How many of you have heard of an organization called Mensa? Mensa is an club, of sorts, whose members have an IQ of 140 or higher. That places them in the top 2% of the population. Of course here at Kingston Standard Church they would be part of the majority because you are all brilliant …right? One of Mensa’s three stated purposes is to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity. This is a valid goal and is one that could cause you to say…”these Mensa members” are wise people. These are intelligent people gathered together to make a difference in the world. And that on one level is connects to the idea of wisdom. Wisdom can be partially understood as the ability to apply acquired knowledge in the daily moments of life. It is about taking information we have learned and using it to live well. Mensa members seek to use knowledge to improve their own lives and the lives of others. O.k. so a few years ago, there was a Mensa convention in the States and several members had lunch at a local café. While dining they discovered that their saltshaker contained pepper and their peppershaker was full of salt. The considered the question: “How could they swap the contents without spilling, and using only the implements at hand?” Clearly this was a job for the combined wisdom of the Mensa members. The group debated and presented ideas, and finally came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer. They called the waitress over to dazzle her with their solution. “Ma’am”, they said, “we couldn’t help but notice that the peppershaker contains salt and the saltshaker…” “Oh”, the waitress interrupted, “sorry about that.” She unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them. It seems that the Mensa members were not as wise as they thought they were. The true answer to the problem was not what they assumed it to be. The way they looked at the problem shaped their ability to see clearly. They did not see the simple answer right in front of them. The answers to the “big questions” that people are looking for are often found in the places we least expect them to be. That is certainly the case when it comes to the search for spiritual truth. Our culture looks for obvious, logical, earthbound answers to mysteries of the soul. Because our culture looks for easy to understand answers, the truth that we discover in the message of the Bible can seem to defy logic or can perhaps even seem foolish to those who hear it! Need an example of this? Have you ever heard anyone say some thing like this when you tried to talk to them about Jesus? “I'm sorry...I think you mean well but ... well...I just can't believe a word of what you are saying! I mean it's ridiculous...ludicrous, impossible. You are definitely way off. It’s naïve to believe that an executed middle eastern rebel from two thousand years ago can somehow save you. I think that’s crazy. It's foolishness, I tell you, complete foolishness."
A suffering, dying, Saviour is perceived to be an absolutely foolish concept. And because of this many walk away to live a life without considering the possibility of a loving, sacrificing God. Every day, many people, live out the reality of the statement found in 1 Corinthians, 1:18- "The Message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing." The message of Christ’s sacrificial death seems foolish to those who caught in the downward spiral of a life without God. To many people the message of life seems like utter nonsense. It’s foolish and you really can’t get much worse than foolish. To be a fool is to be totally devoid of any sense whatsoever. Let’s just take a moment and consider what this word really means and therefore what some people really believe about the message of the cross. What does the word foolish mean?”
Those who are disconnected from God often unconsciously adopt an attitude that says belief in the message of the cross is foolish. And who can blame them really? On the surface the cross, Jesus’ death, sin, redemption, God’s love...it seems like foolishness. It defies logic! That’s the beauty of it really. It was a plan so beyond our expectation that it could only come from the divine imagination! But to those who are far from God, the cross is simply an instrument of death and not the key to life that God has made it. How does that make you feel? Does it make you wonder what has caused people to adopt this opinion? Does it make you want to reach out to them with love?
Why is this message of a dying saviour and a cross considered so foolish by so many? What is it about people that cause some to mock the most significant action ever taken in history by anyone? These are the kinds of questions we face when we honestly begin to examine the reaction of many to the message of the cross. They are questions that plagued the mind of Paul as he sought to bring the message of Christ to a dying world. We find him searching for answers to these kinds of questions in our text. As we read it seems as if Paul is engaging in a debate with those who would dispute the merit of the message of the cross. It is like he is taking each person who would debate the message he proclaims and personally addressing each of their arguments. Lets listen in on Paul’s line of questioning and reasoning. He writes in verse 20 "where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age?" Paul asks ”where is the wise man?” Where is he or she who thinks that they have everything figured out. Where is the person that assumes that they know the truth? “Where is the scholar?” Where is the one who has studied and intellectually dismissed as false the claims of Christ? “Where is the philosopher?” Where is the one who would seek to philosophize away the significance of the cross? In his words he calls these people to gather around him and to listen to and examine his argument. Look at these people, Paul challenges, people full of wisdom according to the world! People with great clarity of insight into deep human experiences. People who see earthly realities with clarity but are blind to the ultimate reality as expressed in the message of the cross. People with an apparent spiritual thirst but Godless beliefs. Why are they insistent on believing as they do? Why can't they see that their beliefs give birth to death? Why can't they understand that "God has made foolish the wisdom of the world?" (20) Listen, Paul states, the wisdom that you are pursuing...the scholarly work you do, the philosophies you cherish are foolishness compared to the message of the cross. Why can’t you understand? Well... God has chosen to redefine wisdom and the new definition he has given it seems totally illogical to a large percentage of humanity. It seems to make no sense to those who are pursuing only earthly knowledge and wisdom. God has chosen, in typical ironic fashion, to place that seen as foolish by the world at the pinnacle, at the top, of his revealed wisdom. God is in the habit of expressing himself in ways that seem unlikely and perhaps a little foolish in the eyes of man. He spoke through the strange antics of the prophets. He sent his son...in the form of a human, just your average guy…a man who swung a hammer for a living. God is inclined to use the seemingly foolish to achieve his goals. He has re written the standards by which we may evaluate everything. God was took what appeared, on the surface, to be a foolish message of a cross and a dying Saviour and revealed that it is the only wisdom that truly exists and endures. That is how God works. He works in ways that are so far above mankind’s perceptions that they seem to be foolishness. Paul observes in verse 21 : "In the wisdom of God the world through it's wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." The world did not know God through its wisdom. Despite significant human accomplishments the world did not know God. They saw only foolishness. Scholars, philosophers, Wise Guys...all of them...they each failed to apply, to their thinking, the only true piece of wisdom that the world has ever known. That is eight simple words "Jesus loves you and died for your sins." "Oh come on" they say "its too hard to accept. Sin is an out dated concept. " Foolishness in the eyes of humanity. You see, those who reject Christ intuitively know that the message of the Cross has radical implications for their lives. And just what is this message? Simply put, it is that God was made man in Jesus and died in our place on the Cross to pay the penalty for our sin, a penalty we are unable to pay for ourselves. The implications of this are immense. The first is that we are all sinful. That is offensive for many people. The philosophy of the world is that we are self-sufficient. We may make some mistakes, but we are not inherently sinful. We are good at the core. To admit that we are sinful is too much. But that is the implication of the Cross. Jesus had to die because we were sinful. In dying on the Cross, he paid the penalty for our sin. Another clear implication is that we cannot save ourselves. Not only are we sinful, but also we cannot do anything about it. Trying to reform our behavior just doesn’t deal with the nature of our soul. So God had to step in and do it all for us. The Cross requires a renunciation of our self-sufficiency. And this is precisely the reason why it is offensive to some and foolish to others. The world rejects the idea that we need a Savior. They do not want to admit their own sin or their dependency upon God. The message of the Cross is that we must humble ourselves. The message of the Cross is that we must surrender to God. Those who consider themselves to be self-sufficient reject this message.
This reaction of doubt and dismissal is not the only reaction to the message of the cross. There are many who choose a different path. There are some who seek to cast aside conventional wisdom for radical notion of a dying saviour. For those who do receive this message, this foolishness becomes the very power of God. The Cross of Christ becomes their salvation as they humble themselves and receive what Christ did to pay for their sins. What seems foolish to the world is in fact the very wisdom of God. Lets go back to verse 18 where we started. It reads, "The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but...but...but...to we who are being saved it is the power of God." The message of the cross is foolish to some and the power of God to others. It all seems to come down to perspective and understanding...a matter of how you look at and think about the revealed message of God’s love as expressed on the cross. Some look on the cross and see a needless death. They see a talented and influential leader dying at the height of his career. They look and they cannot understand. They look and say to themselves. “Why would a man choose to die? It is foolishness.” Yet there are those who have stood before the cross and seen the Saviour in a different light. They have looked upon the cross and seen love in the eyes of the Son of God as He died, not a foolish death, but the most purposeful death ever recorded. They look and they see the reality and cost of their sin. And in that moment all other knowledge is cast aside. All other wisdom pales in comparison to the wisdom and love of God. To those who have experienced the salvation provided on the cross wisdom has a new meaning. It has been redefined To them the real foolishness is failing to see the life changing power of God. To them foolishness is failing to embrace the message of the Saviour. To those who embrace as the only true wisdom, the message of the cross there is given the gift of life. To those who are being saved the message of the cross, deemed foolish by dying minds, becomes the vehicle of experiencing, what Paul calls, the very power of God. Verse 18 reads ”to us, who are being saved it is the power of God.” When Paul speaks of the "power of God" in verse 18 he speaks of a power with an explosive, dynamic, nature. The original language lends meaning to the force of the cross' message as the term "dynamis' from which we get 'dynamite' is translated power. The power unleashed by Christ’s death and resurrection is explosive in nature. The message of the cross is not empty and ineffective. It is a kind of spiritual 'dynamite' that can shatter human pride and attempts at wisdom. It is a powerful message that can transform those lives that listen, not with a “I’ve got it all figured out” type of attitude”, but with the ears of a student...ready to learn the wisdom of God. The powerful, life changing, wisdom of God as expressed in the death of His Son. You see, the Cross upon which Jesus died not only was a place where he dealt with the sins of humanity and paid the penalty for those sins, it is also provides a principle for living our lives by his power. And the reason it looks foolish is because of its paradoxical nature. It is a paradox. It is something that seems contradictory. It is like saying that the way up is down. In fact, that is precisely what it says.
It says that God became weak in order to save us. It says that when we surrender our lives we truly find them. Jesus said in Matthew 16:25, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." The way to true upward progress in life is true humility. The way up is down. The way to new life is through death. Conventional wisdom looks at this and says it is foolishness. But when we believe it and stake our very lives upon it, we tap into this undiscovered power and find it to be real. It is the very power of God, concealed from the so-called wise and revealed to those who come as a child, in simple faith and trust.
And we must employ this principle daily in order to live by the power of God. Jesus also said in Luke 9:23, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." Just as the Cross was an instrument of death for Christ, so it is also a principle of death for us. It is by daily dying to self, or to put it another way, daily surrendering ourselves to him, that we put ourselves in a position to receive his life and his power each day. We must empty ourselves so that he can fill us with himself. This is how we lose our lives in order to find them.
This counter cultural message of the cross supersedes any other message that can be expressed. Paul writes in verse 22 "Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom." Once again the conventional wisdom rears its head and demands to be heard. It demands signs, wisdom, external proofs for the validity of the message of the cross. "Soften your message...appeal to our wisdom...stroke our egos", these people might say, "then, maybe, just maybe, we will believe." “Make the message of the cross more palatable. Stop talking about sin and the need for redemption. Stop looking to make us feel guilty. Stop trying to cause us to repent. If you can present to us a cleaned up version of the cross then we will consider you claims...but for now it is foolishness.” However much we might like to soften the cross. We cannot accommodate this. The cross will not be emptied of its power. The cross will not be torn from its place at the center of redemptive history. Max Lucado describes the cross this way. “It rests on the time-line of history like a compelling diamond. Its tragedy summons all sufferers. Its absurdity attracts all cynics. Its hope lures all searchers. History has idolized and despised it, gold plated and burned it, worn and trashed it. History has done everything but ignore it. How could you ignore such a piece of lumber? Suspended on its beams is the greatest claim in history. A crucified carpenter claiming to be God on earth. Divine. Eternal. The death-slayer. Never has timber been regarded so sacred. No wonder the apostle Paul called the cross event the core of the gospel. Its bottom line sobering: if the account is true. It is history’s hinge. Period. If not the cross is history’s hoax. Like it or not the message of the cross is eternal and immoveable. Like Paul we must maintain the integrity of the message of the cross. It is not a message without wisdom. It is not a message without a logical basis for belief. It is not without proof and historical evidence. But the true power of the message originates from the one who spoke it from the cross. "IT IS FINISHED", Jesus declared. In these words we have the height of divine wisdom expressed. We hear the final word on the Salvation that we seek. It is finished. Therefore: Man's efforts to find and define God through his own path? IT IS FINISHED. Signs, philosophy, wisdom, foolishness? IT IS FINISHED. The message of the cross has echoes through the generations. Like Paul, we must "preach Christ crucified:", we need to proclaim the message of the cross. (23) It is a stumbling block to many, a foolish story to some, but "to those whom God has called" , the message of the cross makes available Christ, the very power of God...who in turn makes available the resources to overcome sin and reveals the true wisdom of God. He offers us the only real plan for salvation. Salvation is through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross...two thousand years ago. And that is as far from foolishness as you can get. It is the ultimate wisdom and through it he offers each of us new life.
The cross is the most purposeful event in history. It is not foolishness. It is wisdom defined and has changed the world forever.