Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church LCMS Missouri Synod 1601 Ave F Sterling Illinois 61081 (815) 625-2284
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The Cross

Celtic cross

Modified Celtic crosses facing all four directions form the crown of the tower and a fifth dominates the church front. In this way our House of God proudly announces its Christian character to the passer-by. The plain cross, whatever its detail and design, echoes the victorious cry of the Messiah: "It Is Finished!"

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called the place of a skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” … [S]tanding by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene ... After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 20, selected verses, ESV).

Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:20-25, NKJV).