It’s interesting to contemplate what counts as wisdom and what counters as foolishness in our world. For instance, is it wise, or foolish, to invest in crypto-currency? Time will tell, I suppose.

For many the way of Jesus shows like a bad investment. Paul writes, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

Paul adds, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

The idea that God appeared on this earth in human form, then was murdered and buried and rose from the dead, sounds ludicrous on first pass. What a foolish message to preach. People look at you cross-eyed.

But Paul preached it. Peter and Priscilla and Aquila preached it. Men and women preached it over the centuries and across the continents. Everywhere this message is met with either skepticism or incredulity or indifference or hostility—or welcomed as the power of God.

For those of us who preach this message, it’s tempting to smarten it up a bit. Make it a little more palatable, add a clear-coat. On first glance it’s an ugly message—I’m perishing, I’m foolish, I’m weak and I’m lost, separated from my Creator. God offers only one way out—this crazy story about Jesus.

But when it dawns on us that we’re stranded in an ugly place with no way out, then the foolishness of the cross starts to look like the power to save. Then Christ Jesus becomes for us wisdom from God—our righteousness, holiness and redemption.

That’s foolishness we can count on, live in, and share with the world.

I Corinthians 1 in reading the Bible cover to cover in 2022

Photo by Jack B