Daily Devotion – April 29, 2020 – Roy Hammerling
Colossians 1:15-20
“. . . For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, . . by making peace through the blood of the cross.”
A Bloody Peace
Martin Luther early on as a teacher came to believe that the cross was central to the teachings of the scripture. He argued that the fullness of God was not only pleased to dwell in Christ, but that God chose to be hidden in the ugly deformed Jesus who suffered a bloody death on the cross. People, said Luther, prefer rather to believe in a God of glory and power, however, God will not be found riding on such lofty clouds far away from us. Rather, the faithful are only able to see the divine with the eyes of faith, for God is hidden where we would rather not go. Luther said that a theology of glory seeks God in power and honor; those who seek something from God, believe so God will grant them riches, popularity, power, and whatever they desire. But God is not found there, said Luther. God’s peace is a bloody peace, a theology of the cross. Herein lies the great mystery; peace comes through an instrument of death and humiliation, the cross, in a Christ who emptied himself for others. As we wait in the dark night of our present difficulties, these days of uncertainty, we remember Christ was born in the shadow of the cross, hidden away except for a few shepherds and wise men to stumble upon not in a lofty palace but a manger. As we wait, we turn to the cross, the place where Christ is recrucified in the world among the immigrant fleeing to find hope, the anguished souls who cry out, “My God why have you forsaken me,” and in all the suffering who bear their own crosses. Look to them and there you will discover Christ in our midst.
Prayer: Grant that we may not so much seek glory and power, O Christ, but the cross. Humble us or else we will never be able to see you. Amen.
Prayer Concerns: For ourselves and all who seek God in the wrong places.
