christianity: the passionate love of God.

The cross, the central symbol of the Christian faith, is found every place, including on the top of church spires…

The cross is high and lifted up, in order to inspire us. We recall the hymn, LIFT HIGH THE CROSS. The cross is to be high and lifted up in order to catch our attention and inspire us.

Yes, the cross the central symbol of the Christian faith. For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that he gave his only begotten Son.

What it is about the cross that so deeply inspires us? Why is it that the cross has captured the imagination of people throughout all the centuries, like no other symbol? What does the cross say so profoundly to us human beings?

The cross captures the compassionate love of God for us, the height and depth, the length and breadth of God's love, like no other religious symbol.

This symbol, more than any other, is the window through which we can look to see the face of God himself. What does God look like? Can you tell me what God looks like? Can you tell me what his face resembles?

Look through the cross and you will be able to see the presence of God face to face. And that is what I would like to talk with you about today: God's face as seen through the window of the cross.

When you look through the window of the cross into the face of God, what kind of face do you see? You see the face of passionate love, of a passionate lover. His feelings are filled with intensity and emotion, for the face of God is the face of a passionate lover, the face of passionate love.

And what immediately comes to your mind when you think of the phrase, "passionate lover" or "passionate love?" Do you not think of a large movie screen with a face of a famous lover? From movies of yester year, you may think of the face of Rudy Valentino or Clark Gable. Or from yesterday, the faces of Sean Connery or Robert Redford. Or from today, the faces of who Dr. McDreamy or Orlando Bloom. When you think of a passionate lover, you think of a face of a famous romantic symbol from American movies.

Or when you think of a passionate lover, you may visualize one of those passionate love scenes in the movies, when a kiss between and man and woman goes on breathlessly, on and on and on. When you see a steamy love scene on TV, it seems as if the TV is smoking and steaming with passion. When we think of the phrase "passionate lover" we usually think of a love scene at the movies.

But I am using the word, "passionate" very carefully. If you go home and look up in your sermons, the Latin word, "passion" means suffering. If you go home and look up the word "passion" in your dictionary, you will discover that it primarily means suffering. The word "passion" does not refer to some madly intense, French kissing, slobbering, breathlessly clutching, sex scene that has little or nothing to do with passionate love. That has to do with sex. If you go home and look up in your dictionary what the word "passion" means, you will discover that passion has nothing to do with breathlessness. Passion means suffering.

And today we are talking about the passion story, the suffering story of God on the cross. And God is passionate love, a passionate lover, a lover who passionately loves and suffers in pain with us. He loves us with complete abandonment, taking our pain upon his shoulders, and it is only through the window of the cross that we see the face of God, face to face. His face is the face of a passionate lover and not that of a movie star.

I would like to share with you three stories of three faces that show passionate love.

I think of parents and their passionate love for their sick children. I think of those parents whose children are in Children's Hospital in downtown Seattle or in Mary Bridge Hospital in Tacoma. EVERY single parent who has a child seriously sick in Children's or Mary Bridge goes to be with their child. You couldn't keep such parents away from their child and his/her pain. There is a look in their face. There is a look in their eye. There is a body language. This is passionate love. Love that embraces the pain of another. Such is God's love for us. God is passionate love. God comes to us in our pain. No matter where we are or how terrible the burden is, God is passionate love and comes to be with us and strengthen us during each and every painful moment.

Let me (share) two other stories of people whose face reveals passionate love.

And God is passionate love, a passionate lover. The word "passionate" means suffering, and refers to the one who suffers with us and for us. It is only through the cross that you see the face of God as the passionate lover, the one who suffers.

From years ago. It's about a friend of mine. Jack. I knew Jack back in Madison, Wisconsin, years ago. I was working there in as a youth director in a church, and Jack was a member of this congregation. He was a great kid, a fine young man. He was a gifted athlete and held the high school track record in the 440 dash. I loved and admired young Jack. I moved away from Madison, and Jack joined the Marines. He went to Vietnam. In 1966, a grenade was tossed into a group of young men who were in a foxhole together. Jack instinctively dived onto that grenade and was blown to bits. He was killed instantly, and thereby some of his friends are living today. Jack voluntarily gave his life that others might live. And such was his love for others. I saw his mother afterwards at the funeral. She wished her son wouldn't have done that. Her heart was breaking because of what her son had done. And such is passionate love. It is a love which is willing to die for others. The few times that I have been in Washington, D.C., I always visit the Viet Nam memorial and look up the name of Jack and stand before that long, black wall remember "this kid" from long ago and grieve.

The face of God is the face of a passionate lover. And likewise, the face of Jesus, who was the spitting image of his Father: Jesus, volunteering to die on the cross in our place. Jesus, jumping on a grenade that you and I might live, paying the price for us. Like Father, like Son. Both are passionate lovers.

And such was the passionate love of God for us. His love for us was that he was willing to give up his Son for us. That is the passionate love of God, that he was willing to sacrifice his Son on the cross for you and me. And God loved his little boy just as much as all of you parents love your sons and daughters. God loved his little boy just as much as any parent loves their son or daughter. And the heart of God was breaking, as he saw his Son suffer and die on the cross. A parent suffers with a child. A parent dies with his child. God is passionate love.

Another story. My cousin, Lois, died of cancer. She was a young woman, about my age, and she died of bone cancer at the age of thirty-five. I will never forget my last visit with her. She was sitting in her living room, looking down on Lake Oswego in Oregon. I will never forget my last visit with her, nor will I forget afterwards when I went into the kitchen with her mother. When the door was closed, and we were out of earshot of Lois, my Aunt Annie said to me, "If only I could die for her. Why can't I die? I am the one who is old. Why can't I die?" And that was the prayer of a mother, that she could die in her daughter's place. As I came driving home from Oregon that night, thinking about what had happened, I thought about my mother and father. And if I would have been on that bed dying instead of Lois, I know that my mother and father, would have been out in the kitchen wanting to die instead of me. And then I reflected on my own children. If they were sick and dying, that would have been my prayer: "Father, take me. Don't let Anne Die. Don't let Joel die. Don't let Nathan die. Take me, Father, not them." Such is the love of the heavenly Father for us. It's a passionate love; a love which suffers with us and for us and instead of us. It's truly a passionate love, not the love of some passion scene in a movie.

Today we hear the story of the passion of Jesus. Jesus, like God, is passionate. Ours is the only religion in the world whose God steps forward and dies in behalf of his friends, so that they wouldn't have to.

And you see this passionate love of God only through the window of the cross. The cross captures the length and breath, the height and depth of God's passionate love for us.

Oh yes, I know, you see the face of God elsewhere. There are other places where you can look and see the face of God. There are other places.

• You can look at the magnificent beauty of Mount Rainier and see God's creative artistry.
• You can look into the brightness of the sun, and you will see God's face of energy and power. Or, you can look to the infinity and endlessness of starry space with your telescope, and as you look out into the endlessness of starry space, you will see God's eyes and eternity.
• Or, you can look at the complexity of nature as you take your microscope and see molecules bouncing intricately back and forth. You can see the face of God in all these places.

But it is only through the window of the cross that you can see the face of passionate love; a passionate lover who suffers with us, for us, and instead of us. You can see that face of God only through the window of the cross. The cross is the singular symbol of Christianity and it captures the message of God's passionate love for you and me.

It is the nature of this passionate love to keep loving you, no matter what. There is one thing that you cannot do: You cannot stop God from loving you. You can stop God from doing many things, but you cannot stop God from passionately loving you.

You cannot stop the sun from shining. If you want to keep the sun away from you face, you merely pull down the blinds and close the drapes, but you cannot stop the sun from shining. Likewise, you cannot stop the love of God from shining on your life and mine. You can pull down the shades, close the drapes, and try to blot it out, but you cannot stop the sunlight of God's passionate love from shining on you. You cannot stop God from loving you. It is an impossibility, any more than you can stop the sun from shining.

Or God's passionate love is like the mighty waters of the Mississippi River. You may not want to drink from the water. You may not want to harness it's energy. You may not want to go boating on it, but you cannot stop the mighty Mississippi from flowing. Nor, can you stop God's love from flowing into your life. For that is the nature of a passionate lover: God cannot stop loving you any more than you can stop the Mississippi River from flowing

And just "what if" this is true? What if it's true that the face of God is in the face of the cross? What if it's true that the very nature of the universe is not only energy, not only intelligence, not only power, not only infinite complexity; but what if it's true that the nature of the God of the universe is passionate love? What if it's true? That this love is not some religious ideal or pretty philosophical speculation? But what if it's true? What if it's true that God is pure passionate love? What difference would that make to you? What difference would that make to your life, if you knew for sure that God was such a lover? Would you not love God back? Would not love God in return? Would you not respond to him, wanting to love him as he loved you? Is not such love irresistible? Can a child resist such passionate love from his mother or father? Can a child resist such love?

Unfortunately, yes. A husband can passionately love his wife, and she not respond. And a mother can passionately love her child and her child not love back. And it is possible for God the Heavenly Father to passionately love us, his children, and for us not to love him in return. We can simply forget him, ignore him, or resist him. We can live as if the sunshine of his love is not beaming upon us. For God does not coerce, God does not command, and God does not bribe. God simply suffers and dies for you, me, and the whole world.

The cross is the symbol that captures the passionate love of God for your life and mine. And the Lord God wants to capture your heart and mine, that we would love back.

It's in the cross, that symbol which pictures the hidden face of God. And what is the cross for me? The cross for me is the little pink neon light that is gracing the Methodist cathedral in Jackson, Minnesota. And what is the cross for me? It is that simply silver cross that I gave to my wife on our wedding day. And what is the cross to me? It is two nails soldered together, resting in my office desk for decades. What is the cross for me? It is that brass symbol of the cross that hangs on my key chain, that brass symbol that has been worn smooth by me touching it every single day of my life.

By: Msgr. Charles Pope

Gospel: John 12:20-33

The Gospel today is, to the world and those who are perishing, utter madness, utter foolishness. For Christ, in effect, declares that dying (to this world) is the only way to true life. While the world's so-called wisdom declares to us that the way to life is power, prestige, possessions, and popularity, Jesus says we should die to all that in order to find true life.

The word "paradox" refers to something that is contrary to the usual way of thinking. And the true gospel (not the watered down, compromised one) is a real insult to the world.

Indeed, most of us struggle to understand and accept what the Lord is saying. But the Lord can give us a heart for what really matters, a heart for God, for love, and for the things waiting for us in Heaven. And the way to this new life is through the Cross. Jesus had to go to the Cross and die to give us this new life. And we, too, must go to the Cross and die with Him to this world's agenda in order to rise to new life.

To those who would scoff at this way of the Cross, there is only one thing to say, "The Cross wins; it always wins."

Let's examine the Lord's paradoxical plan to save us and bring us to new life.

I. The Plan of Salvation That Is Acclaimed

As the Gospel opens we hear of a rather strange incident. The text says, Some Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover Feast came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we would like to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."

What is odd is Jesus' apparent overreaction to the simple fact that some Greeks wished to speak to Him. From this seemingly simple and unremarkable (to us) fact, Jesus senses that His "hour" has now come. Yes, now is the time for His glorification to take place, that is, His suffering, death, and resurrection. Later He goes on to say, "I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself." He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.

Yes, all this from the simple fact that certain Greeks (i.e., Gentiles) wish to speak to Him.

Even more remarkable is that nothing in the text indicates that Jesus goes over to speak to them. Although He has just given this stunning soliloquy and announced that the drama is about to unfold, there is no evidence that He went over to the Greeks to evangelize them. We will see why in a moment.

But first let us examine why this simple request "throws the switch" for Holy Week to unfold. In effect, the arrival of the Gentiles fulfills a critical prophecy about the Messiah wherein He would gather the nations unto Himself and make of fractured humanity one nation, one family. Consider two prophesies:

1. I come to gather nations of every language; they shall come and see my glory. just as the Israelites bring their offering to the house of the Lord in clean vessels. Some of these I will take as priests and Levites says the Lord … All mankind shall come to worship before me says the Lord (Is 66:18, 23).

2. And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples (Is 56:6-7).

Thus we see that one of the principle missions of the Messiah would be to save not only the Jewish People but all people and to draw them into right worship and unity in the one Lord. Jesus explicitly states elsewhere his intention to gather the Gentiles:

I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd (John 10:14).

And so it is that this apparently simple request of the Greeks (Gentiles) to see Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, carries such significance for Him (and for us).

But why not run and greet them at once? Simply put, the call to and salvation of the Gentiles must wait for the death and resurrection of Jesus to be accomplished. It will be His atoning death that will reunite us with the Father and with one another. A simple sermon or slogan like "Can't we all just get along" isn't going to accomplish the deeper unity necessary. Only the Blood of Jesus can bring true Shalom with the Father and with one another; only the blood of Jesus can save us.

Consider this text from Ephesians:

But now in Christ Jesus you [Gentiles] who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both [Jews and Gentiles] one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:13ff).

Thus nothing but the Blood of Jesus can make us whole, can save us or make us one either with the Father or with one another. There is no true unity apart from Christ. He secures it by His blood and the power of His Cross. Only by baptism into the Paschal mystery do we become members of the Body of Christ and find true and lasting unity, salvation, and peace.

So the door has opened from the Gentiles' side. But Jesus knows that the way through the door goes by way of the Cross. His apparent delay in rushing to greet the Gentiles makes sense in this light. Only after His resurrection will He say, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19). For then there is the power through baptism to make all one in Christ. The price of our salvation, our new life, our peace with one another and the Father, is the death and Resurrection of Jesus. And thank the Lord that Jesus paid that price. An old songs says, "Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan! Oh, the grace that brought it down to man! Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span! At Calvary!"

II. The Plan of Salvation Applied

Jesus goes on to say, Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.

Now while it is true that Jesus pays the price for our peace and unity with the Father and with one another, it is also true that He sets forth and prescribes a pattern for us. Note that Jesus says, Amen, Amen I say to YOU … and then he says, Whoever serves me must follow me.

Thus the pattern of His dying and rising to new life must also be applied to the pattern of our lives. If we seek unity and peace and to enjoy this new life with the Father, we must die in order to rise again. We must follow in the footsteps of Jesus. If we want peace we have to be willing to accept the pattern of dying for it and rising to it.

How must we die for this? Well we have to die to

1. Our ego
2. Our desire for revenge
3. Our hurts from the past
4. Our desire to control everything
5. Our sinful and unbiblical agendas
6. Our irrational fears rooted in ego and exaggerated notions
7. Our hatreds
8. Our unrealistic expectations
9. Our stubbornness
10. Our inflexibility
11. Our impatience
12. Our unreasonable demands
13. Our greed
14. Our worldliness

Yes, we have to be willing to make some sacrifices for unity and to obtain new life. We have to let the Lord put a lot of sinful and unhealthy drives to death in us. New life does not just occur; peace and unity do not just happen. We have to journey to them through Calvary. We, too, must allow the Lord to crucify our sinful desires and thereby rise to new life.

But remember, the Cross wins; it always wins.

III. The Plan of Salvation at Day's End

Jesus speaks of a great promise of new life but presents it in a very paradoxical way. He says, Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.

In other words, if we are not willing to follow the pattern He sets forth of dying to ourselves and to this world, we cannot truly live. If we go on clinging to our worldly notions of life, if we live only for ourselves, for power, possessions, popularity, and prestige, we are already dead. For indeed, if we live only for the things of this world (and many do), ours will be a cruel fate, for we will die and lose everything. Yes, we'll be total losers.

But if we allow the Lord to help us die to this world's agenda and its pathetic charms, then and only then do we pass increasingly to real life, to true unity with the Father, and to deeper unity with one another in Christ. Only then does a newer, deeper life dawn upon us. Only then do we see our lives dramatically transformed from day to day.

Jesus had to die to give this to us. And in order to have it bestowed on us, we must be configured to Christ's death to this world in order to live in Him and find this new life. We die to a sinful and overrated world so that we can live in a whole new way, in a life open to something richer than we can ever imagine.

Note, too, that Jesus calls this new life "eternal life." But eternal life means far more than living forever. While not excluding the notion of endless length, eternal more deeply means "fully alive."

For those who know Christ this process has already begun. At my age (past 50), my bodily life has suffered setbacks. But spiritually I am more alive than I ever was at 20; and just wait until I'm 80! If we love and trust Christ, though our bodies decline with age our souls grow younger, more vibrant, and more fully alive with the years. Yes, I am now more joyful, more serene, more confident, less sinful, less angry, less anxious, more compassionate, more patient, … more alive!

But all of this comes from dying to this world little by little and thus having more room for the life Christ offers.

What is the price of our peace and our new life? Everything! For we shall only attain it by dying to this world. And while our final physical death will "seal the deal," there are the thousands of "little deaths" along the way that usher in this new life. Our physical death is but the final component of a lifelong journey in Christ. For those who know Christ, the promise will then be fulfilled. For those who rejected Him, the loss will be total.

An old song says, "Now I've given Jesus everything, Now I gladly own Him as my King, Now my raptured soul can only sing Of Calvary!"

Yes, the promise is real but it is paradoxically obtained. The world calls all this foolishness. But you decide. Choose either the "wisdom of this world" or the folly of Christ. As for me, I'd be fine if you call me a fool, but make sure you add that I was a fool for Christ; I do not mind. The Cross wins; it always wins.

This song says,