^{1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. 20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.}

The stage was set for the conflict. In tiny infant flesh the Lord of life had come to taste of death. But there was no need to feel sorry for Him. He wasn't a helpless pawn in the hands of the power brokers of this world. The stakes were much higher than that. This was a cosmic battle, and Jesus would come out on top. It was a fight to the death, and Jesus would win the victory by His death. For once the Victim would emerge as the Victor. The cross would not be a tragedy but a triumph – the crowning achievement of the King of Glory clothed in human flesh.

But let's backtrack to some of the earlier events that led up to and foreshadowed our Lord's victory on the cross. One event of particular importance was the arrival of the wise men from the East. Just exactly who they were, we don't know. Some say they were astrologers, some, stargazers, some, religious gurus. Tradition calls them the "Three Kings," but there's nothing to support the idea that there were only three of them, and it's highly unlikely they were kings. The only thing we know for certain is that we know very little. It's significant, however, that they simply appear out of nowhere and throw Herod into a tailspin.

Herod was the kind of ruler who would be threatened with news of foreign visitors seeking another King to worship. Herod was a paranoid, power_hungry ruler who arranged the assassination of several of his own sons to protect his throne. So it should come as no surprise that he could plot the death of the infant Christ. When the Magi came to him for help he piously pleaded for them to bring him news of Christ's whereabouts so he could also go and worship. But he was lying in his teeth, and the slaughter he later arranged for all the infant boys in Bethlehem revealed his real intent.

Thus the cross cast its shadow over the Lord of life already in His infancy. Death loomed ahead for Christ. You might even say it was His "job description." A death sentence hung over all humanity, and the death of God was the only way out from under it. Mankind was in bondage to death, so death had to die. But life itself was the price – the life of God embodied in human flesh. There was no way out. The cross was Jesus' ultimate and inescapable destiny. Of His own free will He came "to give His life as a ransom for many."

The next time we see His destiny unfolding is by the Jordan River, where John had set up his center of operations and was preaching a "Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Clothed in camel’s hair and leather and eating locusts and wild honey, he was the very picture of the prophet Elijah who had called Israel to repentance in the days of wicked King Ahab. John identified himself as the "voice calling in the desert," as the one who was to prepare the way of the Lord. So, there in the desert along the Jordan, John was preaching his fiery message of repentance in anticipation of the Lord's coming. Centuries earlier Isaiah had predicted that just such a messenger would appear, so the people were ready to heed what he had to say. And after they heard him they came in droves to receive his Baptism.

But when Jesus stepped up to be Baptized, John objected, saying, "I need to be Baptized by You!" And we know what he meant. After all, Jesus had no sins of His own to confess, how could He qualify for John's Baptism? To his objections Christ replied, "It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." You see, Jesus needed to do this for us, for his Baptism was not His own, it was ours. By His Baptism Jesus took upon Himself the obligation of the sins of the world. There He took up His cross as realistically as when Pilate's soldiers laid the crossbeam on His shoulders. There at the Jordan the sinless Son was made to be sin for us. The die was cast, His destination sealed, and in the water of His Baptism the Lord of life stepped heroically into our death.

In Adam all die, the Apostle reminds us, and that's the tragic consequence of the infamous Temptation in the Garden. On the surface it was a simple act – eating forbidden fruit. But on a deeper level, much more was at stake. Adam and his wife fell for the devils' favorite tactic – they chose their own prestige over the Word of God. "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," the Creator had told them, "for when you eat of it you will surely die." "You will not surely die," the devil argued. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." As is true with almost everything the Devil says, this was half_true. Before, Adam and his wife had known only good. Now, they would know evil as well. They would learn that when you aspire to be like God you lose something – you lose life – you end up with death. And that's exactly what happened – not only to Adam and Eve, but to every human being since.

"A liar and the father of lies," is what Jesus called Satan, and He should know from personal experience. For like Adam, Jesus also went head to head with him. In Eden the tempter conquered Adam, but in the Jordan desert the tables were turned. It was a new scene, but the same drama. At Calvary Jesus won the victory over Satan, but that victory began in the Jordan. There the New Adam gained the upper hand. God in human flesh, stood toe to toe with the devil – but this time the devil lost.

It wasn't as though Satan didn't try. In fact, he threw every trick in the book at our Lord. Though Jesus was fresh from the water of His Baptism and was headed for the cross, the devil thought perhaps he could cause Him to abandon His mission. But our King stood His ground. He met every temptation head on. He would not be deterred from the cross, for the wages of sin is death, and Jesus had come into this dying world determined to pay that debt. From the beginning in Jordan to the end at Calvary He had only one resolute purpose. It's here that we see the unbreakable link between Jordan and Calvary, water and blood, river and cross. And that link is death, the death of God for the life of the world.

That ought to be great news in the midst of our dying world, but for some reason the cross has lost much of its punch. When so many crosses hang on so many of our walls, adorn so many of our necks, and appear in so many of our Sanctuaries, St. Paul's claim that "the message of the cross is foolishness" seems strangely out of place. Even in our Lord's day the curiosity seekers saw nothing new or unique at Calvary. They'd seen it all before. There was a sordid routine to every execution in that day. There was the stripping, then the flogging, and finally the nailing. In the end they all looked pretty much the same – jagged, bleeding human flesh nailed up to die a horrible, agonizing death. And so, at least on the surface, Jesus' crucifixion was just like all the rest.

Stripped of His clothing, He was nailed up to die a shameful death, and the governor's official indictment – that He was the King of the Jews – was hung over His head in bitter mockery. The jeering mob thought they had the last laugh when they cried, "He saved others, but He can't save Himself!" But that's precisely the point. He didn't come to save Himself. He came to save us! Gladly, He laid down His life. Willingly, He bore our sin. Joyfully, He embraced our shame – and that's really the heart and soul of the matter, for while there's certainly guilt connected with sin, shame is the real killer. We can pass off our guilt on someone else, but there's no way to rid ourselves of shame. It lies there, deep inside the human heart, an ugly, festering wound within. And Jesus has not ignored it.

In fact, He removed it. Though He was God, He made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross. In His naked, shameful death, the Lord of life not only embraced sin's guilt, but its shame, as well. He bore the biting pain of our shame in His very body, and by His wounds we are healed. So, in spite of outward appearances, there was more going on there at Calvary than meets the eye. Pilate's biting parody proclaimed an ironic truth; though He governed no real estate and commanded no earthly armies, the King of the Jews, was, in fact, hanging there, dying. The mysterious Magi had been the first to introduce God's awesome saga, and here was its final chapter. The promised King had come, but His kingdom was not of this world. God in human flesh, had come to die. The Cosmic King had laid down His own life for the life of the world.

Here then, is the true sacndal of the cross – that God died for the sins of the world – for when Jesus died, God died! It's as simple – and as mind_boggling as that. Every complex theological argument or intellectual debate has to step aside in the face of the cross. You can't argue your way to this truth. You can't arrive at this conclusion by any rational debate. Human wisdom will always consider this message foolish and weak, but as Paul reminds us, "The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom." And so this foolish, weak cross is the heart and center of the Christian Faith. All reality flows from it. We have no hope other than the cross of Christ and its message – the death of God for the life of the world.

From the day of Adam's rebellion, this life_filled world has always been on the brink of death. Dying to live, we're all dying just the same. But in the midst of death there is life. It's the life of Jesus Christ, whose very flesh embodies life. In His death on His cross, this living Lord brought life to our dying world, for His death means the death of death itself. On Calvary God shattered our shackles of bondage and defeated our most dreaded enemy. There on that site called the "Place of The Skull," the Lord of life snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. "It is finished," Jesus called out with His dying breath – and it was. All the power of sin and death died with Him. In His death Jesus Christ swallowed up death forever – and that's why the cross brings life.

Dear friends, there's no road to life apart from Jesus Christ. But there's also no need to live apart from Him either, for He's given His Church in every age a genuine link with His saving work. That link is Baptism. Baptism is what connects Jordan with Calvary – the river where He first confronted our death with the cross where He ultimately triumphed over it – by His own death. Sharing in His death by our Baptism, we also share in His resurrection. The link between our dying world and the living Lord is the washing He's given His Church. It's a life_giving water, because it's our link with the crucified and risen Savior. "As many of you as were Baptized into Christ have put on Christ," the Apostle writes, and so, in the midst of our dying world every Baptized child of God has a share in His never_ending life. By Baptism we die in Christ, and by Baptism we live in Christ. There's life in that death of His, and so also there is life in His washing – and that life is the very life of God. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen