“The Holy Rude”

Acts 5:29-42

            {Prayer}

            Cursing in general is rude. To call someone “rude” for cursing someone or something is a great way to get one’s attention.

            And if you look at our reading from Acts, this is how Peter and the other apostles are in their preaching, in their addressing of Israel’s behavior, in their addressing of the religious leader’s behavior toward Jesus, towards the Messiah. The apostles proclaimed publicly and loudly that these leaders were rude to God’s Messiah! Here they had waited for the Messiah to come, waited for the Savior to come their whole history and what do they do when He arrives?  They “killed {Him} by hanging him on a tree!” (Acts 5:30). They took the Savior and hung Him on the tree because that is where cursed things go according to Deuteronomy 21. “If a man guilty of a capital offense is put to death and his body is hung on a tree, you must not leave his body on the tree overnight. Be sure to bury him that same day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse” (21:22-23).

            Jesus came and they rudely turned His message, His life saving message into a cursed word to be proclaimed. “Don’t follow Him! He’s not our Messiah! How rude!” But notice what God does with Christ on the cross. Paul in Galatians 3 says: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree’” (3:13).

            You know, there’s a difference in how this message is proclaimed. For the Gentiles, for the non-believing people, the apostles would make the case that God has left them no excuse to know of His existence. Look around you, look at creation, look at the complexity of things. This was all created and is maintained by God. Through their preaching, they would preach about Jesus and how He has revealed forgiveness and eternal salvation to all people.            You know, there’s a difference in how this message is proclaimed. For the Gentiles, for the non-believing people, the apostles would make the case that God has left them no excuse to know of His existence. Look around you, look at creation, look at the complexity of things. This was all created and is maintained by God. Through their preaching, they would preach about Jesus and how He has revealed forgiveness and eternal salvation to all people.

            When it comes to the Israelites though, their preaching took on a whole different style. To say that their preaching was rough or harsh would be taking it easy on them. The apostles typically preached the message that the Messiah, who they had been waiting for their entire lives, was sent by God in the person and work of Jesus. However, the people, the religious leaders, were rough and rude with Him. They rejected Him and in their rudeness they condemned Him to death by hanging Him on a tree. But God didn’t leave Jesus there. God raised Jesus from the dead and by that act alone, Jesus has proven that He is the long-awaited Messiah.

            It’s easy for us to sit here 2,000 years later and be like, “If I were there, if I lived during the time of Jesus I wouldn’t have done that to Him. I would have stood up for Jesus! I would have followed Him and did what He said. I wouldn’t have treated Him rudely.” You know, that is exactly what the Israelites sounded like on Mt. Sinai after they went through the Red Sea. Moses through the elders tells the people what it is that the LORD expects of them, what He has commanded them. They said in response, “We will do everything the LORD has said” (Exodus 19:8). Like them, we are incapable of doing that, of keeping God’s commands.

            We would have failed just like they did, just like the disciples did. You and I nailed Jesus to the cross with our sins and we rudely treat Him as only a part-time Savior. We have Him nearby only when we think we need Him.

            Thankfully though, God is merciful and in His merciful grace, He does not reject us, He is not rude to us, He doesn’t give us what we deserve. No, instead He takes all of it, He voluntarily takes it all from us and puts it upon Himself. He carries it all the way to the cross. It’s there that He transforms our sinful wickedness into a beautiful and holy salvation. Once representing our ugliness, our sinfulness, the cross is now a holy symbol of God’s merciful grace to us by the power of Jesus’ resurrection.

            Let’s do a little play on words. How many have heard the term “Holy Rood”? It’s another name for the cross or the crucifix.

            “Rood” in the expression “Holy Rood” is spelled “r-o-o-d”. Earlier when I was talking about rudeness, I using the word rude spelt “r-u-d-e”. Spelled that way, doesn’t the term “Holy Rude” capture the paradox, the tension of the cross? That rude, crude tree which Jesus hung from, which is more shameful than the forms of execution today, was made holy by His death. People of the first century never would have thought of the cross as being holy. It was a shameful, rude way to die.

            Paul in Philippians 2 says that “{Jesus} humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (2:8). “Even” death on a cross tells the story. Jesus was so obedient that He even went that far. The cross not only hurt, but humiliated the individual. Today though, we look up to the cross as one of our most sacred symbols. The rude has become holy by the power of the “r-o-o-d”, by the power of the cross. All the result of the constant preaching of Paul. Paul turned the attention from himself and placed it always on the cross. In Galatians 6 he says, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:18).

            Unfortunately though, we are sometimes pressured to take down our crosses so that we are not rude, “r-u-d-e”, to other people. We don’t want to offend someone or be seen as rudely pushing our beliefs on other people. But the thing is … it was by the sign of the cross that God confronted our rejection of Him in His Son Jesus Christ. The cross, the “r-o-o-d”, is in fact a rude, “r-u-d-e”, reminder of the sin which we commit and which we need to shock others into recognizing. The cross is God’s confrontation with sin and our only salvation. No matter our differences, we are all sinners and are in need of God’s forgiveness. This comes to us through the cross of Christ.

            So the “Holy Rude”, the paradox, the tension of the cross, isn’t just part of the end of Jesus’ life. This paradox, this tension is a part of the beginning and middle as well. God becomes man, taking on human flesh, thus making the rude holy. Plain and ugly things like the manger and swaddling clothes, because of Jesus becoming flesh take on a whole new meaning. Entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey becomes a thing to celebrate with palm branches. An institution here, an institution there, and what happens? The most unheard of things become the means of salvation. Words, common words, now share the Good News of the Gospel. Water for Baptism, bread and wine for the Lord’s Supper.

            When you think about it … “Holy Rude” captures not only the paradox of the God-Man, of Jesus … but also the paradox of you and me. Thanks to Christ, you and I are the “Holy Rude.” A death on the cross and God suddenly sinners saints. Jesus dies in our place, and by a divine decision which way surpasses our comprehension level but not beyond our faith declares punchy, sweaty, bumbling, stuttering, money grasping, lust-filled, food-filled creatures like you and me to be righteous, to be holy in God’s eyes. Through faith in Jesus as our Savior, God graciously gives us eternal life.

            And then, miracle of all miracles, who God declares to be holy and forgiven He begins to make them righteous and holy as well. We begin to become what God calls us to be in His grace. We begin to become saintly and righteous. That rude, crude creature of clay called man, called you and me … thanks to God through Christ’s mastery, begins to shape-up into a holy being made in the image and likeness of God Himself. Amen.

            The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and forever. Amen.

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