The Un-Series: Week 1 Day 2

1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (ESV)

18 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. 19 For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
    and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

20 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? 21 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. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

In one of Aesop’s Fables, a farmer finds an injured snake and nurses it back to health. The snake, revived, turns and bites the farmer because the snake won’t stray from its natural inclination. The farmer was foolish to believe the serpent could be anything other than what it was.

The story of Jesus is similar to this fable. Jesus came to heal the sick, feed the hungry, and raise the dead, showing us the Kingdom of Heaven at hand, yet the world responded by crucifying Him. If we were to adhere to the wisdom of the fable, God shouldn’t bother with us, as we are guaranteed to cause misery and heartbreak. People claiming the name of Christ have repeatedly misunderstood the Gospel and sacrificed it for their own gain. Yet the thing that has been misunderstood is the very thing that gives us hope. God, being love, does not abandon us and is willing to die to prove it. We can allow God’s mercy to act on our doomed trajectory, and accept a life renewed. We are more than our mistakes and get to be different than we’ve been. 

So what changes are you looking forward to next?