In 1 Corinthians chapter 1, Paul argues that God's purposes in the world are accomplished "through the foolishness of the message preached." The message that the cross of Jesus Christ saves those who believe--this is what is well-pleasing to God. There is no "gifted program" in heaven. There is no fast track. There is no special education class. When we get to heaven, we will have a perfected knowledge. We will no longer see though a glass darkly, but once glorified, we shall see him face to face. But until then, we have to recognize that God uses intelligence and wisdom, but only the intelligence that He has sanctified, and only the wisdom He himself gives. It is a counter-intuitive wisdom--a wisdom that runs entirely counter to the wisdom of the age.
Paul sets all this in his own historical context in verse 22, "For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness." We must look at this sympathetically. First of all, from the perspective of the Jewish mind, the cross was not the answer to their theological equation. They did not see what we can see, and in humility we must admit that we are looking with 20/20 revelation hindsight. We do not read Isaiah without already having read the gospel of John. We must understand that what we now clearly see, they did not understand.In John chapter 6, after the feeding of the 5000, the crowd comes to Jesus and demands that He give them signs. In response, Jesus tells them there would be no signs, because they were all looking for the wrong kind of sign. According to their own messianic expectations, the Jewish people were looking for One who would come in power, One who would come in glory, One who would make Rome tremble--not one who would die upon a cross.
Similarly, the Greeks were searching for wisdom--but again, it was not the wisdom manifested in the cross of Christ. For most in our culture, it is this Greek pattern of thought that is the major stumbling block. So far as the sophisticates and the philosophers of our age are concerned, the cross is foolishness. It is madness. What kind of sophisticated philosophy of life is this? Compared to Socrates and Aristotle, where is the ethos, the sophisticated intellectual structure of this message of the cross? Besides, Socrates had world famous disciples, including Plato. Even Aristotle was a tutor to Alexander the Great. But who followed Jesus? Fishermen, almost assuredly illiterate ones. Surely, they thought, this message of a cross is simply ridiculous.
And yet it is not only Corinth in the first century, but also America in the post-modern age which thinks in such terms. A stumbling block and foolishness--to so many, even today, that is all the Gospel of Jesus Christ represents. But in verse 24, Paul says, "But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."
It is not only the foolishness of the word of the cross Paul proclaims, but also the witness of the church: "For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." (1 Corinthians 1:26-29)Have you ever considered the fact that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a witness to the power of the gospel? For what but the gospel could explain how we got here? What but the gospel can explain who we are? The church is a witness, and it is so in a very strange way. According to worldly wisdom, if you want to do something great, if you want to transform the world, you go after the "A" list. You go after the rich and the powerful and the beautiful. You go after those with social status and standing. You go after people who have a constituency--a following. You go after celebrities.
