The Wisdom of the Cross

Against the parties that tore the Church of Corinth, where each claimed a master more brilliant than another, Paul does not argue about eloquence: he brings everything back to the Cross. It is the Cross that judges all human wisdom and overturns the standards by which the world judges what is great or contemptible.

The folly of the Cross

In the eyes of the world, a crucified Messiah is a contradiction: the Jews awaited a glorious king, the Greeks sought a wisdom. Paul gathers this double refusal into one formula: “The Jews demand signs and the Greeks seek wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 1:22 To the one the Cross seems powerless, lacking splendour; to the other absurd, lacking reason. Paul takes it up: “we proclaim a crucified Christ, a scandal to the Jews and folly to the Gentiles.” 1 Corinthians 1:23 The Jewish scandal was the greater in that the Law declared accursed every man hanged on a tree: “one who is hanged is a curse of God.” Deuteronomy 21:23 A crucified Messiah thus appeared not only defeated, but struck by the very curse of God. But this apparent folly is the very power of God: “the message of the cross is folly to those who are on the way to ruin, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 On the Cross, God saves by what men hold to be a defeat.

God chooses the weak

This reversal is read in the very choice of the called. God did not build his Church on the powerful nor the learned, but on people of little account, that the glory might return to him alone: “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame what is strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27 The wisdom and the strength of God are not measured by those of men; they turn them over. What the world holds for folly is, for the called, the very wisdom of God: “to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, a Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:24 The Cross does not set faith against wisdom: it is the true wisdom, hidden under an appearance of weakness. Christ himself has become that wisdom for us: “who has become for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” 1 Corinthians 1:30

To know nothing but Christ crucified

Paul draws from this the rule of his own preaching. He had come to Corinth neither with the prestige of orators nor with the refinements of philosophers, but with one thing to announce: “I had resolved to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2 True wisdom is not a discourse that seduces, but the design of God hidden in the Cross, which the Spirit alone makes understood. To divide in the name of brilliant masters is to fall back into the wisdom of the world that the Cross has judged.