1 Corinthians 1:18-31
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 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? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being [2] might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him [3] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Grace Mercy and Peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text today is the Epistle lesson that was just read, especially these words. “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.” Thus far our text.
Dear friends in Christ. Has someone ever told you something that you knew was completely and totally foolish, something that was just impossible to believe? I myself can remember times growing up when my parents would ask me a question about my homework, or about what we did in school that day. And often times, I know that after I had given my answer, “there wasn’t homework today,” “we didn’t do anything exciting today,” that they knew the answer was foolish. I just didn’t make sense. How could there never be any homework at school? How could you never do anything exciting in school? The answer was impossible to believe it was foolish.
Friends, you and I don’t want to believe foolish things. We don’t want to be duped or to be misled into believing something that is just plain crazy. To believe in something, we have to have proof. We have to be able to explain it logically, with facts that cannot be denied. We look to the wisdom of those whom we believe are smarter than we are. But in our text today, St. Paul tells us that God used the most foolish of things to bring about the fullness of his own wisdom and the fullness of his own grace.
GOD USES THE FOOLISH THINGS OF THE WORLD TO SAVE YOU AND ME
When St. Paul writes the words of our Epistle lesson, he has been out preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people living in the Roman Empire for quite some time. It was written while Paul was staying in the city of Ephesus, some 25 years after Jesus had been crucified and risen again. Paul wrote this letter to the church that was in Corinth, an important town at that time in the Roman Empire. The city of Corinth had been destroyed 100 years earlier by the Romans, and then rebuilt by Julius Caesar as an imperial city, complete with pagan temples and shrines.
The church in Corinth had a huge struggle and fight. They did not live in a Christian world. The majority of people who lived in Corinth were still pagan. They still trusted in the false gods of Jupiter and Mars to take care of them. And so when they heard the “ridiculous” (in their opinion) claims of Christians that Jesus had risen from the dead, they laughed. When they heard that Jesus gave out forgiveness of sins, life and salvation through a little bit of water in baptism, they said “Foolishness!” When they heard that Christians believed that they ate the very living resurrected body and blood of Jesus every week in the Lord’s Supper, they may have called Christians morons for believing such things. I mean after all, isn’t that cannibalism?
The philosophers of that time surely in public said that Christians were simpleminded. That Christians had no clue how the world actually worked. The pagan scribes wrote and distributed writings that have survived to this day about how the world was created by the Titans, the parents of the Olympic Gods who currently ruled the heavens. Any other belief was foolishness, moronic, and idiotic.
I don’t know about you, friends, but to me, 2000 years ago in Corinth sounds a lot like our own day and age, and like every day and age. The wise people of the world are constantly telling Christians that they are fools. The wise people of the world are constantly coming up with different ideas of where the world came from, and how it works and what will happen to you upon your death. Today, scientists have taken facts, things like the existence of atoms and the diversity of creatures, and concluded that our own faith and belief is ridiculous, and replaced it with stories of billions of years. And if you don’t agree, you are considered a fool.
On T.V. there are shows that completely disregard Christianity. There are books that speak of Christians being idiots. There are Youtube videos that try to explain how moronic Christians are for believing what they do. The same things that were challenged in Paul’s day in Corinth are the same things that are challenged today among us. “How can pouring water on the head of a baby do anything? They aren’t even smart enough to count to three, let alone be capable of faith. How can that water really create faith? How can the real body and blood of Jesus be present in, with, and under the bread and wine? It doesn’t make sense. And most importantly, how can you really believe that Jesus has risen from the dead? HA! You fools! You morons! Don’t you get it?”
And this is the center of their attacks on us Christians. The crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. If they can convince themselves and even you that that is false, the rest of the faith crumbles. And so we see on TV shows falsely claiming to have found the tomb of Jesus. Shows that claim Jesus died, but never rose from the dead. We hear of Jesus just being a good teacher and that is all. But St. Paul writes to the Corinthians and to you, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Yes, according to the wisdom of this world, the wisdom of science, and the wisdom of some of the smartest people alive on this planet, we are foolish for believing that God could become man, suffer, die and rise again for your forgiveness. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak to shame the strong. God chose Jesus to bring to you the God’s healing power. “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
How could the infinite God dwell in human flesh? It is foolish. But it happened. How could that man’s death count for the death that all of us in our weakness deserve? It is foolish, but it is true. How could a man killed on a cross, and rise from the dead, after lying for 3 days festering and bloating in a tomb? It is foolish, but in that so called foolishness the fullness of the wisdom of God is seen. For God knew that we on our own could not save ourselves. Our sin was too great. So he sent his Son, low and poor, to be despised by the world, and even killed by the wise in our place. In the death of Jesus, you have been given all the promises of the kingdom.
For to us, it seems foolish that God would want to rescue us, but he does. It seems foolish that God would come and willingly go to the cross, and suffer and die for you. That he would allow himself to be beaten and stabbed for you. Jesus, to rescue you from the wisdom of this world, gives up his own life. He will be nailed to a roman instrument of torture and execution, for you. And because Christ went to the cross, you now have the promise of eternal life. You now have the promise that no matter what you have done wrong, or done with worldly wisdom, or more, that you now have forgiveness in the blood of Jesus Christ. You are a redeemed child of God.
This promise of rescue and eternal life, the promise earned as Jesus dies for you now comes to you in ways that seem foolish to us, but even so, they deliver the forgiveness of Jesus. Here today, we have had the promises of God delivered to us in the word of God read and preached. It may seem silly, but in these words, the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing your faith as you receive Jesus. And today, (at Immanuel) we see the foolishness of baptism, where a tiny infant receives faith from God, and is washed in the blood of Jesus and made a part of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It may even seem foolish that such a tiny baby can actually have faith. But it is true. These things that seem so quaint to this world, that seem so impossible are actually delivering the forgiveness that Jesus earned by his death.
Dear friends, what I say up here every Sunday may sound at times like foolishness. It may sound like it can’t really be true. You may even have people tell you that “I don’t buy all that ‘religious’ stuff.” But the fact of the matter is this. What in our eyes seems foolish is God’s wisdom in saving you from your sins and from this world of sin. The tomb is empty. As the text says. The word of the cross is foolishness to this world, but to you who are being saved, it is the wisdom of God. Amen.
