Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
So in this season, this time in the Church year, we meditate on the Cross, we reflect on the Cross,
and it's interesting because from the very beginning of Christianity,
St. Paul called the cross of Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The power of God and the wisdom of God, which makes no sense to us, right?
Here's the power of God? Jesus Christ, God himself—God and man
completely humiliated, completely power-less, completely stripped—
that's the power of God, dead on a cross?
The wisdom of God?
How in the world is that wise?
Paul recognized that that Cross would be a ... well ... it's a sign a contradiction, right?
Jesus, it was prophesied that he would be a sign of contradiction
by the prophet Simeon in the beginning of Luke's Gospel, the beginning of Jesus's life.
The cross is always both out of place and the cross is always 100 percent relevant.
You know, for the first centuries actually I would say even millennia and a half or more of Christianity,
the Cross is God's answer for our sin,
that here we are in justice
we recognize that we're sinners, that were separated from God,
that we choose to say no to God, we choose to use each other,
we choose to reject God, we choose to not be the people God has called us to be
and the Cross is God's answer for our sin.
The Cross is with how God wins back our souls,
because why?
Because in justice, we deserve not-God.
In justice, if I said, "I don't want you, God," I deserve to not get God.
I get that.
In justice, I'm on trial and that's how Christians saw themselves, how people saw themselves,
like I'm on trial
and yet,
then the Son of God takes my place
and in that, he wins back my soul.
It's remarkable, it's true. It's called vicarious atonement.
Where instead of me suffering,
Jesus is the vicarious atonement. He's the one who suffers in my place.
I was on trial, I was guilty
and the Cross now is how God wins back my soul
but something interesting happened in the last, I don't know, 100 plus, 200 years maybe
and that thing is the way we saw ourselves and God changed
and how we saw ourselves is not ourselves being on trial,
we looked around the world and we saw all the sin in the world.
We saw all the brokenness in the world.
We saw the suffering in the world.
Now, it's not any more sin, suffering, and brokenness than other people saw in previous years, previous ages.
We saw it from a different lens, a different viewpoint.
And our different lens, our different viewpoint was this:
God, if you actually are good and if you actually are powerful,
then you would remove all this suffering.
God, if you were powerful, you would remove all this sin.
God, if you were truly good, you would actually take away our pain.
And we come before God not with ourselves being on trial,
but we place God on trial.
We put God on trial and say, "How dare you not do anything in the face of suffering!"
"God, how dare you not do anything in the face of my pain!"
And the crazy thing is this—the Cross is still the answer.
The power of God and the wisdom of God is still the answer. Why?
Because in ancient days, when we saw ourselves as being on trial
and the Cross is God's answer,
the Cross is how God wins back our soul,
when we place God on trial,
the cross is still the answer
because the Cross is how God wins back our trust,
because he allows all that evil and all that suffering and all that pain
to overwhelm him.
The image of Jesus on the Cross
not only is a sign of, "Oh my gosh, that's how much you love me.
You win back my soul God, because I'm guilty"
but it's also, God, here's how humble you are.
Here's how powerful you are. Here's how wise you are
because you also let yourself be completely stripped,
you let yourself be completely overwhelmed by the suffering and the evil and the death in the world.
Why? So that when I look at the Cross—the image of Jesus on the crucifix,
I say that's the God who loves.
That's the God who knows my heartbreak, that's the God who knows our suffering.
That's the God who wins back our trust.
When you look at Jesus on the Cross, you see a God you can trust.
You know what? When I first thought of this or realized it, I guess, it got me mad.
I was like man, stupid modern man. We're so dumb.
I can't believe we put God on trial. I'm the one on trial, I'm guilty. He's not guilty.
And then I read something from Pope Benedict XVI and it was just like
he recognized the same thing and he said, And that's good. It's OK.
And I was like, "What?!? What are you talking about Pope Benedict? How is that fine?"
He's like, Because God is so good, he's so powerful and he's so wise
that the Cross is going to always be the answer for every question,
for every challenge that we ever could bring before the Lord, the Cross will always be the answer.
And if a new question comes up in the next decade or the next century or the next millennia,
the Cross will still be God's answer.
The question of "What I do with my sin?"
The Cross is how God wins back my soul.
The Cross is God's answer to "God, can I really trust you?"
God emptying himself on the Cross is how God wins back our trust.
And if you have another question, I'm telling you the Cross will be the answer
because the cross is God's answer and it is the power of God and it is the wisdom of God
and it answers all questions.
This Holy Week, this Good Friday, this life,
I invite you do not remove Christ on the Cross from your life
because you'll always have a cross, will always have a pain
and if we remove Christ's cross from my life,
I won't not have a cross, I'll still have the pain
but I won't have him.
Hold on to the Cross.
Let it be before your eyes every day
and let the power of God and the wisdom of God be the answer of God for all your questions.
From all of here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless.