The Ridiculousness of God — 1 Corinthians 1:17-31
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Introduction
Introduction
Mary Shelley wrote of a brilliant scientist named Victor. To cope with the loss of his mother, he poured himself into research and discovered how to impart life to non-living matter. So, he decided to create a humanoid, someone beautiful who could be a companion. But, the creature, known as Frankenstein, turned out hideous and enormous. And, he becomes the scourge of Victor’s very existence. The creature murders Victor’s brother, frames his nanny so that she’s executed, and eventually strangles the love of Victor’s life to death. The rest of this brilliant man’s life is wasted trying to undo the horrible thing that he had done.
Think of it: A man destroyed by his own wisdom and intellect. A man following the wisdom of his heart until it ruined his life. As Ryan taught our students Wednesday, “Following your heart” maybe what you want to do, and it may be what everyone tells you to do, but it’ll ruin your life.
God’s Word
God’s Word
That’s what Paul is teaching us this morning. He’s talking to a church that was threatening to collapse. And, it’s threatening to collapse because the “wisdom” that was guiding the broader Corinthian metropolitan culture was being applied within the fellowship of the church. And so, Paul wants them to recognize that if they’re actually going to flourish and thrive and become the kinds of people that God intends for them to become, they’re going to have to do something that will seem ridiculous, something that contradicts their upbringing, something that will feel completely upside down. And, Paul shares with them at least Three Dimensions of the Ridiculousness of God (Headline) by which they must reshape their lives and fellowship with one another.
God’s ridiculous “wisdom.”
God’s ridiculous “wisdom.”
1 Corinthians 1:17–20 “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. 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. 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?”
The Church at Corinth was a divided one. And, they weren’t primarily divided over theological or interpretive differences. They were primarily divided because they allowed the values of their culture to shape their values as a church. The pursuit of “wisdom” was a ruling value in Corinth in a way similar to how individualism is a ruling value for us. Back then, you would listen to philosophers, discern the school of thought which you found most captivating, and then align yourself with that teacher. The more rhetorically gifted and charismatic your leader, the higher your own standing would gain in the city. And, it’s this that is being applied to the church. As though they were secular philosophers, some are aligning themselves with Paul and others with Apollos, arguing that their dad can beat up all of the other dads on the playground. And, Paul is writing let them know that worldly thinking is corrupting what is intended to be a godly church. (Sounds relevant, huh? I’m leaning toward 1 Corinthians being our next series for that reason.)
So, Paul says their thinking is as upside down as the world is. They are so deeply influenced by the world around them that they’re going to be tempted to think He’s crazy. But, their thinking actually causes “the cross of Christ (to) be emptied of its power.” These are not small potatoes. In fact, Paul says that the wisdom of God embodied in the cross is so opposite to the wisdom of the world that the wisdom of God will look completely “ridiculous” to people who don’t know God. “Ridiculous” is an accurate way to translate “folly” in verse 18. It looks nuts. It looks crazy. It looks upside down. Unless you know God. If you know God, his wisdom is the hidden “power” (v.18) that lies behind your life.
You’ll notice that verse 19 starts with “it is written.” It’s a quote from Isaiah 29:14, and Paul is making the connection so that you can see that this has alway been God’s modus operandi. Israel had been led away by their learned men. The supposed “wise” men of Israel had led them further from God. Their wisdom was a broken compass. So, God promised that He was going to redeem his people in such a way that proves their wise to be fools. And, the cross does just that, doesn’t it? Verse 20 asks sarcastically, “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age?” Well, I’ll tell you where they were. They were in a mob of people yelling, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Jesus was crucified by the learned men of Israel. It was the priests and the Pharisees, the wise sages, who sought to prove Jesus a fool by humiliating him, his family, and his followers by nailing him to a tree — a symbol of curse in Israel. But, God took the cross and “destroyed the wisdom of the wise.” The learned of Israel were made to look like fools by the resurrection and the Sanhedrin had no answer for the Spirit-filled apostles that they called “common, uneducated men.”
“Wisdom” is a dangerous “pursuit.”
I hope that I could never be accused of being an anti-intellectualist, and I believe we need more deep study and thinking, not less. But, we should be warned that intellect is a dangerous gift and wisdom is a dangerous pursuit. Too easily, our wisdom is more influenced by our culture than we are by the cross. (Show by drawing as wisdom pyramid) It’s generally accepted in the study of sociology that cultural wisdom starts with philosophers, is propagated by academics, popularized through politicians and celebrities (viral stage), and then indoctrinated within the general population. So, we all develop ways of thinking that create cultural presuppositions and biases, and we’re often unaware of them. A Lutheran Scholar, Mark Allen Powell, sought to uncover this. He assigned a group of Russian students and a group of American students to read the Parable of the Prodigal Son and to retell it from memory. When the American students recounted the story, not a single one of them mentioned the famine, but out of 50 Russian students, 42 of them did. Virtually none of the Russian students mentioned the squandering of property, and all of the American students made it a major emphasis. The Russian students said the major sin in the parable was self-sufficiency, and the American students said the primary sin was wastefulness. This isn’t to show the virtue of one or the vice of the other, but to only make the point that we are too often oblivious to biases we bring to the text and the way our wisdom has been shaped by the world
“Ridiculous” doesn’t mean “wrong.”
Like Paul is encouraging Corinth, we best get to the source of our wisdom. Does our wisdom start with our philosophers or does it start with Jesus’ cross? My goodness, like Corinth, so many divisions in the church are because worldly wisdom has found its way in. But, the warning he gives is that the closer your wisdom comes to reflect the cross, the more ridiculous you will appear to today’s wisdom. (draw cross over pyramid) We best crucify today’s wisdom, but we best be ready when we do. Are you willing to sound ridiculous? Honestly? Are you willing to approach dating in a way that’s ridiculous to your classmates? Are you willing to approach money in a way that’s ridiculous to your coworkers? Are you willing to approach parenting in way that’s ridiculous to the other moms at school or the other dads at the ball field? That’s a real question that you need to wrestle. Ridiculous doesn’t mean wrong, just like Victor Frankenstein reminds us that smart doesn’t necessarily mean right. Feeling ridiculous in a foolish world often means that you’re right on track. Upside- down crowns look ridiculous (some of y’all have pointed that out) until they’re flipped right-side up.
God’s ridiculous “method.”
God’s ridiculous “method.”
1 Corinthians 1:21–25 “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. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Today, we don’t think of the cross as being offensive. In many ways, a cross today is a symbol of peace and hope. That’s why we wear them on necklaces and have them in tattoos and put them on tombstones. But, when Paul was writing these words, there was nothing more offensive. In fact, it became improper for a Roman citizen to even say the word “cross” or “crucifixion” because of how shameful and grotesque it was. It was against Roman Law for a Roman citizen to be crucified no matter how severe the charge.
God’s “plan” contradicts our “wisdom.”
So, in verses 22 and 23, Paul is drawing out why God’s wisdom is hard for otherwise sensible and smart people to accept. The “Jews demand signs,” he says. Visitations of God in the Jewish experience had always resulted in miraculous signs where God would clearly vanquish their enemies and place them on top. It seemed perfectly reasonable that God’s Messiah would operate the same way. And, a cross appears to be anything but a demonstration of supernatural majesty. In fact, Deuteronomy 21:23 explicitly states that anyone who is hung upon a tree is counted as cursed.
Greeks, on the other hand, preferred to conceive of who and how God must be philosophically. That’s what is meant that “Greeks seek wisdom.” And, inevitably, they would create a god in their own image with one serious distinction — the Greeks believed it to be philosophically impossible that God could feel. So, a message about a God who became a man to suffer and die, who wept and agonized, failed to meet the criteria of wisdom in their minds. It was foolishness, ridiculousness to them. So, ironically and for different reasons, both Jews and Greeks would’ve seen a crucified Savior as a contradiction in terms. There’s no way this is a plan that a man would come up with.
God’s “ridiculousness” is greater than our “brilliance.”
So, what did God do? God took the last method anyone would expect, a completely ridiculous method, a humiliating cross, and He made it the very means by which He would redeem and save. We expect God to operate according to our wisdom and our ways and our feelings. We insist that God take “my truth” — “my truth” about sexuality and marriage and money and the list goes on — and adopt it as his truth. We’re trying to place God’s crown on our heads so that we can canonize our opinions and feelings as though they’re divine revelation. Why? Because many of the teachings of the Bible feel ridiculous to us, if we’re honest. They seem outdated or restrictive or unreasonable. But, God has a different method, and it’s a better method. It’s method that makes the crown look upside down until you see it light of the cross.The cross teaches us that the ridiculousness of God is far greater than the brilliance of men.
(show stats on slide) You see, the deeper you are in the wisdom of the world the more ridiculous the wisdom of God will seem, but time and again, God’s ridiculousness is shown to be wiser than man’s brilliance. Let me give you an example. The cofounder of the ChurchToo movement asserted that a theology of male headship fed a rape culture that is present in the church. Now, has male headship been abused in churches? Unequivocally yes! And, it’s unacceptable. Some of you have suffered immeasurable harm as a result, and I don’t take that lightly. But, one of the conditions of the fall is that good things are sometimes corrupted. So, sociologist Brad Wilcox researched Christian marriages to see if a theology of male headship contributed to the oppression of women. After all, this is the assertion of today’s wisdom. What he found was shocking, and he reported in an article in the NY Times. What they found was that evangelical husbands who attended church regularly were more loving husbands and more attentive fathers. Their wives were four times more likely to say their husband was loving compared to secular men. They spent an average of 3.5 more hours per week with their children compared to secular men. They have a divorce rate that is 35 percent lower, and they had the lowest rates of domestic violence of any identifiable group tested in the United States. 73 percent of wives who hold conservative gender values and attend religious services regularly agreed that they had a high-quality marriage.
Y’all, you’re not going to hear that on TikTok. That’s not today’s brilliance. It’s God’s ridiculousness. And, if you tell people this is what you believe, they’ll tell you that you’re ridiculous, outdated, old fashioned, naive. But, Here’s something that isn’t realized enough: Our faith is supposed to look ridiculous to the world. It’s supposed to look upside down. But ya’ll, man’s brilliance DOES NOT lead to flourishing like God’s ridiculousness.
Who are we going to trust? That’s what Paul is asking Corinth, and that’s what I’m asking you. Are we going to trust the God who saves through the cross, or the outrage culture that wants to cancel virtue? The brilliance of man or the ridiculousness of God? Who will we trust?
God’s ridiculous “grace.”
God’s ridiculous “grace.”
1 Corinthians 1:26–31 “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. 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, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.””
Karl Marx once said that: “Religion is the opiate for the masses.” Sigmund Frued went even further says: “The whole thing [religion] is a great deal like a childhood neurosis. People believe in these illusions because they want to believe in them. They are too weak to face reality." This is the world’s wisdom, and you’ll see that lying behind it is a belief of strength. Both Marx and Frued believed they could see the truth because they weren’t so weak as to need a god to give them hope and purpose. They both believed Christianity to be a ridiculous God to help pathetic people. Long has been the case against Christianity. The Romans found it to be an undignified religion because so many of the poor and the unsavory flocked to it so naturally.
“Weakness” is “strength.”
And, here’s Paul’s point: What appears to Marx and to Frued and to Corinth and to the Enlightened West to be Christianity’s weakness is actually the hallmark of its strength. It’s the scandal of ridiculous grace. God takes those who are foolish and weak and discarded and uses them to shame the wise, the strong, and proud. God is not bound to use wise men or strong men or able men. God is mighty enough to use the weakest of people for the greatest of work.
Marx and Frued both show contempt for people like us who are weak, but the arguments of dead men should fall on deaf ears of those who know a resurrected Savior. Pickup on the notes of grace that come wafting from this text. You weren’t wise. You didn’t meet worldly standards. You aren’t of noble birth. And, God “chose” you. God “chose” you, not in spite of your weakness, but because of it. God “chose” you not in spite of your foolishness, but because of it. God “chose” you not in spite of your lowliness, but because it. God decided that the last kid chosen on the playground would be the first kid chosen for the kingdom.
Why? That’s what we’re meant to ask! It’s ridiculous to consider. Why would God choose you? Why would He choose someone so messed up? Why would He choose someone that nobody else wants? Why would He choose someone that’s never impressed on an interview? Why would He choose someone that has a hard time finding a date? Why would He choose someone who wants to be anyone other than the person they actually are, someone who rejects themselves? Grace! Grace is ridiculous that way!
“Demerits” are “credentials.”
Oh, demerits in the world are credentials in the Kingdom. Because your demerits become a theater to showcase God’s glory. Is God known as more glorious or less glorious on this side of the cross? Far more! Is God known as more glorious or less glorious by choosing you? Far more! God’s grace appears ridiculous for the precise reason that it’s glorious. He wants us. God is building a kingdom out of living stones found in the world’s discard pile, so that every, single person says, “It was all him!”
You see, most people today are like Victor Frankenstein. Their wisdom has led to hubris, and they’ve sought to build their lives into a monument of how wise and strong they are. But, in an effort to build something great, they’ve instead built a life that haunts them. They’ve tried to run way from the monster, but misery still hunts them down. They’ve tried to muscle up and defeat the monster, but they’ve only worn themselves out. And, that’s because hope and significance has this whole time been in the last place they’d ever think to look. It’s in a ridiculous place — grace. Grace for your weakness, grace for your foolishness, grace for your hopelessness. Only grace keeps your life from haunting you. So, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
