Having communicated
these things about those who are called to be image-bearers of the Creator God,
primarily through imitation of the Christ that was shamed and despised, and
asking his brothers and sisters in Corinth to reflect on their own calling,
Paul appears to quickly shifts his focus away from his readers and away from
himself. He once again looks to the Lord Jesus, the Christ. As that
is said, we must remember the context that he has created for what he is
writing, that being the message of the cross, its inherent foolishness, and the
stumbling block of a crucified Christ (Messiah). Keeping that in mind then,
as we return to the text, we are able to clearly see that Paul speaks of Jesus
(and His cross) as he goes on to write, “But God chose what the world thinks
foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame
the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is
regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something”
(1:27-28).
We are often taught
to see ourselves here, making this a personal application when this should most
likely not be the case. As Christians, we regularly pull these words from
out of their context and wear such things as badges of honor: speaking these
words with some type of feigned humility and referring to ourselves as foolish
and weak and low and despised and regarded as nothing. This is obviously
not intended. Paul delivers his
discourse on the cross in a world that does not see the cross as a charm or a
trinket or a thing of beauty. It is the
cross, and the preaching of the cross as the paradoxical place of the
enthronement of Jesus and of His true exaltation (when the cross is supposed to
be a place of the parody of power and mock enthronement of kingly pretenders
that have over-stepped their bounds), that shames “the wise,” “the strong,” and
“the something.”
Where all honor is
stripped from a person, placing them within the ranks of those that are low and
despised and making them “nothing,” that is where Jesus is made God’s “something,”
receiving all honor. Where the ultimate
weakness of a challenger to worldly power is thought to be demonstrated, and
where the powerful reassert their power and put it on display for all to see,
that is where Jesus is revealed as the truly powerful. Where it is thought that the foolishness of
royal pretenders is sealed, as they hang on the cross, that is where one is to
learn what true wisdom looks like, and it looks like the self-sacrificial life
of the Man from Nazareth. Yes, in these
words, Paul preaches Christ crucified, and with his later suggestion of
imitation, reveals just what form such a life may take.
Of course, it is
possible that we don’t really believe it when we make the application of these
words personal, so ironically, they become a source of pride. Worse, alongside Paul’s talk about “human
wisdom” and the like, as it is extracted from its context, such thinking
becomes an excuse for laziness, for the eschewing of the pursuit of knowledge,
and for remaining in a state of ignorance. With that said, is it not
better to see these words, in the context of what we find in this first chapter
of Corinthians, in full reference to Christ?
The message of
Christ’s cross was and is foolish, but it is what God chose and continues to
choose to shock the world and reverse the notion of what is truly wise.
Was it not our Lord Jesus that allowed Himself to be subjected to the weakness
of the torture and the suffering of the cross? It cannot be said enough
that in His day, there was nothing more despised than the cross. Those
who went to the cross were understood to be attempting to overthrow all that
was good and right. Those that hung on
the cross were those that had the last nail, so to speak, driven into their
backwards thinking that had them reaching to or for something that was
structurally outside their grasp and their place. As was previously said,
crucifixion was not something that was mentioned in polite company. It was an instrument of torture and terror
and control. Yes, one who hung upon its frame was the lowest of the
low. In the Roman empire, Caesar sent men to the cross to show that they
were nothing, that they had no power, and that he was the locus of
power---worship him. When Jesus went to the cross, He took that very
thing that Caesar used to show forth the nothingness of those who dared opposed
him, turned Caesar’s own symbol of power against him, set aside the man that
was himself regarded in that day as savior, lord, and son of god, and in His
Resurrection that provided the final validation of His way of life, showed
forth that He was the true Savior, Lord, and Son of God.
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