What really matters in this world? Most people would look to money or power or knowledge to give them control over more of the circumstances of their lives. That’s probably why powerful, wealthy, or educated people usually get a lot of respect – they represent what most people would like to be.

But what if you add a belief in God to the mix? What really matters then? Many who call themselves “spiritual” would once again define the good life by what God does for them – providing for their needs, protecting them from harm and danger, making things clear to them. And don’t we all tend to pray for God to show His power in these sorts of tangible, visible ways to ourselves and our loved ones?

But in today’s passage, Paul turns all this worldly wisdom on its head. For he insists on boasting in Christ, Who chose to display God’s power not by pushing people around but by humbling Himself, allowing Himself to be nailed to a cross. Paul boasts in Christ, Who refused to use His miraculous power to remove Himself from that cross, but chose instead to display God’s self-sacrificial, unconditional love by dying for a world full of ungrateful sinners.

No, the cross makes no sense to those who insist on understanding everything, who are only interested in worldly wealth and power. And living a self-denying, self-sacrificial, humble way doesn’t always make sense to those of us who call ourselves Christians. But walking the way of the cross isn’t just the key to unity within the Church. No, it’s the only way to salvation, the only way to righteousness and redemption, the only way to true life itself. Because the cross is the power of God and the wisdom of God, it puts all worldly power and wisdom to shame.

I Corinthians 1:18-31 (ESV)

18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
20 Where 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?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.
22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom,
23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,
24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth.
27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong;
28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”