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.
1 Corinthians 1:18
Would you agree that only fools fall in love?
Shakespeare thinks so as he quips, “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend. More than cool reason ever comprehends.” Passion and love, at its core, doesn’t seem rational. In the pursuit of a woman, a man is witlessly willing to lose himself, to cast aside decorum and dignity as he pledges his devotion to a relative stranger. Strange! We all have seen it a thousand times, when a man first loves a woman he can look quite mad. Flowers are sent, poetry read and I have even seen a grown man flying homemade kites to impress the lady he loves. Reason, like a kite, flies swiftly away when a man is smitten by a beautiful face.
Fools, stealing from Sir William, are those who are no longer directed by cool reason.
So it is when it comes to the cross. Is it not absurd to believe that a bloody man hanging on a tree is the answer I have been searching for all my life? Where is the cool reason there? Especially when the cross at first glance is rather grotesque and embarrassing.
Listen to how Fleming Rutledge describes it, “Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the ultimate insult to personal dignity, the last word in humiliating and dehumanizing treatment. Degradation was the whole point.” And another writer, Joel Green writes, “Executed publicly, situated at a major crossroads or on a well trafficked artery, devoid of clothing, left to be eaten by birds and beasts, victims of crucifixion were subject to optimal, unmitigated, vicious ridicule.”
How can this picture of broken humanity inspire anyone to believe, and then use it as a navigational north-star to set the course of their life by? Who wants to follow a man to the cross?
“That isn’t really what Christianity is,” some will argue. Christianity is a set of rational propositions and a pattern of traditions that makes me look good and acceptable when I shape my life by them. When it is all boiled down, Christianity is a system of cool reason. If you were to visit any number of American churches that say they follow the man on the cross they are often full of rich, sophisticated people. People that are often quite impressive.
Reasonable people sipping on lattes and wearing the latest fashions.
Ladies dressed to the nines in their silk blazers they just bought from Macy’s or Gilded Lily. Makeup placed exquisitely on their skin to hide wrinkles and brown spots. No blemishes to be found. Look at the men shaking hands in their ties and loafers, smiling as they talk about the profits they made the week before and the investments to protect them for many years later. These people are no fools. Success drips off them like dew off the morning grass. So where does the bloody man fit in their life?
Jesus says, “If any man wants to follow me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me.” What does this even mean to the modern man? Does Jesus want me to be humiliated and lose my dignity? To be degraded? To exchange my reputation as I subject myself in lowly service to others? To even face ridicule?
No way, that would be foolish. That seems so irresponsible. But it sure seems like that is exactly what Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 2:23-26 –
“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 human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.”
Christianity is not about influence or nobility. It is not intended to help me impress others. So what then does foolishness mean?
Here is how Fleming puts it, “Most churchgoing people are ‘Jews’ on Sunday morning and ‘Greeks’ the rest of the time. Religious people want visionary experiences and spiritual uplift; secular people want proofs, arguments, demonstrations, philosophy, science. The striking fact is that neither one of these groups want to hear about the cross…Paul is willing to embrace his opponents’ accusations of personal weaknesses and rhetorical dullness in order to make his point. One can see analogous situations in the church today. Preachers and teachers who are courageous and faithful in expounding the cross of Christ but lack the flashy, ostentatious style so much favored in this age of soundbite find it difficult to gain a hearing.”
And she finished, “Razzle-dazzle does not serve the message of the cross. The Corinthian Christians were heavily into an individualistic, self-involved notion of the Christian life, which had pernicious effects on their community as a whole…the true understanding of the crucifixion was about as ‘low and despised’ as one could get.”
So foolishness asks us not to look at our faith as a set of rules, guidelines, propositions we affirm, but as a man who goes low. Jesus did the will of his Father and it cost him big-time. He was not popular, he was not promoted nor was he impressive. It makes no sense because he could have had the world if he wanted it.
The cross means to take the path that serves God instead of self. It is not reasonable to our flesh. It doesn’t grab for gain.
For me, I need to hear this as I sit alone in my house waiting for the world to start up again. As a pastor in a small town I get jealous of my friends who are flashy and successful in the big city. Recently I have received a number of calls from friends I graduated with who are already considering retiring at 53, playing golf, vacationing in France. I am eating apples and fixing to work until I die.
Jesus died at 33, broke, and alone.
The world of Jews (religious and pious) and Greeks (brilliant and sophisticated) tell us all to strive to win, get ahead, be somebody. The cross says follow God and die. How foolish. Is that really the life you want?
And then a wise and wonderful voice comes to haunt us from the distant past. It says in Psalm 73 very clearly that maybe we are not the fools…listen…
“For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong.
They are free from common human burdens;
they are not plagued by human ills.”
But wait…
“This is what the wicked are like—
always free of care, they go on amassing wealth.
Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure
and have washed my hands in innocence.
All day long I have been afflicted,”
And then…
“When I tried to understand all this,
it troubled me deeply
till I entered the sanctuary of God;
then I understood their final destiny.
Surely you place them on slippery ground;
you cast them down to ruin.
How suddenly are they destroyed,
completely swept away by terrors!
They are like a dream when one awakes;
when you arise, Lord,
you will despise them as fantasies.”
And ultimately…
“Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.”
Glory. The reward of trusting God is glory. Maybe following Jesus to the cross is not that foolish after all? Think on these things.
Here are two questions to ponder:
- Do you ever feel foolish when you follow God?
- How does a person “deny themselves, pick up their cross, and follow Jesus” practically?
