It is often said that the Christian faith took the whole Mediterranean world by storm; what started as an insignificant “Jesus movement” in Palestine soon became a universal religion that encompassed the whole Roman Empire. St. Luke who narrates the development and spread of Christianity in Acts of the Apostles provides the explanation through a word of caution of Rabbi Gamaliel to the Sanhedrin concerning the intransigent Apostles: “Have nothing to do with these men, and let them go. For if this endeavor or this activity is of human origin, it will destroy itself. But if it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy them; you may even find yourselves fighting against God” (Acts 5:38-39). That finally Paul the Apostle arrives in Rome, in chains and yet free to preach the Gospel, proves this: the nascent faith-movement comes from God and human beings cannot destroy it.

Being of divine origin does not mean, however, that Christianity triumphed mightily over the ancient religions like Gideon dispersing the Midianite army with blowing of horns and breaking of jars (Jgs 7:20) or Joshua causing the walls of Jericho to collapse with a seven-day march around the city (Jos 6:4). Christianity conquered the hearts of peoples with what St. Paul calls “the message of the cross”—foolishness to the pagans and a stumbling block to Jews, but to the believers, the power and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1:22-24).

In today’s Gospel, Simon Peter is shocked to hear Jesus predicting that he will suffer and die in Jerusalem. And rightly so! He had just confessed Jesus as the Messiah of God, and Jesus had called him “Rock” because of that confession. How, then, can Jesus speak of the cross when a crucified man is cursed by God! The Messiah was thought to be a glorious figure, not a man of suffering! The message is just as shocking when preached to the Gentile world. A crucified Messiah as God’s means of reconciling a lost world was a bizarre message, not “good news.” In the early third century, the pagan Caecilius Natalis said of the Christians, “I hear that they adore the head of an ass, the basest of creatures—a most worthy and appropriate religion for such manners.” A graffito of a man’s body with an ass’s head found in Palestine reflects a similar response by Gentiles to the “folly of the cross.” Under this graffito was the caption: “Alexamenos worships [his] God.”

The cross can only be “good news” if its meaning is completely overturned. This was shown in the resurrection of Jesus. God was pleased with the obedience “unto death, unto the cross” of Jesus that he raised him from the dead. St. Paul, the first theologian, was a theologian of the cross. According to him, the cross is the initiative of God and the demonstration of his great love: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). Jesus’ cross is not an accident of history but a historical witness of God’s unmerited love and saving grace: God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ (cf 2 Cor 5:19).

Paul came to this realization not as an afterthought but through a dramatic encounter with the risen Christ. On the way to Damascus, Christ “apprehended” him and showed him that he is in fact what the disciples preached him to be. Paul was struck by the “power and glory of the cross” as if by lightning.

This was the conviction that he then preached to both Jews and Gentiles. They understood the paradox of the cross and became believers, ready to lose their lives that they might find it in Jesus.

You duped me, O Lord, and I let myself be duped; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All the day I am an object of laughter; everyone mocks me.

Whenever I speak, I must cry out, violence and outrage is my message; the word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him, I will speak in his name no more. But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.