The foolishness of the wise

Where are the wise? Where are the legal experts? Where are today’s debaters? Hasn’t God made the wisdom of the world foolish? In God’s wisdom, he determined that the world wouldn’t come to know him through its wisdom. Instead, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of preaching. Jews ask for signs, and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a scandal to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. But to those who are called—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God’s power and God’s wisdom. This is because the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

- 1 Corinthians 1:20-25

When I read this passage from St. Paul, I can’t help but think of my Twitter feed right now (or most any other social media/internet feed)...

We all think we’re so intelligent. We think we know what’s best for ourselves and everyone else. Twitter is a microcosm of the ‘wise’, the ‘legal experts’ and ‘today’s debaters’. 

And we ARE extremely intelligent - more and more every day. We have so much data available to all of us. So much info. Info for days. AI, baby… Gonna change the world.

But as Paul wrote, the world (us) can’t come to know God through our wisdom.

Knowledge will never lead us closer to God. 

Racism, slavery, sexism, the Crusades, the Inquisition, reality television, daylight savings, waterbeds, and both World Wars were approved by people who thought they were ‘wise’ and ‘good’ in doing so. 

I know - we all think we’re above that now. But as a student of the gospel, I also know this...

God has a way of making us all look like heartless idiots in time. Not as a way to oppose us. But as a way to get us to realize how helpless we are (universally so) when we’re caught up in our ‘rightness’ so that maybe we’ll just lay down our weapons, anecdotes, and Twitter feeds and love each other in our shared foolishness. 

We’re all carrying our crosses.
Lord, have mercy.
And grant us mercy for each other.
So that we may reveal your glory.

Amen.

Grace & Godspeed,
Jonas