9 April 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Latin Rite · Syro-Malankara Rite · മലയാളം
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
Every Friday is a little Good Friday, and on this Friday of the Easter season Paul brings us back to the Cross. Corinth was a city that admired clever speakers and new ideas. Into that world Paul brought a message that sounded absurd: that the Saviour of the world was a man executed on a Roman cross, the death reserved for slaves and rebels. “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Paul does not soften the scandal. He quotes Isaiah: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” Then he asks: “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?” Human wisdom, for all its brilliance, did not find its way to God. So “God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe.” The Cross is not a clever argument that wins debates; it is an act of love that saves. After Easter we know that the Crucified is alive, and that is why the Cross is the power of God: the weakest moment in history became the moment death was defeated.
Paul describes the two ways people resist this message. Some want signs, proofs of power; others want wisdom, a philosophy that satisfies the mind. “But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” Paul himself was a Jew, and the first to receive this message in Jerusalem were Jews; he is describing not a people but a temptation found in every human heart, which wants God to prove himself on our terms. Our own age asks for both: give us miracles on demand, give us arguments we can control. God gives instead a crucified and risen Lord. The Saint Thomas Christians of Kerala have long venerated the Cross without the figure of the Body, the Cross of the Resurrection, glorious because the Lord is risen; the Mar Thoma Cross with its flowering arms and the dove above shows the tree of death become the tree of life. The Cross is not the end of Christ's story but the door to Easter.
In the Gospel Jesus sits in a boat and teaches the crowd on the shore. “Listen! A sower went out to sow.” The seed falls on four kinds of ground: the hard path where birds snatch it, the rocky ground where it springs up and withers, the thorns that choke it, and the good soil where it yields “thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” Jesus himself is the sower, and his word is the seed. The parable is honest: much of the sowing seems wasted. Yet the sower keeps sowing, generously, even on the path, because the harvest in the good soil is beyond all calculation. The two readings belong together. The Cross itself looked like seed thrown away: a life buried in the ground. Jesus said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). Easter is that harvest. The question the parable leaves with us is not about the sower but about the soil: what kind of ground does the word find in me? “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
Theme: “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
The folly of the Cross, Christ the power and wisdom of God, the generous sower, and the grain that dies to bear fruit.
“so I will again do amazing things with this people, shocking and amazing. The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.” Isaiah 29:14
“For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18
Apply: Spend five minutes before a crucifix today and thank the Lord.
“But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5
“but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:24
Apply: Make the sign of the cross slowly and reverently each time you pray this week.
“so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11
““Listen! A sower went out to sow.”” Mark 4:3
Apply: Share one Gospel verse with someone this week.
“May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.” Psalm 126:5
“Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”” Mark 4:8
Apply: Cut back one ‘thorn’ that chokes God's word in you.
The Cross that looked like defeat is the power of God, and its harvest is Easter.
The sower is generous; let us become good soil.
Take-home resolution: This week, pray before the Cross, cut back one thorn, and share one verse of the Gospel.
Dear friends, every Friday is a little Good Friday, even in the Easter season. Today Paul says: For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
In Corinth people admired clever speakers. Paul preached a Saviour who died on a cross. It sounded absurd. But God chose the foolishness of the Cross to save those who believe.
Some want signs on demand; some want wisdom they can control. We proclaim Christ crucified, the power of God and the wisdom of God. And because he is risen, the Cross is no longer a sign of defeat. Our Mar Thoma Cross flowers at its ends: the tree of death has become the tree of life.
In the Gospel Jesus tells of a sower who throws seed everywhere: on the path, on rock, among thorns, and on good soil. Much seems wasted, yet the good soil yields thirty, sixty, a hundredfold.
Jesus is the sower, and his word is the seed. The Cross itself looked like a seed thrown away, but it rose in the Easter harvest. The question is about us: what kind of ground does his word find in me?
This week, let us clear away one thorn, and let the word take root. Let anyone with ears to hear listen! Alleluia! Amen.
Children, Jesus told a story about a farmer who threw seeds. Some were eaten by birds, some dried up, some got choked by thorns, but some grew into a big harvest!
God's word is like a seed. When you listen to Bible stories and remember them, the seed grows in your heart.
Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, the message of your Cross is foolishness to the world but to us the power of God. Keep us from demanding signs on our own terms and from trusting only our own wisdom. You are the sower who goes out to sow: make our hearts good soil, clear away the stones and thorns, and let your word bear fruit in us, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen. Alleluia!