Biblical Emphases: The Piety of the Cross

Sermon for Midweek of Judica – Lent 5

1 Corinthians 1:18-31  +  John 12:23-33

The final Biblical emphasis we’ll consider during our Lenten services this year I’m calling the ‘piety of the cross.’ It’s another emphasis found throughout the Bible, although the term ‘cross’ doesn’t show up until the New Testament, for obvious reasons. It’s also another somewhat unique emphasis of the Lutheran Church, sometimes referred to as the “theology of the cross” (Luther’s own term), as opposed to the “theology of glory.” But the term “piety” is also heavily used in our Lutheran writings, and the bearing of the cross is a large part of piety.

First, what is ‘piety’? It’s godliness. It’s religious devotion. Devoutness. To acknowledge that man owes devotion and reverence to God. Fulfilling one’s duties to God, what we would call the First Table of the Law, the first three Commandments. The opposite is ‘impiety,’ ‘wickedness,’ ‘godlessness’ or ‘ungodliness.’ The word ‘ungodly’ is another word for ‘impious.’ The ungodly behave as if they didn’t owe anything to God. They are ‘irreligious.’

The pagans actually understood piety relatively well; it’s part of the Law that God has written into the hearts of all men by nature, and it shows up in many mythologies, like the Aeneid, for example. Remembering to offer sacrifices, prayers, acknowledging the hand of the gods in one’s life, to give the gods the proper credit for the good that has happened, to appease their wrath for the bad, offering the right prayers for things you wanted, doing what the gods told you to do, regardless of the consequences you might face.

The pagans, of course, directed their devotion to the wrong gods, and therefore, made up their own sacrifices and their own duties, and they wrongly thought that their pious devotion earned them God’s favor.

As Christians, we know who the true God is, and we understand that it’s not a person’s piety or devotion that earns God’s favor or that makes up for our sins. Original sin makes that impossible, as we’ve learned. We’re justified by faith alone, as we’ve learned. But for believers, piety is still important, the sense of devotion toward God and the focus on devotion toward God, toward fulfilling the First Table of the Law. Trusting in God for everything. Regular prayer. Honoring the name of God and the reputation of God, first in your heart, but also before the world. Taking time to read and study God’s Word, to hear the preaching of it, and to devoutly observe the Sacraments God has given to be observed.

Piety flows from faith in Christ. We live to imitate our Lord Jesus. Look at the examples in Scripture of His devotion to His Father, from twelve years old in the Temple, to all the time He set aside for prayer, and for living to accomplish the work His Father had given Him to do.

What is that special piety or devotion ‘of the cross’? Jesus teaches us that, too. We heard in John 12, The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified…Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

Last night, we watched The Passion of the Christ. It showed the great pain Jesus endured, but it also conveyed rather well His resoluteness, His willingness, His unflinching faith in His Father’s goodness through it all. He didn’t approach the cross ignorantly or fatalistically, nor did He approach it “gladly” or easily. He approached the cross, walked right up to it and embraced it, out of pure devotion to His Father, without any complaining or bitterness for having to endure it. That’s piety.

A large part of piety is to bear the cross patiently, to recognize God’s love and faithfulness even in the midst of suffering, and sometimes to choose suffering for God’s sake rather than to choose an easy path that leads away from God. No one should choose to suffer for suffering’s sake. But to accept suffering patiently, if it’s God’s will that you suffer, or to choose the cross because it’s God’s will, because to choose a different path would be against God’s Word—that’s what we mean by the piety of the cross.

That’s what we heard Jesus talk about in the second lesson tonight…He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.

The Christian serves God, renders devotion to God, by following Jesus, and that path inevitably includes the cross.

But God’s glory is there behind the suffering, behind the loss, behind the foolishness of what we preach and what we believe, even as Christ was glorified in His suffering.

And God’s choosing is there in the weak things of this world, as we heard Paul tell the Corinthians in the first lesson. God chooses the weak things, the foolish things, the ignoble things to shame the wise.

So, instead of being ashamed of our lowliness or suffering or foolishness in the eyes of the world, piety means accepting it, embracing it, choosing it when you have a choice between being faithful to God or being faithless, and even giving thanks to God for it. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The world can’t understand the piety of the cross. As soon as things start to go poorly, as soon as life on earth becomes hard, the world says, do whatever it takes to make the pain go away. When the world sees the Christian bearing the cross, the world taunts and asks, Where is your God? Well, we know where our God was. He was being whipped and beaten and scourged. He was being tried and condemned to death. He was up there on a cross. That’s what next week is all about, a focus on the cross. With the strength of that focus, we’ll all be better equipped for that daily piety of the cross, for all the daily self-denial and the struggles that await us this side of heaven. And when people ask, Where is your God?, we’ll be able to answer with conviction, my God was there, bearing the cross for me, but now He’s risen and exalted and reigning at the right hand of God, and where He is, there will I be. Amen.