God of Weakness

THE GOD OF WEAKNESS

(1 Corinthians 1.18- 2.5)

"For the Jews demand signs and the Gentiles seek for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to the Gentiles". (1 Cor 1.22)

And nothing has changed over 2,000 years since Paul wrote to the Christians living in Corinth in about 55AD. People still look for signs and wisdom and people still find it hard to believe in a God of weakness which we find symbolised in the crucified Jesus.

Take for instance those who want to believe in a Jewish God.

The Jews were very much down to earth people. They were practical people.

They believed in a God who revealed himself in power by the performing of signs. The Jews of the Old Testament never tired of recalling how God has acted in the life of their nation. They recalled the rescue from slavery in Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea, the wandering through the wilderness and their entry into the promised land. As they looked back upon their national life they could see the hand of the powerful God at work in history.

Naturally, they believed that when the Messiah came, he too would be a person who revealed a God of power through signs of wonders.

Alas, when they looked at Jesus, they saw the complete opposite. They saw a God who revealed himself in weakness. A God who allowed himself to be crucified. In addition, their scriptures reminded them: "He that is hanged is accursed by God". It therefore followed that Jesus could not possibly be the Messiah. The manner of his death and the words of their scriptures proved that. God would never allow himself to be revealed through weakness. Therefore the cross was a 'stumbling block' to belief. In short, God in Christ did not fulfil their expectations.

Now you don't need me to remind you that many people today find it hard to believe in God for exactly the same reason. They expect God to be a person of power and action who reveals himself in signs and wonders. A God who is continually intervening in the course of history.

Unfortunately, the God whom Jesus reveals at the Temptations and supremely upon the Cross, is not such a God. Rather, he is a God of weakness and therefore the crucified Jesus is a 'stumbling block' also to their belief in God.

Or take the case of the Gentiles. Paul was writing his letter not only for the benefit of Jews but also for the Greeks, and especially those living in Corinth.

The Greeks were great talkers and thinkers. It was the age of the philosopher. They were people who would spend hour after hour discussing the idea of God. As Dio Chrysastum says, the philosophers were like "peacocks, showing off their reputation and the number of their pupils as peacocks do their tails". They looked for a God who would reveal himself by being the answer to all their human speculation, a God who was an answer to all their intellectual questioning.

Again, the God revealed through Jesus on the cross, who in weakness surrenders his life, was no adequate answer to their questioning minds. In fact, to believe in such a God was sheer "folly to the Gentiles".

As a certain Celsus put it when he attacked Christians in AD178. "Let no cultured person draw near, none wise, none sensible: for all that counts for evil: but if a man is ignorant, if any is wanting in sense and culture, if any is a fool, let him come boldly".

In other words, Christianity was the faith of fools. It was not an academically acceptable faith.

Again, you don't need me to point out that there are people today who find Christianity intellectually unacceptable. They enjoy talking about the idea of a god but cannot accept a personal God, and particularly one who reveals himself in weakness upon a cross. This is no answer to their questioning minds. It may speak to the foolish but it does not speak to the intelligentsia.

So, as I said at the beginning, the attitude of the Jews and Gentiles of 2,000 years ago is still alive and well in the world of today. There are still people who find the God of weakness, symbolised upon the cross, both a 'stumbling block' and 'foolishness'.

And yet, it is the God of weakness who reveals himself, not only upon the cross, but also in the lives of the early Christians including that of St Paul himself.

Take for instance, the early Christians who, according to St Paul, "From a human point of view few.....were wise or powerful or of social standing" (1 Cor.1.26).

This picture of the early Christians is confirmed by that archcritic of the early Christians and intellectual snob, Celsus, to whom I have already referred. He says of Christians that: "We see them in their homes, wool dressers, cobblers and fullers, the most uneducated and vulgar persons".

Others came from the ranks of the 60 million slaves which existed in the Roman Empire.

Paul discerns that: "God purposely chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise, and he chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the powerful. He chose what the world looks down on and despises and thinks is nothing in order to destroy what the world thinks important" (1 Cor.1.27-28).

Yes, the God of weakness chose to reveal himself primarily through the weak people of life. The reason for this is obvious. Such people are less likely to claim personal credit and are therefore more willing to acknowledge the power of God in their lives and give Him the credit. "This means", says St Paul, "that no one can boast in God's presence" (1 Cor. 1.29).

Or take the personal example of St Paul himself. "When I came to you, my brothers, to preach God's secret truth, I did not use big words and great learning" (1 Cor.2.1). "When I came to you, I was weak and trembled all over with fear" (1 Cor.2.3).

Yet in spite of his lack of intellectual learning and personal inadequacies, he can also say "my teaching and message were not delivered with skilful words of wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's spirit" (1 Cor.2.4).

And this is the crunch of the whole matter. The power of God, is not revealed in great signs and wonders; it is not revealed in intellectual argument: it is revealed first and foremost through a God of weakness, on a cross and also through the lives of those who follow such a God.

Belief in such a God may well appear as a 'stumbling block' to some and 'foolishness' to others, "but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God" (1 Cor.1.24).

At the heart of the Christian faith is a God of apparent weakness. A God, revealed through Jesus, who chooses to hang helplessly from the Cross. Yet a God who through weakness reveals his power.

This is the God who calls both you and me to follow him. To follow him in our weakness so that his power may be revealed through our lives, as it was revealed through those early Christian men and women.