Paul came to preach the Good News – of the Cross!
How many of us would wear a guillotine or an electric chair, or a noose, or any other form of execution around our necks? And yet we proudly wear a cross or a crucifix, one of the most painful forms of execution anyone could suffer.
We wear the cross as a symbol of faith in the promises of Christ. Paul is calling this "foolishness" wisdom.
Those who were supposed to be the wisest, the ones who knew the Scriptures the best, and were students of the Law and the Prophets, were the very ones who called for Jesus to be put to death.
It was the uneducated, the poor, the simple who recognized Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior, the one who had been promised to bring salvation to all who believed.
I may have mentioned two of the people whom I have met who were wise in their simplicity. One woman was a member of one of my Bible Studies several years ago. Although many would have called her "simple" her insights into the passages that we reflected on were profound.
The second woman was the daughter of friends who was born with Down's Syndrome. Her father mentioned one day that whenever he and his wife would get into an argument, she would bring out her Bible and point to a passage that she felt they should read and it always brought them back to what was important in their relationship.
There are still many wise, educated men and women who feel that science can answer all their questions and that God is either non-existent, or unnecessary.
Where the simple recognize Jesus and want to know and follow him, the wise often fail to do so, and their lives are poorer for it.
