The gospel (Christ crucified for our sins, buried, and raised the third day, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4) was said by Paul to be a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek (1 Corinthians 1:23).
The Jews sought after signs (1 Corinthians 1:22). The gospel accounts of Jesus’ personal ministry show this trait of theirs, and Matthew 12:38 records that certain scribes and teachers said to Jesus, “Teacher, we would see a sign from thee.” At the beginning of His personal ministry when he had cleansed the temple of the merchandizing practices of the Jews, temple officers approached him and said, “What sign showest thou unto us, seeing thou doest these things?” (John 2:18). To both inquiries Jesus gave the same sign, expressed by different illustrations. To the queries in John 2 Jesus said, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.” However, to different men in Matthew 12 He responded, “An evil and adulteress generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it except the sign of Jonah the prophet: for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (vv. 39-40). Jesus predicted both His death and resurrection which was a stumbling block to Jewish hopes; they looked for a triumphant Messiah, one that would help them throw off the yoke Rome had over them. A future resurrection had little appeal to them.
The Gentile equally saw no appeal in the gospel. The death of Jesus to remit the sins of the world made no sense to them, so they mocked at the thought of a crucified, raised Messiah.
Yet, that which was a stumbling block to the Jew and foolishness to the Greek was the wisdom and power of God. The years would pass and the Jew would be subjected to many different authorities, but Christ’s death on the cross (which depicted weakness to them) was what provided the avenue for the greatest demonstration of power, strength, and freedom. Christ’s resurrection was, in Peter’s words the means by which man is begotten unto a living hope (1 Peter 1:3). Paul added, “For since man came death, by man came the resurrection from the dead. As in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
The “foolishness of the cross” (as the “wise” regarded it) proved to be the means of eternal redemption. Paul wrote, “For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom knew not God, it was God’s good pleasure, through the foolishness of the preaching, to save them that believe” (1 Corinthians 1:21). The apostle did not refer to the act of preaching itself as “foolishness”, rather he alluded to that which was preached (Christ’s death for sins and His resurrection from the dead) as “foolishness” — as the “wise” regarded it.
Let us not be foolish, but wise. Let us see God’s eternal wisdom in providing, through Jesus’ death, everlasting forgiveness for our sins. Let us not be overwhelmed by the weakness of His death. Instead, let us be awed by the mighty power manifested in His resurrection!
Jim McDonald