Tuesday 28 February 2023

Psalm 2:1-8

Background 

Paul writes from a tradition of mistrust of ‘human wisdom’. He quotes Isaiah 29:14, part of a critique of people who worship with rote-learned words rather than from the heart. In Paul’s context, this hostility to ‘mere words’ had a whole new set of meaning. Greek education valued rhetorical skill, demonstrated by being able to use words cleverly – today we might call it ‘spin’. This formed part of ‘the wisdom of the world’, where people valued cleverness for its own sake, or went looking for esoteric knowledge (gnosis) which enabled them, they believed, to find their own way to God or to ultimate salvation.  

Paul presents a different view of wisdom. Human beings are not capable of finding their own way to God (Romans 3:23). We need God to come to us in grace and love. God’s wisdom lies in finding a way to do this which reveals God’s true nature. At the heart of this revelation stands the Cross. 

Crucifixion was the ultimate Roman punishment, reserved for bandits, slaves and rebels. People preferred not to think about this agonising and humiliating execution. Belief in a crucified Messiah would have seemed to many like a contradiction in terms. No wonder people thought Christian proclamation was foolishness!  

For Paul, the Cross is where God is most fully revealed, emptied of all but love (Philippians 2:7) and identified most completely with the struggles and suffering of humanity. The Cross tells us that we do not need to find our own way to God, because God has found the way to us. The fourth-century theologian Athanasius put it this way: "He became what we are so that he might make us what he is."  

Paul sums up his explanation to the Corinthian Christians with the contrast between God’s folly and human wisdom, God’s weakness and human strength. Human wisdom, human strength, cannot make any real difference to the human condition. God, in the apparent weakness and foolishness of the Cross, shares our life in ways that bring freedom.  

To Ponder:

• In what ways do you see our world being damaged by ‘human wisdom’? 
• "The Church needs to be less wise and more foolish." What might a foolish Church say and do?