I Corinthians 1:26-31
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
John was baptizing for repentance and remission of sin. But Jesus needed neither repentance nor forgiveness. How could it be that He would come to John? After all, He was the Son of the eternal Father. John, in all sincerity, said: “I need to be baptized by You. And do You come to me?” That certainly seems a proper response. But Jesus answered him: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Out of our Lord’s words, one of the great mysteries of the Christian faith unfolds. The One who comes with the power to save, the One without sin, becomes sin for us, “that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Had we been God, we would have done things differently. But we are not God, and His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts. And for that we are eternally grateful.
Just as our Savior does not fit the preconceived mold most would want to put Him in, so too most people in this world see Christians as being a bit odd. One man has described Christians as “well-programmed suckers.” It is true that we do not have the same goals, nor do we participate in the same kinds of fun, as much of our society with its debauchery and immorality. And the pressure to conform to such standards is severe. Our teenagers and young adults especially know how difficult this is. What is needed is to know how God defines both strength and wisdom.
We want to be seen as strong and wise; no one wants to be seen as weak or foolish. Society glorifies strength and cunning. In our cleverness, we seek after our own goals. For example, it used to be thought that the purpose of an education is to cultivate the mind, which is a marvelous gift of God. But these days, education is something to check off the list on the way to a job that offers the highest salary possible. That is what strength and wisdom consists of in this materialistic world. Man glorifies himself; he believes it is his own strength and wisdom that gets him all these things.
The case St. Paul makes in this text is that we have all of this backwards. What man sees as strength is actually weakness; what he thinks is wisdom is, in truth, foolishness. And the road built by strength and wisdom as defined by man is not merely a dead end; it is a road that leads to destruction. One who is on this road has no hope of gaining and understanding true strength and wisdom because He is blinded by his own vanity. One who trusts in himself cannot realize that he is weak.
The truth is, when we think we are strong, we are really weak; when we think we are wise, we are actually foolish. We just acknowledged in the liturgy that “we are by nature sinful and unclean.” We are all weak and foolish. The first step toward having godly strength and wisdom is to admit that we don’t have it, and that what we do have is weakness and foolishness. This demands repentance and confession of sin, and then receiving the forgiveness of sin from the One who is truly strong and wise, our Lord Jesus Christ. We find true strength and wisdom on our knees.
True strength and wisdom are gifts from God. In the words leading up to our text, St. Paul writes: “...we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” The cross of Christ, in the eyes of unbelief, is the very height of foolishness. There is nothing more offensive in the presence of unbelief than the suffering of the cross. It makes God out to be the fool, and the One called His Son still more foolish. But what faith knows to be true is that God turns everything around. His foolishness is wiser than the wisest man. What the world thinks is folly, God calls wisdom. What the world thinks is weakness, God calls power.
And now, consider your calling in light of all of this. In the eyes of this world, you are weak and foolish, with no power nor influence. You are despised and unsophisticated. And in this respect, you are no different than Jesus, for that is what they also think of Him. But as Paul writes: “He is the source of your life..., whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.”
And this draws us back to our Lord’s baptism. Now we know why Jesus humbled Himself and stood before John for Baptism. What appears weak and foolish before the world is, in fact, the working out of God’s strength and wisdom. Things must be done God’s way, and God’s way is to subject His own Son to suffering and death for the sins of the world, with the sure and certain promise of the resurrection to life and glory everlasting. That is what was begun at His Baptism. And the same promise is given to your faith: what seems weak and foolish to you now is but the working out of the will of God in your life to save you. Only in eternity will you know this fully. For now, in the midst of trial and temptation and suffering, you have the strength and wisdom of God, which is Jesus Christ—and that is enough! In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
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