except Christ, and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). To make the corner- stone of the faith a religiously accursed person (Deuter- onomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13) and a convicted political criminal who was tortured, publicly humili- ated and executed is indeed a bold affirmation. This is foolish; it is even a ridiculous scandal. Paul recognizes it, and in a subversive move makes it the decisive point of the Christian mes- sage (1 Corinthians 1:18-25).
But the apostle goes even further by identifying suf- fering—of creation, of the persecuted Christian com- munity (Romans 8:18-25), and even
a faithful witness of Christ, to point people to God and to share radical good news with the world.
By Vítor Westhelle I
n his reflection on Luther’s theol- ogy of the cross, Hendel opens with two important features on how the reformer dealt with the question of the cross.
The first was to point to Paul as the main theological source of Luther’s understanding of the theol- ogy of the cross. Paul was audacious in saying that he “decided to know nothing
his own (2 Corinthians 12:9)—as the indwelling place of the Spirit and of the power of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:4). And this became a central motif for Luther who early in the Refor- mation made the cross his signature motif when he said, “Only the cross is our theology.”
The other opening remark by Hendel worth emphasizing is that Luther as a rule used the expression theologian of the cross instead of theology of the cross. Even when he employed theology of the cross it was used not as a theology about the cross, but a theology done from the standpoint of the cross and suffering. This is why when he talked about
the cross he also included suffer- ing, referring to human suffering in which Christ became a co-sufferer with us.
The cross of Christ and our suf- fering are essentially identical. And this participation in Christ makes us inheritors of the first fruits of the resurrection born out of his suffer- ing and death on a cross. This is the promise and hope for those facing trial, suffering and oppression. 1525 was a turbulent year for
Luther. He was put on trial and had to make painful decisions. That year he said in a sermon: “There is a dif- ference between preaching about the passion of Christ and living out the passion. The first the devil does, the second is the work of the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, a theologian of the cross is not someone who elabo- rates a sophisticated discourse about the passion of the Christ, its atoning theories on how the death of Christ saves us, or makes a movie about it, and so forth, but the one who speaks from his/her heart in pain and suffer- ing and, in that, shares the promises and power of Christ for us and in us. This is why Luther said that cross and suffering are “the litmus test of everything” (crux probat omnia); it separates the theologian of the cross from a theologian of glory. Later in life when the cross motif does not come as often as earlier on in his writings, Luther made a radi- cal move by proclaiming the cross (as suffering) as a decisive mark of the church-community, in addition to the traditional ones of the Refor- mation: word and sacraments. This means that church happens when and where a community is on trial but nurtured in hope. There a church is born to gather the sup- plicants for rebirth and communion, and to send them renewed into the world.
October 2012 19
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