Prepare to Listen. The word of the cross is the power of God.
Prayerfully Read 1 Corinthians 1:17-25 17For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom, so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power. 18For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’ 20Where 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? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength. Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect “In God’s wisdom, the world didn’t know God through wisdom. So it gave God pleasure through the folly of our proclamation, to save those who believe.”[1] Wisdom, foolishness: What do you think is the difference? I suspect Paul, by today’s standards, wasn’t an acceptable preacher. What he said was far more important than how he said it. He rejected “eloquent wisdom,” and clever sermons. He had only one message: “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.” Jews didn’t expect their Messiah to die as a common criminal on a cross. Greeks were only interested in in words of eloquent wisdom. The Cross turned the world upside-down and thus, as Isaiah wrote, “The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.”[2] Paul understood and thus determined to preach nothing but Christ and him crucified. In God’s wisdom no one can know God by wisdom (i.e., intellectual searching). We come to God through the foolishness of a message about the cross, that made salvation available to all peoples. It’s bizarre good news, contrary to everything we were taught. The cross teaches that we only win when we lose. Paul proclaimed the cross, not with eloquent or powerful sermons, “so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.” The power is Christ’s death, not our eloquent words. Wright has a point when he writes, “The church needs to recover its nerve and talk about the good news once more as good news, not good advice—as good news that will appear bizarre to some and shocking to others but will carry, as before, the salvation and wise power and love of the one God.”[3] What surprised or challenged you in this passage today? Prayerfully Respond Lord, give us the courage to trust your wisdom that is so foolish to so many and to stay true to proclaiming, in word and deed Christ and him crucified. Amen. Live obediently. Stay true to the word of the cross of Christ. [1] N. T. Wright’s translation of v. 18 in Simply Good News. HarperOne 2015, p. 27. [2] Isaiah 29:14. [3] Wright, 2015, p. 125.
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