Divine Foolishness Vs. Human Wisdom—Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 4A (1 Corinthians 1:18-31)

  

Crucifixion - Kelly Latimore

1 Corinthians 1:18-31 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁸ For 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. 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 scholar? 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, God decided, through the foolishness of the proclamation, to save those who believe. ²² For Jews ask for signs and Greeks desire wisdom, ²³ but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

²⁶ Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards,^[a] 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, things that are not, to abolish things that are, ²⁹ so that no one might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

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                Living as we are in an increasingly anti-intellectual age, where forces often aided by religion are attacking human wisdom, that is, education, this passage is a bit troubling. I understand what Paul is doing here, but it could be taken in an anti-intellectual direction. Years ago, Mark Noll wrote a book responding to Christian anti-intellectualism, which he titled The Scandal of theEvangelical Mind. We see this anti-intellectualism present in a variety of places, including rejection of scientific views of climate (climate change is a hoax), medicine (anti-vaxxers), and science in general, often in the name of scientific creationism (young earth), which seeks to read Genesis as a scientific and historical document. Although he had in mind a different era of science than we have today, St. Augustine understood the dangers of such views. So, he wrote in his treatise, The Literal Meaning of Genesis:

Now, it is quite disgraceful and disastrous, something to be on one’s guard against at all costs, that they should ever hear Christians spouting what they claim our Christian literature has to say on these topics, and talking such nonsense that they can scarcely contain their laughter when they see to them to be toto caelo, as the saying goes, wide of the mark. And what is so vexing is not that misguided people should be laughed at, as that our authors should be assumed by outsiders to have held such views and, to the great detriment of those about whose salvation we are so concerned, should be written off and consigned to the waste paper basket as so many ignoramuses.  [Augustine, “Literal Meaning of Genesis,” 1.19.39, Saint Augustine, On Genesis, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21^st Century, vol. 13, Edmund Hill, O.P., trans., John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., ed., (New York, NY: New City Press, 1999), p. 195].  

So, what does Paul mean when he speaks of “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom”? Reading our text from 1 Corinthians 1, we can safely say that Paul is not concerned with scientific theories about the origins of the universe. He has something different in mind. Nevertheless, considering the times we are living in, we might want to keep in mind Augustine’s warning about appearing like we are ignoramuses because we reject scientific and historical realities in the name of religion.

                  Having addressed reports of divisions within the Corinthian church, including questions about the cross, and letting the Corinthian “elite” know that he might not speak with eloquent wisdom, but when he proclaimed the message of the cross, he was fulfilling his calling (1 Cor. 1:17). In this reading we pick up that message concerning the cross, which Paul reveals is foolishness to the perishing, while it the power of God to those being saved. You can understand why many outside the Christian community might consider the message of the cross foolishness. Dying on a cross was designed to be not only a cruel and inhumane punishment, but it was perhaps the most humiliating form of punishment the Romans had devised. There you were, hanging out for all to see, probably stripped of all your clothing. Yes, to believe in someone who had been executed by crucifixion made little sense to Jew and Gentile.

                Despite the apparent foolishness of his message and loyalty to one who had been crucified, Paul was convinced that the crucified one truly represented God’s wisdom, even if it seemed like foolishness.  With this in mind, Paul draws on a word from the prophet Isaiah. The statement is “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart” (1 Cor. 1:19), which draws on Isaiah 29:14. Paul would have been using the Septuagint or some other Greek translation, but this is close to the Hebrew, which in the NRSVUE translation reads: “The wisdom of their wise shall perish, and the discernment of the discerning shall be hidden.” So, is Paul embracing anti-intellectualism? I don’t think so, but he is concerned that the Corinthians might find the message of the cross off-putting. So,  he wants to address it head-on, even if his message seems unwise.

                Paul does call out the religious and intellectual elite, asking where the sages and the scribes might be hiding. Hadn’t God made their form of wisdom look foolish? So, again, what is Paul up to here? The next phrase begins to reveal what Paul is trying to do, and that is to remind the Corinthians that leaning on human reason will not get them to God. There is no philosophical proof for the existence of God that will suffice. You might imagine a being who might lie beyond what you can imagine, but that doesn’t mean this is proof. Even if you come up with a watchmaker god, that god still doesn’t match the God who is revealed in the person of the crucified one. But God is not left without a witness. However, God chose to use what seemed foolish to many, the death of Christ, even as the Jews demanded signs and the Greeks wisdom (philosophical proofs). But that’s not what they got; they got the cross. That is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. Nevertheless, that is all Paul has to offer. The good news is that to those who are willing to embrace this seemingly foolish message, they get to share in the power and wisdom of God. That is because “God’s foolishness and weakness is greater than human wisdom and strength. The call here then is simply to trust the God who raised the crucified one from the dead.

                The next paragraph addresses the members of the congregation’s station in life. Here is a good reminder that the majority of early Christians came from the lower echelons of society. While some were wealthy, most were not. This becomes a problem as we discover moving forward, especially when Paul deals with how they gather for meals (1 Cor. 11:17-31). So, he reminds them that when called by God, not many of them were considered wise by human standards. That is, they were not among the elite of society, people with advanced educations. They weren’t powerful or members of the nobility. Nevertheless, despite their station in life, God had chosen them. In doing so, God shamed the wise, that is, the ones who could not perceive what God was up to in the world. By choosing them, despite their low estate, God had let the world know that when it comes to their relationship with God, they had nothing to boast about. Their wisdom, nobility, and high estate, none of that mattered when it came to being in the presence of God. Again, all of this is rooted in the confession of faith in the crucified Christ. That is, by identifying with Christ, they identified with the crucified one, which confounds the wisdom of the age.

                It is worth stopping here for a moment to consider Paul’s standing in society. He is well educated. He may be Jewish, but he is also a Roman citizen. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul claimed a religious heritage that included being a member of the tribe of Benjamin, being circumcised on the eighth day, and being a Pharisee and a disciple of the renowned Rabbi Gamaliel. In other words, he had a fairly good pedigree. He had reason to boast, but in his mind, none of it mattered. All that mattered was his relationship with Jesus (Phil 3:1-11). While this is true, on occasion, Paul needs to remind his siblings in Christ that he can go toe-to-toe with any of his critics.

                Again, none of this matters. Human wisdom may have its place, but it doesn’t get you anywhere with God. God is the source of life, Christ Jesus. Though crucified, he became a source of divine wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Therefore, if anyone wants to boast, let them boast in the Lord.  

                So, here we are on the Fourth Sunday of Epiphany. We hear this word reminding us that God doesn’t pay much attention to human wisdom and power. It’s not that education doesn’t matter. But it is a reminder that wisdom and power derive from God. Since I live in a nation whose current leaders seem enamored with the principle that “might makes right,” and many Christians seem to agree with this assessment, this seems like a good reminder that God has a different view of things. Michael Gorman speaks to these concerns, writing:

The theme of cruciform power and God’s choosing of those considered nobodies also suggests that this passage should be seen in part as a clear challenge to White supremacy and Christian nationalism. This passage is fundamentally an anti-racist text, and it is an absolute textual destroyer (in the prophetic and Pauline sense) of any form of Christian nationalism. The ministry and witness of the Rev. Dr. Mart Luther King Jr. was, on the other hand, a demonstration of true Christian power: the transformative power-in-weakness of the Gospel. [Gorman, 1 Corinthians, p. 129].

So, once again, when God thinks of power and wisdom, God views them through the lens of the cross on which Jesus hung. Therefore, if we’re going to boast, let us boast in the Lord who was crucified.