By Sally Ponce, assistant to academic programs
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NRSV)
Do you remember the first time you saw a movie in 3D? I do! I remember seeing the movie Avatar in 3D. I wore the funny black 3D glasses and was able to experience the colorful creatures flying and fluttering in front of my face. They seemed so real. I actually reached out to touch the wings of one of these fanciful critters. Once, during the movie, I took off the glasses and the movie was blurry and out of focus. The technicolor film with vivid images now appeared to have been scribbled by a child who did not stay in the lines.
In today’s passage, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, Apostle Paul talks about the cross being foolish to those who are perishing. The perishing are those who do not yet have a personal relationship with God. They are in this world looking at it without the wisdom of God or their 3d glasses on. Paul talks about the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing, to them everything is blurry and out of focus. When we, as Christians, see the cross, we know the great gift God gave to us. The cross represents our eternity. We know we can have everlasting life. For those who do not know the Lord, they are viewing the cross without the 3D glasses. They can not see the beauty of the cross and what it represents. They can only see a rugged, old cross with no purpose. They find those who believe in the cross to be foolish or lacking wisdom. My wish for you this Easter season is that you have your 3D glasses on and are filled with God’s wisdom and experience all the things that he has created and planned for us.
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 (NRSV)
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.