Wisdom and a Divided Christ
By: Jon U
Tags: Republicans, Wisdom, Jesus, Patriotism, Christianity

I used to work for a large church back in Texas. They were working on a construction project in the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, I do not remember the details, but I do remember a key take away. They had planned for a dump truck to dump a large amount of rock at the site. The rock was dumped prematurely causing the laborers to have to manually carry it the rest of the way. The church member leading the project was frustrated to put it mildly. The failure of the driver of the dump truck put the project way behind schedule. When she was venting to some of the local leaders, one of them said, “this was no mistake, now the workers have more work and receive enough pay to get by and support their families.” His concern was not with the efficiency, but to see that all of his workers are taken care of. What our culture would look at and see as foolishness, their culture saw as wisdom and compassion.

Sometimes what we take as wisdom, is actually the opposite. This is what Paul was addressing to the Corinthians. Often, God’s wisdom does not make sense to us.

God does not care about profit or efficiency in our human projects.

God’s plan and desires are beyond our understanding, transcend it, often seems to the average onlooker as foolish.

Now to add some context to this letter from Paul. He was writing to the church in Corinth. Corinth is a city in Greece that was the wealthiest and culturally most important place in the country. Think of it as the New York City of Greece 2000 years ago. It was a philosophy hub. Much of the Greek thought came from here. Greece at the time was also part of the Roman empire, and Corinth was a strategic Roman hub. Think of it, in the greater Roman context as Seattle, San Francisco, Miami, New Orleans, or Boston.

Now in Corinth, the church was divided into tribal parties, much like our country. The Christians there were following different church leaders and were in the “Paul camp,” the “Peter camp,” or the “Apollos camp.” Does this sound familiar?

Is Christ divided or are we following different “tribes” rather than Christ?

This letter could have essentially been written to modern American Christians. We’re divided into tribal factions, putting our faith into our tribal wisdom, whether that means our political parties, reading bibles with American flags on them, seeing Christ through our American lens, seeing Christ through our democrat or republican lens, seeing Christ through Methodist, evangelical, Catholic, or LDS lens?

Are we doing that, OR, are we seeing Christ?

Paul speaks of these Christians following Greek philosophy and wisdom over Christ. so let’s look at this as if it were in our own culture:

Work long and hard now to enjoy later We are a nation of laws You have to look out for number one America First Money buys happiness I need to feel important

We believe if we work long and hard now, we can one day kick back and enjoy later. However, a few weeks ago, we learned about the parable of the rich fool that put too much value in his wealth and died upon retirement. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. Our time should be spent building up heavenly treasures rather than accumulating wealth for our vanity. Wisdom is seeing how to live beyond ourselves

We say we are a nation of laws, but a couple weeks ago we learned that Jesus broke the law, by healing on the sabbath. Yes, he broke the law! He was more concerned with the spirit behind it. The Sabbath exists for us to recharge and the remain connected to God. It is there to prevent burnout. It is there to help us remain thankful. It is not there to make an idol of how to observe it, as is the case with any law. Righteous laws exist to make life better for people. Unjust laws need to be destroyed. Wisdom is understanding why we have laws and not getting caught up in the letter of them, especially when we use them as an excuse to hide our prejudice.

We must look out for number one, but Jesus died for us and said the greatest love is dying for others. Last week we learned that following Jesus can mean letting go of things or people closest to us, even letting go of ourselves.

We should put our country first, but Jesus opened salvation to those beyond Israel. We should follow suit. There is no longer Gentile or Jew, but we are to be one in Christ.

We often believe that money buys happiness, even when we do not say it. It is all over our consumer-driven culture. However, Jesus said blessed are the poor. He also said that the love of money is the root of all evil. An important distinction here is that he did not say money is the root of all evil. Money is a tool and nothing more. It’s the love of, obsession with money, and the belief that money will make you secure that causes issues.

We believe social status matters. We want to feel important and needed. We must remember Jesus taught that the last shall be first, first shall be last.

In this text, Paul was not only addressing Greco-Roman wisdom, but also the division within the church where Christians were getting caught up in the cult of different leaders. Let’s look at the “wisdom” of divisive Christian leaders here in our context: [Kenneth Copeland said he needs a private jet because demons are on commercial planes. Jim Bakker believes that if Democrats win in 2020, Christians will suddenly die. Franklin Graham was very critical of Bill Clinton’s adulterous relationship, and as a Christian leader, one should be. However, he has been quite silent regarding Trump’s admitted adultery and admitted sexual assalt. In fact, Graham stated we do not need our President to be “theologian in chief.” Well, this was until Mayor Pete has gained in popularity. Now he says Mayor Pete needs to repent for being Gay. Jerry Fallwell Jr.proclaimed that if more people had concealed carried, they could “end those Muslims.” Joel Osteen says to pray for wealth and God will give it to you. Lastly, Creflo Dollar has insisted, “Give me money because God wants me to have a private jet.”]

There are plenty Christian leaders that are more sane but still missing the point, stating that we need to be countercultural (which in and of itself is true), be teaching things like: don’t drink, don’t dance, don’t be gay. Things that in and of themselves are not sin, but could be. While Jesus does promote leaving sin behind and following him, much of his teachings sounded more like: don’t hoard, don’t cheat, free the captives, heal the brokenness.

Is Christ divided or or we following people rather than Christ? Are we following our cultural, American wisdom rather than Christ?

Does the American flag belong in the sanctuary of a church? I’m not suggesting we should be thankful for where we live, not all suggesting that. I am asking though, since God is the God of all and Christ is not divided, does this flag being in here suggest that we are following an American understanding of Christ. Is it suggesting that we are not seeking God’s full wisdom, but rather a cultural understanding of such? I’m personally not a fan of any flags in here because they are a symbol of might, and yes, God is indeed mighty, but God’s wisdom has shown a different way, a way of laying down our swords and our lives.

Jesus teaches us a different way, a way that looks to the spirit behind the law rather than upholding the letter of the law. The law says Don’t kill, but Jesus says don’t even have unrighteous anger toward someone or you are guilty of murder. The law says don’t commit adultery, but Jesus says don’t even look lustfully at another, or we are guilty of adultery. Our American law says we are to swear on the bible, but Jesus said do not take oaths. Let our yes mean yes and our no mean no. Do not swear. Jesus teaches a counter-wisdom that says love your enemies. That says blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. That says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. That says blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Imagine if that was in our courtrooms!?

“No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One (Son of Man).” Since Jesus, fully God, has come from heaven, then Jesus is our revelation of who God is and what God’s character is like. Since Jesus is fully human, he is the example of what a human life should look like and the arch-type of true human wisdom.

It stated in today’s text that the Jews were looking for signs. It is important that we do not read this as Christians are right and Jews are wrong. Many of the first Christians were, in fact, Jews. As was Jesus. Too much of history has been plagued by Christians persecuting Jews due to this poor theological understanding. Here is the context behind what the ancient Jews were looking for: They were expecting the Messiah to be a military champion, to come and conquer their enemies. No more Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, or Rome. The Messiah would conquer all the bad nations and bring about peace. This is part of the sign they were looking for.

I’ve seen a posting that if Jesus was packing heat, that he would not have died on the cross. This is possibly true. But Jesus is God, Jesus was God’s plan, and if God wanted Jesus to use might to escape, he could have, but he chose to resist nonviolently, he chose to give his life up for all. He chose to essentially mock our militarism by laying down his life. He showed us the flaw in our wisdom. There will never be a war to end all wars. Violence will always bring more violence. Our wisdom is that might can overpower evil, but it never can or will in the long run. The ultimate mockery to our human wisdom is that when imperial might, Rome, put Jesus to death at the hands and desire of the so-called pious religious people, that God honored the sacrifice by raising Jesus from the dead, showing how foolish our might and the supposed wisdom behind it was, that even the ultimate force, Rome, was no match for a simple man that laid his life down rather than bringing the angel-armies to conquer the Roman forces, as the religious people of this time were expecting. That is the gospel. The gospel turns our wisdom upside-down. God’s wisdom sounds foolish to our cultural wisdom and it often is in opposition to the pious as well.