“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. For it is written,
‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.’
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? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.
Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 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; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:18-31; NRSV).’”
1. Read the above passage. How would you feel if you walked into your church one day and saw in a prominent place in your worship space an electric chair, a gurney used for lethal injection, a hangman’s noose and gallows, etc. Why?
2. The Roman government used crucifixion as a form of punishment for non-Roman citizens who threatened Rome’s rule because the practice elicited ridicule and horror and was shaming to the crucified’s family for the person crucified was often naked and exposed, the dying process extremely painful, tortuous, and prolonged by design, and unequivocally public so as to prove Rome’s power over populaces. Why would it be seen by Christians as something worth proclaiming and celebrating? How does this counter the fact that many in the Apostle Paul’s age saw the cross as proof that Jesus was not blessed by God?
3. The culture of the Greeks (or Gentiles) was one in which philosophical wisdom and logic was much sought after and deemed to be an important part in one’s being human and a proper citizen of the Empire and/or the region or community in which one lived. Why does such wisdom seem to be a barrier? Does it always have to be? Why is the proclamation of Christ’s crucifixion able to draw people even though it is seen by many as foolish?
4. The Apostle Paul claims often that he not only proclaims Christ but proclaims his crucifixion. Why would Jews see the crucifixion as proof that Jesus was not anointed by God? Why would the gentiles see the crucifixion as proof that Jesus is not to be followed? Why are they unable to recognize God’s salvation through what God had done in the events of Jesus’ life?
5. Jesus is literally “God’s weakness,” God’s humanity in the flesh. Why does this say about the nature of God that God would take on the vulnerability of human flesh?
6. Those that are in the church are those who do not have the proper pedigree nor are the leaders in the culture in which they live, nor wield influence or power. Such was seen by many as proof that the Church was neither of divine origin nor worth exploring or respecting. Why did the Church draw so many who were seen as of being of no consequence and not worthy of respect? Why would this be seen as strength and as a blessing by the Apostle Paul?
7. Current Church planting strategies stress seeking out the powerful, the influential, the wealthy, the charismatic, the upper-middle class, and those who live in suburbia. Why is that? How can this be detrimental to the life of the Church? Why?
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