Folly, Wisdom, and Power of the Cross

Execution and torture are not words we typically think about when we walk into a church. They’re not topics most of us would feel comfortable talking about in any of our conversations.

So how did it happen, that one of the most brutal forms of torture and execution has also become one of the most recognizable symbols in history?

I’m talking, of course, about a cross.

Crucifixion in the Roman empire had become the preferred way to “deal with” rebells and anyone who might get a similar idea. It was tailored to be as painful, shameful, and drawn out as possible; following the same four fold pattern time and time again:

The victim would be tortured—publically. And we could go into a ton of detail of what that looked like…but I’ll let you read up on it on your own.

The victim would be forced to carry his or her own cross to the place of execution…paraded through crowds gathered to watch.

The victim would be attached to the cross beam by rope or nails, sometimes having to drive the nails in themselves.

The cross would be raised up, put on public display. Political propaganda to those who had gathered to watch.

Crucifixion was a disgusting, shameful, humiliatingly horrific way to die.

The Roman Orator, Cicero called it, “…the cruelest and most terrible punishment.”

And this brings us face to face with the great paradox of Christianity today.

Because, for some reason, we take this symbol…and we wear it on necklaces, earrings, tattoos. We print it on shirts (and wear them in public). We paint them on walls, hang them around the building. It’s hard to imagine a sane society celebrating any other explicate form of execution the way we do with a cross!

Churches around the world will gather, today, to sing about and celebrate the cross. Preachers will appeal to what happened “on that cross”. It will be talked about, read about, gazed upon, and drawn by millions of people. So much so, that one author asked, “What would Coca-Cola, McDonalds” or Amazon, I might add, pay for that kind of global brand representation?!”

But why?

Why, of all symbols available to us, have Christians identified most with the Cross? What is it about this symbol of death that people throughout the last 2000 years have found so compelling?

That’s what we will spend our time talking about today. Because as we continue in this series through 1 Corinthians, we will find the story of the cross is at the very center of the Christian message Paul is is proclaiming! In fact, the message of the cross is the very center of what it means to be a Christian! And if we are going to answer the question “How does the church follow Jesus in a world that doesn’t follow Jesus” we will find that our answer is directly tied to what we think of the cross.

So if you’re not there yet, open with me to 1 Corinthians 1:18. If you need a bible, you can grab one from the seat in front of you. 1 Corinthians is on page 952. And what we’ll see in this passage is that story of the cross is a story of Folly, Wisdom, and Power.

I’ll read the passage, pray, and then we’ll get started.

1 Corinthians 1:18–2:5 ESV

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 might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him 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.” 1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

PRAY

The Folly of the Cross

Alright, let’s get started. The first thing Paul points out is that the story of the cross is folly. Or, that it seems foolish.

Connection to Previous Section

But before we look at that, let me remind you of how he got here.

Last week, starting in v. 10, Paul started to address some of the larger issues going on in the corinthian church. The first one was the divisions and tribalism is is ready to tear things apart. The church as picked their favorite leaders and treat them like different teams. And Paul’s point was that they’d picked the wrong rally point!

That actually, it’s not the different leaders in the church that matter, but it’s all about Jesus…who He is and what He’s done. And instead of picking teams, the church needs to come back to central message and power of that message.

Look back for a sec at v. 17 (1 Corinthians 1:17)

1 Corinthians 1:17 ESV

17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

He’s saying, “I didn’t come to you so that you’d be impressed with me! I came to you with the message of the cross!”

But at this point, he’s got to dig into what the message of the cross is and what it means because it was it was a very uncomfortable image—and difficult to wrap their minds around. Different people think of different things when the think of the cross.

Look with me at v. 18 (1 Corinthians 1:18

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

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.

His point is: if you’re a follower of Jesus…you see the cross one way—you see it as the picture of God’s power and you see it for what Jesus accomplishes on the cross! But, you see it that way because that’s what you’ve experienced with the cross!

If you’re not a follower of Jesus—the cross looks like non-sense. Like what does the death of Jesus have anything to do with anything let alone be something I should orient my entire life around?

That’s a good question!

Some of you are here today with that same question—what does the death of Jesus have to do with anything? Why does it really matter. Honestly, some of us who have been following Jesus for years even struggle to answer that question.

Folly of the Cross to the World

Paul talks about two different responses to the cross in particular. And these responses matter to him because these are people that he wants to see become followers of Jesus.

Look at v. 22 (1 Corinthians 1:22-23)

1 Corinthians 1:22–23 ESV

22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,

He talks about how the Jewish people think of the cross and what the Gentiles, which is the Jewish word for everyone else, think of the cross.

Stumbling Block to Jews

To the Jewish community, it’s a stumbling block.

What does he mean by that?

Well, he’s talking about how any first century Jewish person would have thought about crucifixion. They just can get over how Jesus, if he really was the promised Messiah the whole Old Testament was point forward to…they can’t get over how God would allow Jesus to go through such a horrific death! Not only that, but Old Testament Law, in the book of Deuteronomy, directly spoke of people who died like Jesus

Deuteronomy 21:23 (ESV)

23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance.

If anything, the cross showed how Jesus was cursed by God! He wasn’t a person to follow…and if those who did follow him weren’t careful, they would probably suffer the same fate and curse Jesus did!

Not to mention, the Messiah in the Old Testament was supposed to be this victorious figure who crushed the enemies of Israel to establish a new and better Kingdom. But on the cross, Jesus was publically humiliated. So if anything, the cross shows the power of Rome, not of God.

Folly to Gentiles

And in a similar way, the Gentiles (or everyone else) would naturally see the cross as foolish. That if you just took the facts at face value, the only conclusion you could draw was that Jesus was a common criminal. A nobody! Who was disposed of by the powers that be. And that this whole business of a crucified ‘god’ was absurd.

If fact, we this early example of some graffiti from Rome from early second century. The inscription mockingly says, “Alexamenos worships his god.” It’s a man bowing down to a crucified donkey. This is what they thought of Christianity.

It’s foolish.

It’s a waste of time.

Move on.

And I would suggest that, in many ways, we live now in a cultural moment that views the message of Jesus and the cross just as out of touch with reality!

In a city like Chicago, it’s not uncommon to find people who are, at best, completely indifferent to the message of Jesus…at worst, seeing it as leading cause of oppressive values in the wider world.

It’s foolish to think it matters.

And I think the natural question the Corinthians would have asked…and the same on we need to ask is how do we take this message of the cross to the world around us…especially if everyone else will see it simply as foolish?! What hope do we have at all in sharing the message of Jesus if the whole time it just sounds like nonsense?

The Wisdom of the Cross

But, as Paul points out, there is something much more profound and beautiful happening with the cross. Something that is easily overlooked and often missed. He says God is doing something intentional at the cross that we cannot miss.

Look with me at v. 26 (1 Corinthians 1:26

1 Corinthians 1:26 ESV

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.

Paul reminds them, that they are a church made up of different kinds of people…some of them were of were from higher social classes—but most of them were not. They don’t represent a powerful political base in the Roman empire.

BUT

v. 27 (1 Corinthians 1:27-28)

1 Corinthians 1:27–28 ESV

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,

You see, here is the wisdom what the cross is! It is the paradox of how God is choosing to work in the world! That he is going to take the church…those who seem foolish, weak, low…the nobodies....and God is going to do something that could not be engineered by human hands with them!

He’s pointing out that there is something inherently subversive about the way God is working in the world…and that he will use means that don’t makes sense to the world around us.

This is why conversations about power and power hungry leaders in church communities feel so wrong…it’s because the pattern of the world says that if we want influence…we need strength. We need power. We need authority. But this is not the way God is at work. He uses the weak. He uses what looks foolish. He uses what is low. To turn the world on it’s head.

The church is not essentially a business that is run by people who love Jesus. And the moment we view ourselves that way, we buy into to a whole set of topics, practices and procedures that are supposed to work! That are on brand with the business model: to get bigger, faster.

No!

For some reason, God has chosen to take the weak, broken, and frail of this world to create something beautiful. His Kingdom does not work like any other kingdom—and at face value—that doesn’t make sense! And the cross is the first picture of how God is doing something different than the world in the world!

The cross is the picture of a King who looks defeated. It’s the picture of King who looks humiliated. It’s the picture of King who looks like vanquished. And yet Paul can say in v. 30 that it’s at the Cross where Jesus became wisdom for us because He is up to something else!

Look at v. 30 (I Corinthians 1:30)

It’s in the wisdom of the cross, where Jesus becomes and gives what we need in order to be his people! Paul says he become our righteousness. And what he means is that on the cross, Jesus DID die as a criminal, not for his crimes agains the state, but for humanities crimes against a perfect and Holy God!

Paul pulls no punches in talking about humanity as foolish, weak, low, and despised. That is what we are…spiritually speaking. Before God, we have nothing to show for ourselves.

He says it this way in Ephesians 2:1-3

Ephesians 2:1–3 ESV

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Spiritually Dead

Children of Wrath…like the rest of mankind!

And yet, on the Cross, Jesus, who lived the perfect life that we should have but failed to live, lovingly and willing took our place! He took all our weakness, foolishness, failure and sin on himself as if it was his own…and in it’s place he gave us His righteousness! Imputed…or given to us…so that at the Cross, he become OUR righteousness.

Keep looking at v. 30.

At the cross, he became our sanctification. We talked about this last week…sanctification is the process of becoming MORE like Jesus. At the cross, He starts that process! So that by faith in Him and His death and resurrection, he beings a work in us to make us more like him.

At the cross he is our redemption! As He gives his life for ours so that, by faith, we might take hold of new, everlasting life!

All of this is what Jesus has done! It’s all about him. His work. His life. His death. What He accomplishes. Why?

v. 29 (1 Corinthians 1:29)

1 Corinthians 1:29 ESV

29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.

Jump down to v. 31 (1 Corinthians 1:31)

1 Corinthians 1:31 (ESV)

“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Friends, you see, the wisdom of the cross is not that in that it symbolizes death…but that it points to the death of death! That because of the work of Jesus on our behalf!

The Power of the Cross

The last thing Paul focuses on is the power of the cross. Look with me at chapter 2 v. 1 (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)

1 Corinthians 2:1–5 ESV

1 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

In fact, he is so convinced of the power of the cross, that it’s what he was all about while starting this church in Corinth.

What’s wild is that Paul could have come to them with all his wisdom, insight and training. He was trained in the best schools in the Jewish communities…he had the education.

Paul could hang with the top philosophers of the cities he visited and did so on several occasions.

But his primary focus what on the cross—that despite it looking and sounding foolish, Paul knew the cross was powerful.

And this goes back to what he said in the previous section…that the cross accomplishes something in us. It does something to those who believe. It brings about a transformed life.

Application: Sharing the Testimony of what Jesus has done in our lives

Sharing on Sundays

Sharing in Small Group

Sharing with neighbors

And these stories are not us…we are not the hero of these stories…Jesus is! And at the very center of the story is the message of the cross…the folly, wisdom, and power of the cross.