This brief message is appropriate before or after observing the Lord's Supper.
When I was in Israel I visited a shop one day where they sold souvenirs and knick-knacks and stuff like nice-smelling soaps and candles. As I was looking at these things the shoplady came over to help me. She didn't speak English and my Hebrew was quite rudimentary, so we were mostly talking in sign language! Until, that is, I unconsciously allowed a Russian word to slip out. Her eyes opened wide and she exclaimed in perfect Russian, "You speak Russian! Why didn't you tell me?!" I could just as well have asked her the same question. She was, of course, from Russia and upon this discovery we were able to converse freely. She asked what brought me to Israel and I mentioned I was there with a group of Baptist pastors. She began to ask me about my faith, and as I explained she listened very attentively. Until I came to the crucifixion. Then she stopped me abruptly and said, "Stop! That I cannot accept. The Messiah hanging on a cross? Never!"
I'll say more about this shoplady in a few minutes, but let's turn now to a passage of scripture. (Read Matthew 11:2-6). "Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me." How mysterious these words must have sounded. Jesus has described the most wonderful miracles: the blind see, the lame walk! This is all good news. Surely everyone was rejoicing! What was there to be offended at, what reason to fall away? Why did the Lord add these mysterious words? He did so because he knew, perfectly, what was coming....
(Read Matthew 16:21-23). Doesn't Peter sound much like that shoplady in Jerusalem? "No, this cannot be! I won't accept it!" In this confrontation we learn how much God's ways are not our ways. "You're not thinking God's thoughts", Jesus tells Peter. Man's thoughts are naturally focused on this life and this world. God's thoughts are higher, and they are perfect and eternal. Here in this passage we see a paradox. Peter wanted to protect Jesus' life. We'd call that a good motive. But Jesus rebuked him for it, even called him a "satan", that is, an enemy. Peter wasn't thinking like God. To God, the salvation of man was worth the sacrifice of His Son. Jesus considered his own life less important than the salvation of man and the glory of his Father.
But man doesn't think like God. What God calls important, what God considers of the utmost value, what God is ready to give everything for, man calls foolishness or ignores completely.
In that shop in Jerusalem, when the woman said she couldn't accept a crucified Messiah, I told her she wasn't the first person to say that. Two thousand years ago the apostle Paul met the same objection. You see, I wanted her to know that her argument was already an old, worn-out one! (Read 1 Corinthians 1:18-25) Remember, Jesus says, "Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me."
To this day God holds out the cross to the world, the cross as the place of redemption and forgiveness - Christ on the cross as the Sacrifice Lamb. And God says to the world, "Will you surrender your own thoughts, your own wisdom, and receive my love and salvation? Will you receive My Son?"
Jesus on the cross... this is not philosophy, this isn't mere religion, this isn't clever words of human wisdom - this is God's infinite love fully unfolded and salvation for everyone who receives him.
We have a beautiful chorus we sing in English: "Oh, how he loves you and me; oh, how he loves you and me! He gave his life - what more could he give? Oh, how he loves you; oh, how he loves me; oh, how he loves you and me."
That is why, to this very day, as the apostle Paul wrote, "whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes." (1 Cor. 11:26)
Today we proclaim his death and will go on proclaiming it until he comes, even if it is "foolishness to the Greeks and a stumbling block to the Jews", because it is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes." And so Jesus said, "Blessed is the one who does not fall away on account of me."
