The offence of the cross

At the Saturday evening banquet, John Neufeld, senior pastor of Bakerview MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C., gave a short but powerful meditation. He powerfully expounded the offence of the cross from a single verse, Galatians 6:14: "May it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world" (NASB).

Neufeld said that it was remarkable that the early Christians chose the symbol of the cross to identify with rather than the manger or the empty tomb. In Roman society, execution on a cross was considered crude, shameful and unmentionable. Neufeld noted that ancient Roman graffiti have been found which mock the idea of a God who would die on a cross. Similarly, the Koran (the Muslim equivalent to the Bible) denies that Jesus died on a cross because it is unthinkable that a prophet could die in such a manner. The 19th-century philosopher Nietzsche described the crucified Jesus as a God of the sick and the weak. More recently, a modern Oxford University intellectual has called the cross "intellectually contemptible and morally outrageous".

Neufeld then gave a quick survey of Galatians, demonstrating that the cross is at the heart of gospel. In the face of many other religions and in the face of the temptation to be proud of being Mennonite Brethren, a pastor, educated or respected, Neufeld repeated, "God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of Jesus Christ."

As silence filled the banquet hall, Neufeld then read the words of the hymn, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross". It was an apt preparation for the observance of the Lord's Supper, partaken of around dinner tables as the first Lord's Supper had been.

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