DEVOTION//Crucified
We preach Christ crucified—which is offensive to Jews and foolishness to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:23-24 EHV).
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is a barbaric form of execution.
Twenty-first Century American Christians shy away from thinking about the torturous way Jesus' life was wrung from his body. Preachers are tempted to hold back from fully describing its terrors. We are more comfortable talking about crucifixion in sanitized euphemisms than in terms that describe its gross and gruesome reality.
But First Century Christians could not escape crucifixion's horrors. Many in the Roman empire would have witnessed crucified men, beaten and bloody, writhing on their crosses, screaming out for death.
Graffiti
In 1959, archeologists found a crude drawing of a crucified woman scrawled on the excavated remains of an ancient guesthouse near Naples, Italy. The drawing calls the woman Alkimilla. Archeologists do not know if it represents what actually happened to Alkimilla or if it's what the artist wished would happen to her. The graffiti appears to show her affixed to a crossbeam; her back seems scored with numerous slashes made by a whip. (For more information see Roger Pearse’s blog post.)
Such was Jesus' death.
Wisdom and power
No wonder Paul says that Jesus' death by crucifixion was "offensive to Jews." Then he adds, for everyone else ("Greeks"), believing that a crucified man could be the Savior was "foolishness."
But no matter how offensive or foolish people judge the good news that Jesus was crucified in order to forgive the sins of all people, the guarantee remains. "[We] were redeemed…with the precious blood of Christ, like a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-21).
In Jesus' crucifixion, we see God's infinite power at work -- the power to treat his Son as though he was guilty of all sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). We see the infinite and amazing wisdom of God that designed a way to free us from our sins and the punishment they demand (1 Corinthians 1:30 ).
Yes, "[The crucified] Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God."
Embrace the awful price Jesus was willing to pay for your sin. Don't turn away. Shudder at its hellishness. But before all else, rejoice over the power and wisdom of God displayed in Jesus' crucifixion. "The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5).