Saturday after the Second Sunday after the Epiphany of our Lord
Posted on January 20, 2024 by under
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 (NKJV)
1:20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. 27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, 29 that no flesh should glory in His presence. 30 But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption—31 that, as it is written, “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”
Devotion
The divine character is made manifest by ways contrary to the ways of man. On the one hand, the Jews expected to be overwhelmed by signs, which make repentance and faith unnecessary. The Greeks expected to be convinced by debate. They wanted to pick the “salvation solution” that was the most reasonable. But to these seekers of signs and wisdom, Paul now presents the ultimate “hard pill to swallow”: “But we preach Christ crucified.”
Rather than giving them the signs and wisdom they demand, even though God has plenty of such things to give, they get weakness and folly. Indeed, “Christ crucified” is a contradiction in terms. It’s of the same category as “terribly good.” One may have a Messiah or a crucifixion, but you cannot have both, at least not from the perspective of human understanding. For “Messiah” means power, splendor, and triumph to them. “Crucifixion” means weakness, humiliation, and defeat. Little wonder, then, that both Jew and Greek alike were scandalized by the Christian message.
The two “schools of thought”—that of man and that of God—have been called the “Theology of Glory” and the “Theology of the Cross.” Such terms were coined by Luther himself in his Heidelberg Disputation of 1518. In thesis 20 of that essay, Luther cites verses 21 and 25 of our text, and then concludes: “It is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in His glory and majesty, unless he recognizes Him in the humility and shame of the cross.”
Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, Who dost govern all things in heaven and earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of Thy people, and grant us Thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
