Tonight’s Bible study looked at 1 Cor 1:18-25, where Paul reminds the Corinthians of the centrality of the cross, a message which makes no sense at all to the Jews or Gentiles but which ultimately reveals God’s ways of working. The message of Christ crucified and the centrality of His saving, atoning work on the cross has to be our main focus, not only at Easter but at all times. Without this message, people cannot be saved, cannot be reconciled to God, cannot be forgiven, cannot enter into eternal life… but it is a message which will always look like weakness and foolishness to human reasoning.
For Jews, the idea of a crucified Saviour made no sense, since they knew that ‘cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.’ (Deut 21:23, Gal 3:13) The Old Testament scholars pointed to the Suffering Servant (see Ps 22/ Is 53), but scholars found it hard to reconcile the idea of a Messiah who would come as a mighty conqueror and defeat all Israel’s enemies with this image of ‘conquering through sacrifice’ (Graham Kendrick). Their reasoning was ‘How could anybody put faith in an unemployed carpenter from Nazareth who died the shameful death of a common criminal?’ Greeks, on the other hand, placed all their faith in philosophy and reasoning, but their emphasis on human reason could not fathom how weakness could be part of God’s plan. Paul’s quotation from Isaiah 29:14 reminds us of how Israel constantly looked to other nations for salvation, when only God could deliver them (see Is 29 & 30). However we may imagine scenarios of God’s deliverance, these can never match what God actually does, as these examples demonstrate!
- God used trumpets to bring down the walls of Jericho. (Joshua 6)
- He reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 to rout the armies of Midian (Judges 7:1-25).
- He used an ox goad in the hand of Shamgar to defeat the Philistines. (Judges 3:31)
- With the jawbone of a donkey He enabled Samson to defeat a whole army. (Judges 15)
- David killed Goliath with a sling and a stone (1 Samuel 17)
- Jesus fed over 5,000 with nothing more than a few loaves and fishes. (Luke 9)
God’s ways often involve paradox (‘a statement or proposition that seems self-contradictory or absurd but in reality expresses a truth’ (OED).) Divine and human values are completely at variance with one another, and only those who accept the apparent absurdity of the cross can be saved.