A Weak & Foolish God
1 Corinthians 1:22-25—Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.
Throughout time, every person in every generation has struggled with it to one degree or another. It’s the problem that causes every previous generation to look at the one following them and say, “Young people just don’t have any respect anymore.” And to a point, it’s true. But it’s not any more true than generations before us. It’s the attitude that particularly afflicts the hearts and minds of those in their teens through mid-twenties (though it can often last much longer than that). It’s the “I’ve already got it all figured out and don’t need your help, advice, or wisdom, thank you very much” attitude.
Now I’m not trying to pick on you youngsters, though there’s a lesson to be learned for you in that. I’m also not trying to make you who are venerable get a big head and look down on the next generation. I talk about this because I see this behavior is such a terribly perfect reflection of how people, you and me included, often view and treat God.
Either, like many Jews of Paul’s time, we want some stupefying sign to wow us into believing God is really there for us, or, like many Gentiles, demand that God’s plan to save the world be reasonable, logical, and rational so we can easily wrap our minds around it. When this doesn’t happen, we easily become frustrated with God and then create a caricature of God that he’s just some old dolt with long white hair and a long white beard sitting up in the clouds, and fairly uninterested in the affairs and struggles of our lives. So often we try to make God into what we want him to be, or what we want to get out of him. And when those desires aren’t met, anger erupts and God is forgotten. Suddenly, God is A Weak & Foolish God.
God’s apparent impotence in Christ on the cross is stronger than all that man has to offer. Even stronger than what you might consider to be the greatest demonstration of man’s power—the harnessing of the atom. If you took all the atomic weapons that exist or ever have existed, they don’t even scratch the surface of the power of God suffering on a cross. Why? Because, while man’s greatest power is made to destroy life, God’s greatest “weakness” saves the whole world from sin and damnation!
The Gospel of Christ crucified is utter foolishness to sinful mankind, yet God uses it to reveal the greatest truth—Jesus is Savior! God is A Weak & Foolish God from a human point of view. But his apparent weakness is stronger than anything we can muster. His apparent foolishness is wiser than anything we can ponder. God isn’t some old dolt with long white hair and a long white beard sitting up in the clouds, and fairly uninterested in the affairs and struggles of our lives. He came down to us and was conceived in the womb of a virgin named Mary. He was a child who grew into a young man who looked just like any of his other fellow Jews. He lived with us. He walked with us. He talked with us. He ate with us. He cried with us. Then, he died for us, and rose again for us. That doesn’t sound like a disinterested God to me. And I know it doesn’t to you.
If anyone is weak and foolish, it’s you, it’s me, for every time we’ve doubted God’s strength and wisdom. And yet we’re still the ones for whom Christ was crucified. We’re still the ones God continues to love and forgive day in and day out. We’re still the ones God longs to commune with both in Word and Sacrament, and in the most excellent way by his side in heaven. How wonderful, beautiful, powerful, and wise, that the grace of God is found only in the foolishness of a weak man crucified on a cross!