“A leg up”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Tuesday, February 20, 2024 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 (Forward, p. 22) CEV p. 1190
The Christian believers in Corinth, if you take the apostle Paul’s word for it, were not of ‘the cream of the crop’, at least, not by society’s standards. Few of them were found among the ranks of the wealthy, the powerful, the influential, or the intellectual elite of that community. Nevertheless, according to Paul, they had ‘a leg up’, an advantage, over all the rest.
But, before we look at their advantage in detail, let us first look at where the rest fell short. Paul separates them into two classes: interestingly, they are defined by their religious and cultural perspectives, Jewish and Greek.
On the Jewish side of things, the claims of the Christians, even the simple content of the Gospel, were unbelievably abhorrent and revolting to all ‘good taste.’ It was absolutely contradictory to everything they believed about God, salvation, and the promised Messiah. There was no way that that the Messiah could suffer death in this way. Indeed, their own Law taught that anyone hung on a tree was accursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23). So, in a very real way, the crucifixion in and of itself undid any claims that Jesus was the Messiah. Furthermore, they were of the belief that the coming of the Messiah would be accompanied by a mind-boggling display of great signs and wonders, which is exactly what the ‘pretend’ Messiahs had promised. The relatively ‘feeble’ and low-key ‘output’ of Jesus in no way measured up to what the Jewish crowds expected. And so the Jewish population, by and large—with some notable exceptions—wrote Jesus off!
And to the Greek, the mere assertion that God became human was absurd. That would mean that God became subject to all the varied hazards and conditions of the human condition. After all, the gods, as far as they were concerned, were far above being touched by our very human feelings and far removed from knowing ‘what it’s like’ for us mere mortals. And so, not only was the Incarnation absurd, so too was the idea that God, in Christ Jesus, could die. And so many of the Greeks wrote Jesus off as well.
But here’s where the handful of Corinthian believers had ‘the leg up.’ They accepted as fact the notion that God had indeed ‘become flesh’ and shared our existence. They understood that Jesus had taken upon Himself our sin, our penalty, there on the Cross, had experienced—and bridged—the separation that was ours by right, and had accepted the curse on our behalf, the curse that we fully merited and deserved. They accepted the premise annunciated by a later author, that only what God had ‘assumed’ (that is, taken upon Himself) could He ever redeem. And so, these seemingly uninformed and inconsequential believers had a ‘leg up’ on everyone else, and something to boast in, but not in themselves, but in God alone, who did all this.
And so it is for us today. Well might some of us boast in worldly success or achievement, or in our abilities or experience or knowledge, but when it comes down to it, all that we can really boast in is what God had done for us in Christ Jesus. And here, in reality, it is nothing of ourselves, but totally in God. It is entirely a gift, a free, unmerited, unearned gift that He has bestowed upon us. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Forward notes: “For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (verse 25).
Commemoration: Frederick Douglass
“When we look at the life of Frederick Douglass, we can see how this verse applies to him. Born into slavery, Douglass faced immense challenges but never lost faith in God. He used his God-given abilities as a powerful speaker and writer to fight for the abolition of slavery and for the rights of African Americans. He was a strong advocate for education and believed that knowledge was essential for freedom. He also recognized the importance of faith in God and used his experiences to inspire others.
“Douglass’s life is a testament to the power of faith, resilience, and perseverance. It reminds us that even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, we can find the strength to overcome them. It reminds us that God’s wisdom is greater than any human wisdom and that it is through our faith in God that we can achieve true freedom. And it
reminds us that even the weakest among us can become agents of change in the world if we only have the courage to believe.”
Moving Forward: “What God-given gifts are you using to advocate for justice for all?”