Seeking the Deeper Wisdom—Lectionary Reflection for Epiphany 5A (1 Corinthians 2:1-12).

Dead Horse Point, Utah

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 New Revised Standard Version UpdatedEdition

2 When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the testimony of God to you with superior speech or wisdom. ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. ⁴ My speech and my proclamation were made not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, ⁵ so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

⁶ Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are being destroyed. ⁷ But we speak God’s wisdom, a hidden mystery, which God decreed before the ages for our glory ⁸ and which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. ⁹ But, as it is written,

“What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

    nor the human heart conceived,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

¹⁰ God has revealed to us through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. ¹¹ For what human knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. ¹² Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

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                The church at Corinth was a mess. That’s the message we discern when we read Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church. The people were divided along theological and personality lines. Standing at the center of some of the controversies was the cross, which to many Greeks was foolishness. How can you follow someone who was crucified? Of course, down through the ages, we’ve sanitized the cross so that now it’s a piece of jewelry that has little spiritual significance. But for Paul, the cross is central to his message, and he’s not willing to set it aside simply because it doesn’t fit with the “wisdom” of the day. For Paul, as we saw in chapter 1, the cross is a sign of God’s glory.

                As we take up the reading from chapter 2 of 1 Corinthians, we find Paul still focused on the question of what divine wisdom entails. As I pointed out in the previous reflection, Paul isn’t arguing here for some kind of anti-intellectualism that would deny scientific and historical truths. Yes, Tertullian asked what Athens had to do with Jerusalem, but Paul was willing to draw on philosophical traditions when they fit his purpose. But in this situation, the question is whether the cross is something worth embracing. Why not some other symbol? For Paul, this is the mystery of God. The wisdom of the cross is a deeper wisdom that requires contemplation and reflection. It may not fit the common sense realism that rationalists of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries embraced. But in God’s view, the cross is a sign of divine wisdom.

                When it came to his own preaching, Paul wrote to the Corinthians letting them know that he had decided to “know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Central to this message of the cross of Christ is a recognition that in the eyes of the world, the cross is a sign of weakness. It is not only a painful death, but it’s a humiliating one. Paul follows up his embrace of the cross by acknowledging his own weaknesses. Although Paul was the founder of this church in Corinth, it appears he didn’t fit the mold many wanted in a founder. So, as we’ve seen, they embraced other teachers and leaders, hoping perhaps that Paul would go away. One of those teachers some gathered around was Apollos, who was known for his eloquence. While Apollos never challenged Paul’s leadership in Corinth, it was likely that Paul did not come across nearly as well as Apollos. He was willing to admit his weakness and the fear he had as he took up his calling. But he tells the people that while his preaching didn’t rely on the latest philosophical works, he relied on the Holy Spirit, who provided the power for preaching. Thus, their faith did not rest on human wisdom but divine power.

                Having again acknowledged that he lacked eloquence and attractiveness when it came to being an effective communicator, while also reminding the people that his message centered on the cross, which was deemed foolish to many, he moves on to discuss God’s wisdom. Here Paul addresses the “mature,” which could be a reference to a party in the church, perhaps the same group who see themselves as being strong. To them, Paul is willing to speak of wisdom, but again, the wisdom that he has in mind is not the “wisdom of this age.” When Paul speaks here of the mature ones, who seemingly embrace the wisdom of this age, he’s speaking of a form of “spiritual maturity” that is ultimately fraudulent because it is based on worldly standards. In other words, it is not rooted in the wisdom of God. This wisdom is, in fact, hidden. It is rooted in the mysteries of God. But we should not see this as some kind of secret wisdom as proclaimed by gnostic teachers. Rather, it is the wisdom of the cross.  Michael Gorman writes that “The crucified Messiah has become the fundamental criterion of wisdom, power, knowledge, and now Spirit-uality. This is a divine wisdom, and eternal mystery once hidden but now revealed (cf. Rom. 16:25-27) but not perceived by the murderous rulers of this age” [Gorman, 1 Corinthians, p. 134].

                So, why is this divine wisdom a mystery to the powers of this age? Perhaps it is because the powers and principalities assume that might makes right. If that is true, then the cross is a mystery to them. It is their inability to understand this wisdom that led the powers that be to crucify “the Lord of glory.” In contrast to those who failed to understand the cross, there are those who love God. Something wonderful is prepared for them and has been revealed to Paul and his team through the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who reveals the depths of God. Even as it is the human spirit that reveals what it means to be human, it is the Spirit of God who reveals the things of God. The good news is that they had received the Spirit of God rather than the spirit of this world, so they were in a position to understand the gifts that God bestows on them. Later in the letter, Paul goes into detail about what this means (1 Cor. 12-14), but for now, Paul simply wants to acknowledge the gifts given by the Holy Spirit.

                As noted above, the Corinthian church was a divided community. Some of this division was socio-economic. Some was cultural. Although Paul was the founding pastor of the church, he was now absent. A variety of perspectives had emerged in the community, upsetting the harmony of the community. For example, the spiritual gifts mentioned here as coming from God as an expression of divine wisdom are the cause of problems because members of the community had created a hierarchy of value, with some gifts gaining higher status among them. We see how the Table became a source of division, perhaps because some in the community thought of themselves as more important than others and thus more deserving of resources. These perspectives might reflect human wisdom, but not divine wisdom. To say this does not mean embracing forms of anti-intellectualism. When it comes to science, for example, there isn’t a Christian form that is based on the Bible that we should embrace. But when it comes to how we live together as a community, divine wisdom offers important guidance. While Paul doesn’t draw on this bit of wisdom, I think we might say, with Jesus, who draws on Leviticus 19, divine wisdom calls for us to love our neighbors as ourselves. As for who this neighbor is, don’t draw the circle too narrowly, because that isn’t the circle Jesus draws.