Acts 18:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18

In the beginning there was no division, strife, or enmity. Adam and Eve were at peace with God and each other. They lived together with the animals and the creation in harmony. They walked with God in the cool of the day. They embodied the words of Isaiah, “They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Isa. 9:11).”

But all of that changed when they disobeyed God’s command and ate of the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Right away division and strife entered the world. They hid themselves from God. They were ashamed of their nakedness. They were no longer at peace with themselves. They began to blame God, each other, and their environment. Adam said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me fruit.” Eve said, “The serpent tricked me.” And so, enmity entered the world.

Division, strife, and enmity have ruled ever since. Cain slew his brother Abel. Noah’s generation was filled with wickedness, corruption, and violence. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband, Uriah. Israel repeatedly forsook the Lord their God for idols made with human hands. Ever since, kingdom has risen against kingdom and nation against nation. There have been wars and rumors of wars. The history of humans has been an incessant succession of wars, reigns, dates, and kings.

Over the course of the last ten years, we have become increasingly aware and alarmed by the division, strife, and enmity in our country. We are painfully polarized as a people. For years I have been praying for something or someone to unite us as a nation. I have been asking God to give us a compelling vision of the common good to bring our leaders and citizenry together. Eventually, I began to realize that it would probably take something terrible to overcome our enmity, strife, and division. It would take something that would force us to work together for the common good. When the pandemic broke out in China and began to spread around the world, when the dread disease began to spread in our country, I wondered, much to my horror, whether this was an answer to my prayers. Would Covid-19, a terrible calamity, a horrible common enemy, bring us together?

Sadly, I do not think it has. If anything, it has exposed and exacerbated the social, political, economic, and racial fractures of our society. Our federal and state officials are back at each other’s throats. The stark disparity between the rich, the middleclass, and the poor is even more evident. The disproportionate effect of the virus on minority communities has revealed how poverty, access to health care, and substandard education have combined to make these communities more vulnerable.

Is there a balm in Gilead to heal our sin sick souls? Is there a cure to overcome our strife, enmity, and division? There is, but it is a two-edged sword. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a source of division in the world, but it is also the ultimate cure for what ails us.

Last Sunday, in Acts 17, we saw that the gospel produced believers in Thessalonica, but those who rejected Jesus as the Messiah fomented a riot, attacked the believers they could get their hands on, dragged them before the authorities, and made all kinds of false accusations against them.

We see the same dynamic at work in Acts 18 which records the founding of the church in Corinth. Luke records, “And when they opposed and reviled him, he shook out his garments and said to them, ‘Your blood be on your own heads! I am innocent. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’ […] But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews made a united attack on Paul and brought him before the tribunal, saying, “This man is persuading people to worship God contrary to the law (Acts 18:6, 12-13).” The gospel created enmity, strife, and division in the Jewish community in Corinth and it spilled over to the city.

There is no middle ground about Jesus as God’s Messiah. Either you embrace him, or you push him away. Either you are in Christ or you are separated from Christ. From God’s perspective, according to the scriptures, there are only two groups of human beings: those who are perishing and those who are being saved. Jesus himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me (Jn. 14:6).” The gospel is divisive in the world.

You would think that there would be unity in the Church of Jesus Christ, but that has never been the case. The first division was between Jewish and gentile Christians over Jewish kosher laws. Could Jewish and Gentile Christians eat together if “unclean” foods were being served? But the divisions did not end there.

In Corinth, the church had become divided into factions that coalesced around leaders in the church. Paul describes the church this way. “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” The Corinthians Christians were looking at each other with suspicion and disdain. They were asking each other, “Who do you follow? Who baptized you?”

The same kinds of divisions have continued to the present day. But it was not the gospel that divided the Corinthians or that divides present day Christians. It was their lack of grasping the gospel that caused strife. In First Corinthians verse 18, Paul speaks about the “word of the cross.” The New Revised Standard Version translates Paul’s words as “the message about the cross.” But Paul is not talking about information regarding the cross. He is speaking of the event of the cross which includes the resurrection. He is talking about what the cross says to us.

Well, what does the cross say? The cross declares that the enmity, the division, the strife that existed between God and human beings has ended! What began in Eden and continued for millennial, the estrangement of human beings from their Creator, Judge, and Redeemer, that estrangement has come to an end. The word of the cross is God’s “Yes!” to human beings. To borrow the words of the Easter hymn: “The strife is o’er, the battle done; the victory of life is won. […] He closed the yawning gates of hell; the bars from heaven’s high portals fell.”

Gordon Fee, expounding on the phrase, “the word of the cross”, in his commentary on First Corinthians, wrote, “The message of the cross is the event of the cross and the resurrection itself. That is, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus for Paul marked the ‘turning of the ages,’ whereby God decisively judged and condemned the present evil age and is in the process of bringing it to an end.” Or as Paul says, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting our trespasses against us (2 Cor. 5:19).”

Is there a balm in Gilead for the world and for the Church? Indeed, there is. It is the word of the cross. When a person’s focus is the word of the cross, when you see what God has done through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, when you grasp that the enmity, strife, and division between God and the human race is over and done, it transforms you. You are no longer naked before the Almighty. You are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. You are no longer estranged. Instead, you have news, great good news to share. God is in the process of bringing an end to this present evil age with all it’s strife, division, and enmity. God has made a way for us where there was no way. Now we can align the story of our lives with the unfolding of God’s great story of reconciliation.

The focus on the word of the cross not only transforms our relationship with God, it also transforms our relationships with each other in the body of Christ, and even with those who are still outside the circle of Christian faith. We are not each other’s enemies. We are reconciled creatures who can become part of God’s new age that is slowly dawning. Our enmity can be healed.

This message seems like foolishness to those who are perishing. How can a crucified and resurrected Messiah transform the world? This question has been raised from the very beginning. A famous second century A.D. graffiti scratched on a plaster wall in Rome depicts a young man worshiping a crucified donkey-headed figure. The Greek inscription below it reads, “Alexamenos worships his god.” The author of the graffiti was making a mockery of Alexamenos’ faith and his deity. But for us who are being saved, the word of the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Is there hope for humanity? Is there hope for the church? Is there a cure for our strife, divisions, and enmity? There is! God has acted decisively in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We call these events “the word of the cross.” God is for us, not against us. Now we can be for God and for each other. What can bring national unity? The right leader or a terrible disaster? No! I will never imagine such a foolish thing again. The word of the cross is the only true hope. So, let us fling wide the portals of our heats. Let the word of the cross fill you and transform you, and then with the prophet Habakkuk, let us pray, “O Lord, revive your work in our own time, in our own time make it known.” Let us pray, “O God, pour out the Holy Spirit on all flesh that men and women and children may seek you and find you. O Lord, open our eyes to see each other as reconciled creatures instead of enemies. O God, hasten the end of this present evil age and usher in the life of the age to come!”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.