The Folly of the Cross

“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.” (1 Cor 1:18)

I realize a post about the cross may seem untimely, since Christmas is in the read view mirror, and Easter isn’t near. But there is never a wrong time to consider the cross. No one was ever saved by a Christmas tree, but a simple cross that came from a tree changed the world. In fact, it’s the reason why today’s date is written as the year 2025. Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, our very calendar is inspired by the birth of Christ.

“A.D.” stands for anno domini, Latin for “in the year of the lord,” and refers specifically to the birth of Jesus Christ. “B.C.” stands for “before Christ.” I’ve read many of the arguments on why we should be using  C.E. (“Common Era”) and B.C.E. (“Before Common Era”) and it seems like yet another reason to insert political correctness into our everyday lives. For nearly 2000 years the modern world has used the birth of Christ to divide history and designate our calendar. If you say that you were born in 1964 you are saying that you were born nineteen hundred and sixty-four years after the birth of Christ.  

The focal point of time itself is centered on the birth of Christ and is the dividing point of time in world history.  For many, Christ is still dividing more than time – it divides brothers, sisters, friends and even nations. Just look at the headlines today – there is a war going on by the enemies of Christianity who seek to destroy all who believe in Christ.

If we change from A.D. and to B.C. to B.C. and B.C.E. it does not change the fact that Jesus Christ was born and that he is the Person who has had the most written about Him than any other single person in all of human history.  He has had more impact on the world than any other historical figure, and is either worshiped or despised. To Christians He is known as God. To Muslims he is known as only a great prophet. Wars have been and will be fought over who exactly this Man whose birth we will celebrate this month. What cannot be denied is that whatever abbreviation you use for the year, the year and abbreviation still originated in the birth of Jesus Christ.   That will never change.

There is a lot of debate going on these days about the different religions of the world, and I’ve seen many potshots being taken at Christianity, and some who seem to think that those of us who follow Christ are foolish people. Many people view the gospel of Jesus Christ as a tame and powerless fantasy. Yet in 1 Corinthians 1:18 the apostle Paul called it “the power of God.” He used the Greek word dunamis, which is the root for our word dynamite. Paul said that to an unbeliever the gospel is foolishness, but anyone who is willing to believe it will experience the “dynamite” of God.

In a case that was before the US Supreme Court the focus was on whether a religious symbol, specifically a cross, should be allowed on public land. Mark Sherman, writing for the Associated Press, said that although the cross in question was erected in 1934 as a memorial to soldiers who died in World War I, one veteran’s group that opposed it called the cross “a powerful Christian symbol” and “not a symbol of any other religion.”

The cross has always been controversial. In the first century, the apostle Paul said that Christ had sent him “to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect. 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” (1 Cor. 1:17-18).  

As followers of Christ, we see the cross as more than a powerful Christian symbol. It is the evidence of God’s power to free us from the tyranny of our sin. I look forward to celebrating Christmas, and seeing the Christmas tree as symbolic of the tree that the cross came from – the one that changed time and history forever.