By Pastor Steve Nickodemus

Yankee Doodle!

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking this SoundCloud link.

“For the message of 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 New International Version

This drum and fife corps is performing at Colonial Williamsburg, playing the tune “Yankee Doodle”.  You know the words, “Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a pony, stuck a feather in his cap and called it macaroni.”  The words were written by British soldiers to ridicule the Colonial soldiers whom they considered unsophisticated and stupid rustics, unfit to be soldiers.

How did the Americans respond to the ridicule?  They responded by embracing the title “Yankee Doodle” and playing the song proudly both in parade and in battle.  They were proud to be Yankee doodles!

This is how we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ see His cross.  The world sees His arrest and crucifixion as evidence that Jesus was a failure and cursed by God.  But for us who are being saved, we know that the cross is the very power of God, the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, the forgiveness for our iniquities, the only hope for a condemned world.  Jesus bore our sin upon the cross that all who would believe in Him might be saved.

As the followers of Jesus, we proudly bear the cross, embracing the Savior of the world who loved us so much that He died a most terrible death for us.  We are not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes in Him!

The world may ridicule us for believing in a suffering Savior but we know that it is only through Jesus’ death and resurrection that there is hope for sinners.  By His suffering and by His wounds our sin is removed, our debt is paid, and we are able to approach our Heavenly Father.  In the cross of Christ we glory!  Amen!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church Colorado Springs, Colorado