The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is foolishness 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 understanding of those who have understanding, I will confound.” 20 Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than mankind, and the weakness of God is stronger than mankind. 26 For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; 27 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, 28 and the insignificant things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no human may boast before God. 30 But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (NASB)

The Corinthian culture had a fascination with rhetoric. They were impressed with people who could speak well, wax poetically, and entertain. Mostly they were impressed with educated people who could attract people and appear successful. Their court system had more to do with which the attorney’s or witness’s use oratory than anything else. They were all about entertaining and emotionally moving jurists to their side. Like today evidence was considered boring and largely irrelevant to the masses. Personalities and razzle dazzle is what they followed.

Not much has changed in that regard. Much of contemporary protestant Christianity, Lutheran congregations included get caught up in personalities, performances, and programs that measure success by a standard alien to the Bible’s teaching. How does God judge a pastor and a congregation? It is required of stewards of the mysteries of God that one be found trustworthy. (1 Corinthians 4:2)

There has always been a temptation by clergy, church leaders, and laity to do whatever it takes to get people in the pews. One of the most common manifestations of this is when a new young pastor shows up to a parish. Everyone wants change, something new. In fact, they likely called that particular man to be their pastor because they thought he’d bring in more people.

The temptation is always to rely on human factors, on things like marketing, psychology, emotions, communication skills, and so on to bring people in, rather than relying on the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

The temptation in our time is to adopt an entertainment style of worship; revivalist-style preaching that calls people to make a decision for Christ; preaching that doesn’t preach Law or the Gospel rightly, but something akin to what one Lutheran scholar calls “moralistic therapeutic deism” or preaching that tries inspire people to practice what they understand as divinely inspired principles of life.

This kind of preaching appeals to sinful human nature that is always looking for something other than what God has given. “Do I leave the service with a spring in my step feeling good about myself?” “Do I end up with a happier life?

To preach Christ crucified for the forgiveness of sins is foolishness to a world that is perishing. But it is in the preaching of Christ crucified that God in all His humility, wisdom, glory, and salvation is found. It’s all wrapped up and hidden in the crucifixion of Good Friday.

As for Corinth, it was a busy, highly commercial, and a cosmopolitan Greek city. The Corinthians were preoccupied with making a good living. They looked to politicians to solve their problems. Religiously, they followed the current fads and worshiped the most tending and promising gods and goddesses in the hope they’d be given health and prosperity.

The Corinthians fawned after impressive people who seemed really smart and exciting. They sought after people who would tell them what they wanted to hear and bless their lifestyles and beliefs no matter how twisted.

As for the Jews, including those in Corinth the message of the cross was a “stumbling block.” The Jews found it unbelievable that God’s chosen one would end His life on a cross. Suffering was understood a sign of God’s disapproval, and so it was on the cross of Good Friday. It was a disapproval of everything sin and sinner.

The Jews also looked for signs and miracles. They remembered the miracles of the Red Sea crossing, the manna from heaven, the destruction of the walls of Jericho. Many Jews looked for the Messiah to conquer the Romans and restore their land. They looked for the spectacular.

The Jews despised Jesus for being meek, lowly, and defeated. St. Paul offers no apology for Christ’s humility. Rather he sees God’s glory in the person and work of Christ Jesus, with the cross as the apex of God’s saving work.

As for the Greeks of the first century the message of the cross was “foolishness.” They believed that material/psychical elements were evil and an impediment to true spirituality. Only the spirit had value. The very idea of the incarnation, of God becoming man, as revolting, impossible, and an insult to their gods.

When they thought of wisdom they thought of someone with a clever mind and tongue to match. The Greeks were obsessed with fine words and philosophical constructs and arguments. For them, the Christian preacher’s blunt message of sin and the Gospel was utter foolishness.

In the opening chapter of the 1 Corinthians, St. Paul stakes out his ground clearly and without apology. (1 Cor. 1:18-20) “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the understanding of those who have understanding, I will confound.’ Where is the wise person? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

St. Paul would say the same thing in a different way in chapter two (1-5) “When I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified . . . and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power….”

The Greeks, Gentiles, and the Jews disdained the message of the cross and the Christians in Corinth were feeling a bit embarrassed. Paul wrote, 22 “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

Luther’s 95 thesis caught the attention of the Christian world in 1517 a.d., but the theology of the 95 thesis was confused. Luther was moving in the right direction, but in 1517 he hadn’t really hit the nail on the head (pun intended). He’d hit that nail a few months later in the Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. In Thesis 20, Luther quotes parts of the Epistle reading for today:

It is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty, unless he recognizes Him in the humility and shame of the cross. Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise. . . . For this reason true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ.” (AE 31:52–53)

In Thesis 21, Luther added;

God can be found only in suffering and the cross. . . It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God’s.” (AE 31:53).

This is why many churches keep the cross and crucifix central in their sanctuaries. The cross of Christ is the focal point of worship. The crucifixion of Jesus is the primary message of the liturgy, prayers, sermons, and should be the center piece of the entire service and good works of a congregation.

At no time in the history of Western Civilization has a culture regressed so much that it looks like the culture of Hellenistic Rome than does our culture. I would argue that we are in a worse cultural condition than the one apostolic and early church faced in their time.

Today, preaching sin as sin, the God’s Law as God’s Law, and the Gospel, the real Gospel (as opposed to the “social gospel,” “prosperity gospel,” “the gospel of life’s principles,” the “social justice gospel,” “the gospel of equity,” and so on) is regarded as foolish and then some. We are entering a period of a tyranny of a twisted morality and deconstructionism where everything tried and true is to be dismantled, torn apart and canceled in a quest for raw power and self-righteousness. Mark my words, Christianity and the church will soon be the chief target of the cancel culture. They should just leave the church alone, after all a good portion of it has already become partners in our present madness and those that have not are become feckless for fear of being called names and shunned.

Christ’s concern is for us and our concern ought to be for the wisdom that came down from above. That wisdom doesn’t look like the wisdom of the world. His wisdom looks like foolishness. His strength looks like weakness. V. 24 “To those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than mankind, and the weakness of God is stronger than mankind.”

Paul wrote to Timothy where he had found true wisdom. “From childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” (2 Tim 3:15). No matter how smart the worldly wise are, without Christ and His words, His sacred writings, they are the foolish in God’s sight.

Paul went on to give the Corinthians an example of God’s hidden wisdom in His use of the foolish and weak. And surprise, surprise, the example turns out to be the Corinthians themselves. 26 “For consider your calling, brothers and sisters, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.”

Paul infers that the people who had been drawn into the church were not the elite. They were common people. Many of them lowly, poorly educated, and of humble means. When the church does its work correctly, the Gospel crosses social and economic lines. The mission and work of the apostolic and early church met the challenges of the poor and outcasts head on. They dealt with the spiritual and physical needs of their members and neighbors.

Paul made it clear that the Christian has no reason to boast in their own wisdom. He wrote that. God God the foolish things, the weak things, the insignificant things, and the despised God to shame the strong 29 “ so that no human may boast before God.”

It is all God’s work. His wisdom. His work. 30 “But it is due to Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 31 so that, just as it is written: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Jesus destroyed death by dying Himself. John 10:18 “No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back.”

Every year a this time our church life focuses on the “foolishness” of the cross. We know what will happen. We will hear again the shouts of “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” We walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. We line road on Palm Sunday and sing our Hosannas. We go to the temple with Jesus. We walk to the Mt. of Olives and to Gethsemane. We follow along in the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrow to Golgotha and meditate on the hours of torment on the cross. We rehearse these events in familiar liturgies and hymns and will sing and pray God’s foolishness.

Let the people of this world seek after the wisdom they produces righteousness. Le them mock and cancel us. We have Jesus Christ and Him crucified, the wisdom of God wrapped up in the foolishness of the cross. For this is the foolishness that forgives us the unforgivable.

AMEN.

May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep our minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Third Sunday in Lent, 2021 – Please Stop with the Wisdom

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *