1 Corinthians 1:18-31
Trinity 5
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠
St. Paul writes in today’s Epistle, “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.” He also says that preaching Christ crucified is a stumbling block. But why is that? What is it about the cross of Christ that causes fallen human beings to mock and reject it?
Two reasons: First of all, the cross presupposes human sinfulness–not just that we have a few flaws and imperfections, but that there is a syndrome so serious, a corruption so deep in us that we are at a loss to do anything to overcome it. All our greatest wisdom, all our greatest efforts don’t solve the problem. Only the sacrifice of the Son of God Himself can remedy the situation. Only His death provides the necessary cure.
And that’s not something that we want to accept. “You mean I can’t contribute anything toward my redemption? I’m spiritually blind, dead, and an enemy of God by nature? That’s not very uplifting or encouraging. That doesn’t build up my self-esteem. I don’t accept that. I’m basically a good person. It’s not like I murdered somebody or something. I don’t really need a Savior, just a God who can help me to get through tough times and give me spiritual advice so I can do better in life. This poor, miserable sinner stuff is a little over the top.”
That’s what your old Adam believes deep down. He rejects the message of the cross because he rejects the need for real repentance and real forgiveness. In fact, it is the way of sinful man to justify and even embrace sin as simply part of who we are. The world says that it’s all about self-expression and self-fulfillment. “Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re wrong or sinful. Your only sin is not to embrace your own beauty, your inner god or goddess.” I’m hearing that language more and more, especially the goddess stuff for the ladies. The world teaches you to look for the answers within and to follow your heart. But then Jesus comes along and actually has the gall to say this, “From within, out of the heart, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a person.” (Mark 7:21-23)
No, the wisdom of the world is not the wisdom of God. Worldly “wisdom” absurdly produces evolutionary theories which pose a creation without a Creator, which acknowledges that the matter in the universe, time and space had a beginning but then says that there’s no one who actually started and made it. Worldly “wisdom” tries to assert that a same-sex union, which by definition cannot produce life, is somehow equal to that of the union of a man and a woman which can create life and forms the God-given basis of the family. Worldly “wisdom” trumpets the rights of women and then turns right around and says that unborn females, little girls in the womb, can have their lives snuffed out at will, all while calling abortion “women’s health care.” It’s just plain foolishness, and it’s evil.
The message of the cross calls us all to acknowledge that such foolishness and evil exists within us, even if our old Adam manifests it differently. The word of the cross calls us all to repent, to be crucified with Christ, so that our old self may be put to death with Him, and so that we may be raised with Him to new and eternal life. Let us return to the Lord, our faithful Groom, who loves the Church in spite of herself, who enfolds her with Himself to heal her and restore her and forgive her, who robes her in His own righteousness. He is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love for us. Let us embrace the foolishness and the weakness of the cross as the very wisdom and power of God to save us.
If the world mocks our teaching on sin, how much more foolish is it to the world that we believe in a crucified God? That’s the second reason why the message of the cross is a stumbling block. What sort of a God submits to humiliation and cruel torture at the hands of His enemies? A real God, we think, would just assert His power and show everyone who’s boss. Why would the church want to emphasize what looks like His worst moment? And yet it is written, “We preach Christ crucified.” That’s what saves us, not just that we have a God who is all-powerful–and He certainly is–but that He uses that power to be gracious and merciful and compassionate toward us in Jesus. That’s why we have a crucifix over our altar and not an empty cross, because we believe according to His Word that precisely there in that humiliating death, Jesus was victorious over our sin; He was conquering death and the devil. He was being the perfect Man, the perfect husband, laying down His life for you the Church, His holy Bride.
Don’t forget or become numb to what the cross is; it’s an instrument of the death penalty. Just consider how strange it would be if some more contemporary instruments of the death penalty were the symbol of our faith. What if we had over the altar an electric chair or a hangman’s noose or a lethal injection needle? That would seem crazy, like we were some cult. The cross is no different from those other means of capital punishment. In fact, it’s even more inglorious and disgraceful to be crucified. The Scriptures themselves say, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” And yet in that is the good news, for Galatians 3 says, “Christ redeemed us from the curse, having become a curse for us.” All that we deserved because of our sin Jesus took in our place, whether the sin we struggle against is sexual immorality or self-righteousness or greed or impatient anger or all of the above. Jesus became a curse for you. And so in Him you are forgiven, released, blessed children of God. The cross may not be “reasonable” or logical or scientific, but it is the wisdom of God.
Greeks look for worldly wisdom, Paul says. And that’s the approach that a lot of people have; if what you’re saying about the Christian faith doesn’t make sense to them and their way of thinking, if it’s not scientifically explainable, then they’ll reject it. But there are other who are very open to religion and spirituality and the supernatural. And so Paul also says, “Jews request a sign.” Signs, too, are the way we think God should operate with us. Mysterious occurrences, miracles, something where we can see God’s glory. That’s what seems spiritual, that we’re drawn to–religion where we can feel the power of God through mystical experiences. A lot of your friends and family are drawn to spirituality like that. But then there’s the cross. That wasn’t a draw to people–the disciples fled from Him and left Him alone. He was one from whom people hid their faces. There He was, the ultimate loser on the cross–no glorious signs at all. And yet in that weakness God displayed His greatest strength, the strength of His sacrificial love, love that wins by losing, that defeats death by dying. Because Christ was a loser on the cross, you have lost all your sin and all your guilt.
When it comes to signs, remember where God was with Elijah. He wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire. He was in the still, small voice. So it is for us today. Paul says, “It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” God is there for you in the still, small voice of the absolution and the sermon. The weak and foolish death of Jesus, the foolish and unimpressive preaching of the cross–that’s how God has chosen to save you. Since the world in its self-important pride could not know God through its own wisdom and philosophy, God chose to put to shame the proud by using what seems foolish to them as the means of redemption–a crucified and seemingly defeated God, ordinary words in preaching and water and bread and wine. That is where God’s glory and power and wisdom are hidden to rescue you and bestow on you His mercy.
God chooses what is lowly and even despised to bring to nothing the wise and the strong of this world, so that no one may boast in His presence. And that includes us, too. Remember what the Epistle says, “For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.” That’s describing you. God’s people are not necessarily the smartest in the world’s eyes or the strongest or the most elite. Look at us; we’re not particularly a group of movers and shakers and big shots, nobody special to the world. But that is precisely the way of the cross; it’s not about us, it’s about Jesus and what He has done for us and how we are special and treasured by Him. It’s not what we are in ourselves but what we are in Him that counts.
That’s why Paul concludes, “You are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption— that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” It’s all there for you in Jesus as a gift. By ourselves we were spiritually ignorant, so He became our wisdom. We were guilty, so He became our righteousness. We were impure, so He became our holiness. We could not redeem ourselves, so He became our redemption. Everything that pertains to our being saved, all of it is to be found in Christ. Therefore, when you are baptized into Him, all of those things of His become your own. Trusting in Christ, you are now wise unto salvation, right with God, set apart and holy, redeemed by His blood. Jesus is all in all for you. And so when we boast, we boast only in the Lord. For everything flows from Him.
And if we are going to “boast” of ourselves, then Paul says in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians, let us boast of our weaknesses. For when we boast of our own weaknesses, then we are really boasting of our need for the saving power of God that has been freely given us in the Gospel of Christ. It’s sort of the opposite of evolution; it’s the survival of the weakest. We who are weak before God survive through the hidden wisdom of the cross and so are made strong in Jesus.
This Gospel will always seem foolish and even offensive to the world, even more so in this age of increasing hostility to the church. But so be it. “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.”
✠ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ✠