The Wisdom of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

For the word of the Cross is foolishness to those who are on the way to destruction, but it is the power of God to those who are on the way to salvation. For it stands written, “I will wipe out the wisdom of the wise and I will bring to nothing the cleverness of the clever.” (Isaiah 29:14)

Where is the wise? Where is the expert in the law? Where is the man who debates about this world’s wisdom? Did not God render foolish the wisdom of this world? For when, in God’s wisdom, the world for all its wisdom did not know God, it pleased God to save those who believe by, what men would call, the foolishness of the Christian message.

Brothers and sisters: Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength

BACKGROUNDER

The Christian message delivered to us in the New Testament has certain constant elements. 1) God’s promises and prophecies given to Israel are now fulfilled. 2) This fulfillment is in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. 3) We await the coming of Jesus in glory at the end of the time. 4) There is an urgent invitation to all peoples to repent and to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

To the people of the promise, the Jewish people, the message is a stumbling block because Jesus died on the Cross. The Anointed One of God could not possibly have ended up dead on a cross of shame. Furthermore, they could not expect the King to be a humble servant who deliberately avoided offers of rule. They were looking for a majestic figure who would conquer all of their enemies and rule with an iron rod. The contrast with Jesus on the Cross was scandalous.

Why was the message of the Cross foolishness to the Greeks? First, the Greek philosophers considered it essential that God simply could not feel. For God to feel joy, sorrow, anger or grief would mean that a mere mortal could have the power to influence God They went even further, believing that God would not lower himself to being involved with human affairs. Augustine, the great Christian teacher of the early Church, said that the Greeks could never have imagined the mystery of God made man, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”.

Greek wisdom was aimed at manipulating people to get what one wanted. The bluntness of the Christian message, that Christ crucified, was crude in comparison. Yet such is the power of the Gospel that many of these cultured pagans, with many gods and an amazing civilization, embraced the message of the Cross. Similarly, the Jewish people became the root stock for the Christians (Romans 11:17-24), from them came the first followers of Jesus, including Paul himself.

What is the wisdom of the world today? God is so distant for many people, that they would say that even if he exists, he just doesn’t care about us. And like the Greeks world wisdom is just about getting what we want, and on satisfying our own needs. Like the Jewish people of Jesus’s time, it’s hard to take Jesus seriously in an age of influencers and celebrities. Jesus did not control his image to make himself look good. This is the wisdom of God, which despite all of our wisdom, is the only source of salvation.