1 Corinthians 1:18-31
February 1, 2026
Nineteen years ago a journalist named Gene Weingarten won a Pulitzer Prize for an article he wrote in the Washington Post newspaper titled, “Pearls Before Breakfast.” His article documented an experiment where a world-renowned violinist, named Joshua Bell, played outside a Washington, DC subway station. Joshua Bell normally played in the great concert halls of the world, such as Paris, London, Vienna, and New York, and people would pay a lot of money to watch and hear him play his violin. But on the morning of January 12, 2007, Joshua Bell stood at the exit of a subway station, wearing jeans and a baseball hat, and he played his violin for 47 minutes as over 1000 people passed by him. Plus, the violin he used that morning, known as a Stradivarius, was built in 1713, and had been purchased for 3.5 million dollars. Several children stopped or wanted to stop to hear him play, but they were pushed or pulled by their parents to keep moving as they had places to go. Joshua Bell placed his violin case opened on the ground in front of him and threw in some change to encourage donations. Of the over 1000 people who passed by him, 27 people put money in his violin case totaling just over $31, and only one person recognized him. No one expected a famous violinist to be playing a 3.5 million dollar violin at that time in the morning at the exit of a busy subway station. Therefore, since people did not expect him, they did not recognize him, and you could say they did not hear him.
Richard Dawkins, a former professor for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University and a non-Christian, once debated John Lennox, a Math professor at Oxford University and a Christian, on the existence of God saying, “John Lennox believes that the creator of the universe, the God who devised the laws of physics, the laws of mathematics, who devised billions of light years of space and billions of years of time, could not come up with a better way to rid the world of sin than to come in this little speck of cosmic dust (meaning Jesus) and have himself tortured and executed, so that he could forgive. That is profoundly unscientific and it does not do justice to the grandeur of the universe. It is petty, it is small, it is pathetic. And yet that’s the God that Christians believe in.”
That’s true. It is petty, it is small-minded, but that is the very point. For many people, Jesus on a cross is the wrong place for God. It is like being blind-sided at a subway station when you are in a hurry to get to work and you pass by one of the most brilliant violinists in the world playing beautiful music on one of the most expensive violins. You don’t expect it, so you don’t see it. When Paul preached the Gospel of Jesus in Corinth he encountered a similar reaction from people. He explained in Verses 22-23 of our second lesson for today, “For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.”
While many of the Jews longed for the Messiah to come, their picture of Him was not that of Paul’s. A common Jewish image of the Messiah was a new King David – a mighty warrior who would deliver the Jews from their oppressors. Surely, the powerful Messiah would not be a man who was sentenced to die upon the cross – the symbol of a convicted criminal.
Likewise, the Greeks thought the cross was foolishness. These wise men, skilled in debate and endless discussions about the nature of the gods, were convinced that the gods would never defile themselves by becoming human. It was simply inconceivable to them that Jesus could be considered divine and yet allow human beings to put Him to death on a cross.
The thing that was so difficult for the Jews and Greeks to accept was instead of Paul talking about a strong and powerful God, his words made God sound weak and ultimately dead. Instead of a God who had the power to conquer evil, Paul’s words revealed a God who was overcome by evil. How could the God who created the universe, limit Himself to the flesh of this man, Jesus? How could the God who calls Himself “Almighty” be overpowered? How could the God who lives forever die? Why should we believe, the reasoned, that our sins are forgiven by this one man dying on a cross? Surely we need to do something to gain eternal life in heaven. What you’re saying, Paul, is too simple, it’s too easy. It’s not demanding enough.
In spite of what the Jews and Greeks were seeking and demanding, Paul said, “This is what we are giving them – Christ crucified. I know it appears to be foolish and weak,” but Paul says in verse 25, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Paul did not see foolishness and weakness in the cross. He saw wisdom and strength, much more wisdom and strength than what human beings had to offer.
When we look at the cross, we don’t just see a good guy in Jesus getting a bad deal. We see God’s eternal plan to save the world come into play. How could the God who demands perfection and threatens hell to those who disobey; how could He remain faithful to His demands and make good on his threats? How could He pay for the sins of the world? The only way God could deal with evil was to let evil have power over Him and take Him to the cross. In His wisdom, God decided to put Himself on the cross – to offset the wrath which the world had earned. God is the only person who could offset such a payment; not a human being, not an angel, but only the death of God in Jesus. That is the wisdom of God. Verse 30 tells us, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God, that is our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.”
And in the cross we also see God’s power. What power is there in a man who dies? For Jesus is it power of love. What power it took Jesus to not only go to that cross, even though He could have avoided it, but to stay on that cross – even though He could have gotten off at any time. When we look at the cross, it empowers us with a confidence that we are holy in His sight through faith. It fills us with a peace of knowing that all of God’s anger over our sins has been paid. Nothing in the world can give us such confidence and peace. Only the power of the cross can do that. The cross makes us recognize that the worries of this world are nothing in comparison with knowing that we are on our way to heaven. This is where the power and wisdom of God are truly found, but it is only through Jesus living in us that we will see the power and wisdom of God in the cross. None of our works, none of our efforts will ever give us such confidence and peace. Therefore, we have nothing in ourselves that is worth boasting.
Think of it this way. With the weather that we are dealing with this weekend, most of us are probably wearing gloves today. Well, this glove was made in the image and likeness of a hand. It’s got a thumb, fingers, a palm, and even a bit of a wrist. Likewise, human beings were made in the image of God – not a physical image, but a moral image. Our character is intended to display God’s character. Now if I tell this glove to scratch my arm, nothing is going to happen. It cannot function by itself. But if I put my hand in this glove, all of the power of my hand becomes the power of the glove as the glove is now filled with my hand. So the glove will scratch my arm and will do many other things, because my hand is inside it.
When Jesus lives within us we can do all kinds of things. And one of the ways Jesus comes to us and lives in us is through our baptism. Whenever a person is baptized, on the outside they may look great, every baby that is brought up here to be baptized looks pure and perfect like a snowflake. But snowflakes are not pure and perfect. At the center of every snowflake is a piece of dirt around which the ice crystal has formed. At the center of our being is sin that makes us dirty and defective, but instead of rejecting us God cleanses us of our sin in baptism and moves into the center of our being. While our sin is still there, it is no longer what defines us. So our bragging and our boasting is not in ourselves, but in Jesus as He is the one who gives us confidence and peace, and uses us to show others the power, wisdom, and love of our God. May we always recognize Jesus when He comes to us and may we always share Him with others.
