Tuesday
of Holy Week, March 30, 2021
The
message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we
who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As
the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the
intelligence of the intelligent.” So
where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant
debaters? God has made the wisdom of this
world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it
that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our
foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is
foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek
human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was
crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense. But to those called by God to salvation,
both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This
foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness
is stronger than the greatest of human strength. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25
There is a lot of intelligence in the world. From Albert Einstein, to all the medical, political,
and social scientists, added to space engineers, agricultural wizzards of GMO
fame, and those who put astronauts in space (particularly those who bring them
back safe to earth), the wisdom of humanity has a handle on a quantum truckload
of intelligence.
But there is a limit!
The question, answered by Apostle Paul’s message to the Corinthian
believers, is when does man’s intelligence turn foolish? Paul’s answer is that humanity’s intelligence
places itself in the trash can when it starts to battle against faith, and, in
particular, faith regarding the cross, tomb, and resurrection.
In Paul’s Jewish frame of reference all humanity was categorized
as either Jew or Gentile. And both were
guilty of the foolishness of denying the cross.
To the Jews, who were looking for a Messiah to rule over
earth, it was an offense to imagine he would be hung on a cross like a common
criminal; it was a curse. To the
Gentiles, particularly the philosophers, thinkers, and debaters, the whole idea
of power without human intelligence that can be proven and held in hand, was
just pure nonsense. In other words,
faith, genuine faith that trusts God to handle our biggest problem is unnecessary;
we can figure it out, thank you very much…no higher power needed.
For humans, endowed with sentient life – an awareness of both
sensory and abstract dimensions of existance – dependence on some unseen “Creator”
is a nonsequitur – there isn’t anything we can’t do for ourselves, so creating
a creator is for the foolish and weak.
However, for those who care to admit the truth, we don’t have
nearly the intelligence with which we credit ourselves. Chief among the evidence is the most basic
question (and, arguably the most important question), that question of what
happens when this life is over.
To deny the continuance of sentient existance solely on the basis of
flesh decomposing, is to push an argument from silence. No life seen is only proof
that you cannot see with human eyes, or measure with human
intelligence, what lies beyond the grave.
There are some things the 0’s and 1’s of aritificial intelligence cannot
measure.
For that you need faith.
We’re into the sacred season of
faith known as Holy Week…the passion is unfolding, and the faithful are seeing
the evidence of things not seen.
All true intelligence
is born of, and lives-in faith in God, the author of faith.
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day!
