1 Corinthians 1:18-25
“For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom.”
There is a natural human inclination toward being religious or spiritual. But this natural kind of religiosity or spirituality – among those whose faith and piety have not been shaped by the divinely-revealed Christian gospel – takes more than one form.
In today’s text from his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul writes that there are actually two basic ways in which people who do not know Christ, approach God and the idea of God, or spiritual questions in general. Paul describes these two natural, human religious orientations as the way of the “Jews,” who request signs; and the way of the “Greeks,” who seek after wisdom.
Now, there certainly are Jews who have a more philosophical approach in their spirituality; and there certainly are Greeks who are eager to see and experience miracles. But the apostle chooses to catagorize these two approaches in these ways, because of the common associations that he had seen in his interactions with people.
Still, you don’t have to identify yourself as Jewish, for Paul’s words to find their mark in your way of thinking about God and the things of God, if you are the kind of person who expects God to prove himself to you through signs and miracles.
You don’t have to identify yourself as Greek, for Paul’s description of the Greeks also to be an accurate description of you, if you are the kind of person who sees God – or the concept of God – as little more than a source of spiritual wisdom and inner enlightenment.
During the earthly ministry of Jesus, the leaders of the Jewish people often demanded a “sign” from him, to validate the authority of his claims and actions. But Jesus did not submit to their demands.
St. John tells us in his Gospel that on the occasion of our Lord’s cleansing of the temple, the Jewish leaders said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
He was, of course, not speaking about the literal building that stood before them, but about “the temple of his body,” and about the future resurrection of that body.
On another occasion, as reported by St. Matthew, some Pharisees and Sadducees tested Jesus by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered by telling them:
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.”
The “sign of Jonah” to which Christ referred, also points to his resurrection: that is, to Jesus’ emergence from the tomb on the third day; just as Jonah, after three days, had emerged from the great fish that had swallowed him.
So, whenever the Jews requested a “sign” from Jesus, then and there, he pointed them instead to his future resurrection.
And, for Jesus, his pathway to the resurrection went through the cross. There was no detour that would have allowed him to bypass this humiliating death, on his way to victory and glory.
Our sins were atoned for at the cross of Christ, before a holy and righteous God. Indeed, the sins of the whole world were “taken away” from the world at his cross: where the Lamb of God was slain; and where the Son of Man laid down his life as a ransom for many.
For fallen man, there can be no reconciliation or relationship with God, without forgiveness from God, and justification before God. And God’s forgiveness and justification cannot be known, apart from the cross. The cross is a fundamental defining reality of the Christian faith.
By all human standards, there is nothing attractive or intriguing about the cross. A Roman cross is not a sign of power – spiritual or otherwise.
A cross is emblematic of shame, humiliation, and degradation. If the religion that we are pursuing is a religion of glorious and powerful signs, then the cross of Christ – and, the crosses that we might bear in this life – are to be avoided, or escaped from, at all costs.
Those who want signs don’t want just any signs. They want signs of strength, not signs of weakness. They want signs of life, not signs of death.
They want a religion that works for them in this world, and that makes things better for them in this world, not a religion that makes things worse.
A religion that demands signs, is also a religion that is imbued with the expectation that God will provide practical and observable earthly benefits to those who believe in him. According to the assumptions of this kind of religion, God will prove himself through miracles, or special interventions, that give special advantages to believers.
The cross, though, is a stumbling block to all of this. If you think you’re on a pathway to success and prosperity with God, the reality of the cross will trip you up. The only genuine pathway to God is a pathway that goes through the cross, not around it.
And for us who follow Jesus by faith, there is likewise no way to bypass the crosses that are laid upon us in this world, because of our faith in Jesus. As he also said to his disciples:
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”
In contrast, the religious assumptions and expectations of “Greeks” – or of those who think like Greeks in regard to spiritual or religious matters – are quite a bit different from this. But they are just as far from the truth as it is in Christ.
According to the natural religiosity of the Greeks, as Paul characterizes it, there is no demand for signs. In fact, the philosophical and rationalistic “Greek” mind tends to be somewhat skeptical regarding the possibility of miracles.
They are not looking for signs. They are seeking after wisdom. Remember what happened when Paul presented the message of Christ’s resurrection to the Athenians, at the Areopagus. We read in the Book of Acts that
“When they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’”
People today who pursue a pathway of “new age” spirituality do not care all that much about the Christian story of the resurrection of Jesus. What would be the point of a literal bodily resurrection?
The soul moves on after death to ever higher spiritual levels. It doesn’t need that body any more. If Jesus plays any role in their religious quest for supernatural wisdom, it would not be as a redeemer, but as a teacher.
But even there, Jesus’ teaching about the purpose and necessity of his death, and his sacramental teaching that his body and blood are given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, are conveniently ignored. Instead, they would shine a spotlight on New Testament texts like the Sermon on the Mount, which can be appropriated – in isolation from their broader context – as sources of spiritual wisdom: alongside the teachings of various gurus and enlightened masters.
Those who, in Greek-like fashion, seek after wisdom, don’t want a religion that works for them – in terms of earthly miracles and other material benefits – as much as they want a religion that works in them: enlightening their minds, satisfying their spiritual curiosities, elevating their consciousness, and giving them what they consider to be a comprehensive understanding of the meaning of everything.
Humanity’s fundamental problem, as they see it, is not alienation, but ignorance. The substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus, and the forgiveness of sins offered by Jesus in his means of grace, are not solutions to this problem. Wisdom is the solution.
But any purported wisdom that ignores God – in his real acts and words, and in his self-disclosure in the person and work of his Son – is not wisdom. It is blind foolishness, masquerading as wisdom.
True wisdom is not based on the mere idea of God, on which the human imagination can then build whatever it chooses. True wisdom is based on the objective revelation of God in human history.
And true Christian wisdom takes shape in our lives, and in our relationships with others, in such a way as to reflect the governing themes of the gospel: love, reconciliation, and forgiveness.
The Christian faith as God reveals it in Christ, through his apostles, does not disdain the genuine divine sign of the resurrection. In fact, it is built on that sign.
The personal transformations in character and temperament that can often be seen in people who have turned away from a life of brazen sin, and who have embraced the Savior who embraces them in his regenerating grace, are often very noticeable. These transformations are a kind of “sign” of the reality of God in the lives of his saints.
But Christian faith does not demand signs like this. By faith we rest in the love and grace of God in Christ, and as forgiven sinners we rejoice in the justification of God in Christ, sometimes even in the midst of great weakness and struggle; and sometimes even in the midst of great suffering in this world.
The hardships that we do often endure do not challenge the legitimacy of our faith, but they confirm it. In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus spoke words of comfort for his disciples specifically for such circumstances:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”
There is a unique kind of power in such weakness, though. It is the resilient power to withstand the onslaughts of the devil against our faith, even to the point of bodily death, “because of the grace of God that was given to us in Christ Jesus.”
It is the liberating power to love and pray for our enemies, even as they are persecuting us, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
These are not the kinds of miraculous signs that the world notices, or respects. But these modest signs in the life of a humble Christian, such as they are, do point to the greater sign of the raising up of the “temple” of the body of Jesus. They point to the greater sign of Jonah: the resurrection of Jesus on the third day.
It is the resurrection of Jesus that brings the saving meaning of the crucifixion of Jesus into focus for us, and that makes all of this possible. It is Jesus’ victory for us over sin and death, that removes from us the fear of death; and that supernaturally gives us the courage to confess him as Lord, to the glory of God the Father, in any circumstance.
St. Paul accordingly writes to the Corinthians, and to us:
“We preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
The Christian Scriptures in their totality do indeed convey a great wisdom to us. The Bible shows us a clear and accurate way of looking at and evaluating the world; of making some degree of sense out of the world; and – with God’s help – of navigating through the challenges and pitfalls of the world.
But what we know to be God’s true wisdom in this respect, is looked upon as foolishness by others – others who do not know God, or his wisdom.
It is foolish, they think – foolish and pointless – to seek to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to love your neighbor as yourself. It is foolish, they think – foolish and misguided – to forgive your brother seventy times seven times.
It is foolish to be willing to lay down your life, rather than to deny Christ before men. It is foolish to live for others and not for yourself – and for the satisfying of your own greedy and lustful desires – and to want to serve God by serving others.
It is foolish to pay special attention to the weak and the sick, the poor and the needy; and to expend time and resources for the benefit of those who can do nothing to repay you for your kindness.
But we are not troubled by the world’s disapproval. God’s approval is of much more value to us.
Jews request signs and Greeks seek after wisdom. In Christ, we request and seek after neither. But in Christ we receive both – at a higher and truer level – when we receive Christ.
In Christ we receive life – which is itself a “sign” of the resurrection of the one who gives us this life, by his Holy Spirit. In Christ we receive life – which raises us from the deadness of worldly wisdom; and which fills us with the wisdom of the creator of all life, and with the love of the redeemer of all men.
In Christ we are saved from the guilt and power of sin. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And ultimately we will be saved from the consequences of sin – in our resurrection to eternal life on the last day. We will dwell forever in the place in his Father’s house, that our Lord has gone now to prepare for us.
There is no earthly sign that shows us what this is like. Jesus Christ shows us what this is like.
There is no earthly wisdom that enables us to look forward to this with confidence and hope. Jesus Christ enables us to look forward to this with confidence and hope.
And finally, St. Paul also writes:
“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.’ Where is the wise? … Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 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.”
It pleased God, through the foolishness of what Paul and all the apostles preached, to save you. Amen.