The Foolishness of The Cross
Being Easter weekend, the cross gets a lot of attention this time of year. Many people around the world will gather together to reflect on the cross, but the apostle Paul tells us that the message of the cross is foolishness to most of the world.
Why? Well, the message of the cross is that you and I couldn’t achieve so Jesus had to come and rescue us. That’s not a popular message in our world.
The world’s message is you can achieve. You are ultimately responsible for who you become and how happy you are. You have the ability to change your life.
If this is the world’s message, then it seems foolish to say that Jesus had to come and rescue you. You can just try harder, cut out bad habits, implement new habits, and you’ll get there one day.
But what is interesting is that while many of us in the church understand our need for the cross for salvation, many of us believe the world’s message of making ourselves into better people through gaining more wisdom and through achievement in this world.
We know it’s only through Jesus we go to heaven, but we believe it’s up to us to make ourselves into better people. That’s not the full gospel message, and the apostle Paul went on to explain this throughout the rest of the chapter where he commented on the foolishness of the cross.
THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS
In First Corinthians, Paul is writing to a group of Christians who were being heavily influenced by a culture that valued human wisdom. They looked to leaders and those who stood out in society because they showed signs of wisdom and were eloquent in their speech.
With that type of thinking creeping into the church, this is why Paul says what he said in 1 Corinthians 1:18.
18 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.
(1 Corinthians 1:18)
In other words, the idea of God dying on a cross is foolish to most people. If you are an all-powerful being and you die in a humiliating, weak way like on a cross, then what does that say about you?
Also, as I mentioned already, the message of Jesus having to save us in the first place just seems foolish to most people for at least two reasons.
First, we usually don’t think of ourselves as being bad people. We look around and find people who are making a mess of their lives and think, “I’m a pretty good person compared to them.” We are good at justifying ourselves.
Second, even if we do start to sense that we aren’t doing very well in our lives and that things are wrong with us, we always feel like there is a way out. We can just try harder and we’ll get better. We think that we can follow the 7 steps to make ourselves into a new and improved person.
But Paul says that the message of the cross is actually the power of God on display to rescue and save us. Unfortunately that was and continues to be a stumbling block for a lot of people.
STUMBLING BLOCK
Many people in Paul’s day and ours stumble over this kind of message because the world screams something different. This is what Paul would go on to say later in 1 Corinthians 1.
22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
(1 Corinthians 1:22-24)
Paul says for the Jews of his day what was imaginable was a God who showed signs of power. If Jesus had shown up and delivered them in battle against the Roman Empire then that would make sense. Also, what was imaginable for those who were Greeks was a God whom they could deem to be reasonable through their wisdom.
So, Paul says the message of the cross would be a stumbling block to the Jews of his day because they were looking for a different kind of Messiah, but this message would also be foolishness to the Gentiles because this was a message about a God who got Himself crucified by his enemies. In their minds, that is scandalous and outright foolish for someone who was God, an all-powerful being.
So this is what Paul saw in his day, but if you think about it, it is still what goes on in general within our world today. Many of us are looking for God through signs.
We say, “If God would show up right here, I would believe in Him!” “You know what, my situations and circumstances in life are terrible! If He’d show up and make them better then I’ll believe in Him.” If He’ll just do the signs, that’s when we’ll believe in Him.
But others of us, just like the Gentiles of Paul’s day, are looking to be able to reason God away and fit into our understanding of who we think He should be.
We say, “You know this thing can’t be true because it just doesn’t make sense that Jesus could be the only way to heaven. There has to be more than one way.” Or we say things like, “I can’t make sense of a God who would allow suffering in the world so there must not be a God.” It doesn’t fit into our understanding of who God should be, so there must be no God.
So, the message of the cross seems like foolishness and is a stumbling block to many of us today, but Paul goes on to say at the end of verse 24 that it is a message of power and wisdom.
It is a message of power because, through the cross, Jesus overcomes sin and death. He provides eternal life.
It is a message of wisdom because it is the only way sinners could ever be reconciled to a holy and perfect God.
GOD IS NOT IMPRESSED BY YOU
As Paul goes on in 1 Corinthians 1, he just keeps showing how the message of the cross is in direct contradiction to human expectations about God, and he uses the Corinthians as his next example of this.
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.
(1 Corinthians 1:26-29)
Paul says to the Corinthians, “Human wisdom would say that if God were impressed by humans, then He would have come after those in society who were the most wise, influential, and powerful, but He came after you!” Ouch.
All throughout Scripture, we see Jesus going to the outcast and the lowly in society, and I think a large part of that was to make sure it was absolutely clear that God is not impressed by what you make yourself into.
Do you think that God is really impressed that you made it to the top of your company? That you are in better shape than 98% of the world? That you made a 4.0 in college?
You’ve got nothing on Him, but worldly wisdom will tell you that you do. The world will tell you that if you achieve success and live your life well, then you should be justified before God.
Paul says that would only lead to you being able to boast about yourself, and this isn’t about you. It’s about God and what He and only He can do in you and through you.
BOASTING IN THE CROSS
As Paul finishes up 1 Corinthians 1, he says this in the last two verses:
30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
(1 Corinthians 1:30-31)
Paul shows them that it is not their worldly wisdom and power that will bring them anything from God. As a matter of fact, Paul shows them how much they already have through what Jesus accomplished at the cross!
He says that because of Jesus’ sacrifice at the cross and because you accepted Him into your life through faith, Jesus has become your wisdom already. You are looking for it and you already have it!
He says, in Christ, you are already righteous and holy. You don’t have to get right with God or try to become more holy. Because of the cross, you are right with God and already made holy by Him.
Finally, Paul says, in Christ, you have been redeemed. Through the cross Jesus purchased you. He paid the price to rescue you from slavery to sin and death.
He basically tells them that they are searching for what they already have in Christ because of His finished work on the cross. Therefore, boast in the Lord!
RESTING ON CHRIST CRUCIFIED
As Paul began 1 Corinthians 2, he told them that he resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2) so that their faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power (1 Cor. 2:5).
I wonder how many of us are trying to rest on human wisdom instead of on God’s power through the cross?
How many of us as Christians, like the Corinthians, understood the initial message of the cross for salvation but are now looking around for human wisdom to try and make our Christian lives work?
How many of us are boasting in the cross on Easter weekend but turning to self-help content to help us become a new and better person?
We think that it just makes sense that we can take what people are saying out in the world about discipline, hard work, and trying harder and add them to our Christian lives to live our best lives. Often we even put the Christian stamp of approval on the world’s message and add it to the cross.
But this is not the message of the cross! Paul said, “We preach Christ crucified.” Just Jesus and His finished work on the cross to secure your salvation and make you into a new you.
As you discover more about the life that you already have in Him, you will quit trying to make yourself into a “new you,” and begin to learn to live out of who you already are through what Jesus accomplished for you at the cross! Then you can finally start to live in the victory that has already been achieved for you on Easter weekend 2,000 years ago!
