Wise Beyond This World 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

Grace, mercy, and peace …

Have you heard the phrase wise beyond his years, or her years? Today we’re going to talk about being even wiser yet, wise beyond this world.

Who is the wisest person you know? Who is the smartest person you know? Are they the same person?

Wisdom and intelligence are two different things. You can be very wise, but not overly smart or intelligent. And you can be very smart by worldly standards, but not especially wise.

Albert Einstein said, I’ve figured out the scientific equation, and now I’m trying to figure out the spiritual equation. To say it another way, I’m smart, but now I’m trying to be wise. He found it harder to be wise than to be smart.

In our Old Testament today, we have the wisdom of the law; the Ten Commandments; the first three teaching us to love God, and the last seven teaching us to love one another.

We have these commandments of love recorded in the Bible for us, which is good. It means we can always go back to them and read them word for word.

But we also have them in our conscience. The people of Israel were taught these commandments long before they were written down for them, because they were in their minds and hearts.

Romans 2:15 tells us that even the Gentiles have the law on their hearts. They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.

We call this natural law, and we all have it in us, in our conscience, to guide us, to correct us, to vindicate or accuse us, and most of all to show us that we need a Savior, someone to save us from ourselves.

For this purpose God has given us the Gospel of His Son. The Gospel is not known to us naturally like the law is; it must be revealed.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus revealed His resurrection, something that had been clearly pre-revealed, if you will, by prophecy in the Old Testament.

2000 years before Jesus died and rose, Job said, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he shall stand upon the earth.” He was talking about the resurrection of the Messiah.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus prophesied His resurrection using a metaphor, as He so often did, comparing His body to the temple.

Jesus was in Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and He fulfilled a prophecy about the Messiah from Psalm 69, Zeal for Your house will consume me.

Jesus showed his love for God’s house by driving out the greedy merchants who had taken over the court of the Gentiles, the outer area of the temple that was to be reserved for Gentiles to worship and pray there. The vendors had taken over the area and driven the Gentiles farther out.

When Jesus saw this he was overtaken by passion for the temple, but also by his love for all people, including gentiles, like us. Mark 11 tells us that he said, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations’?

He loved the temple because it was His Father’s house; and He loved the people because they were His family, His Father’s children. He was filled with love and zeal for both, His Father’s house and His Father’s family.

In the same way, as we serve the Lord, and as He serves us with His Word and Sacrament, our love for Him grows, so the love we have for His house grows; and with it, the affection we have for His family; our love for one another grows. 

The leaders asked Jesus who he thought he was that he could do this: “What sign will you give us?”.

Jesus answered with a metaphor, “Destroy this temple, and in three days, I’ll raise it.” He was speaking of his body. Kill me and in 3 days I’ll rise.

No amount of common sense could have figured out that Jesus would rise; that had to be revealed.

Jesus revealed it first by promising it; secondly, by actually doing it, by rising and showing himself alive; and thirdly, by having it recorded for us in the Gospels. Three ways we know that Christ is risen indeed, and we, too, will rise indeed!

In our Epistle today, Paul talks about the revealed wisdom of God, especially in the cross, since before Jesus could rise, obviously he had to die.

In the minds of many people, to follow a man who had been killed by crucifixion, the most painful and shameful way to die at that time, and to regard him as your Savior, was just plain ridiculous.

Verse 16 says, “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing… but to us being saved, it is the power of God.” And verses 23, 24, But we preach Christ crucified… Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

Jesus had the wisdom to die for us, and the power to rise for us.

As weak and pathetic as Jesus looked on the cross, being punished for the sins of the world, yet God was powerfully and wisely at work, punishing the world’s sins completely, so that all justice would be done for the world.

And then, forgiving those sins completely, so that Jesus could rise, and salvation be won for the world, so that all who believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

That seemingly ridiculous way to save the world, was the only way to save the world. God knew what he was doing, because He is wise beyond this world.

Verse 25 says, For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of of God is stronger than men.

Paul is doing play on words: God’s foolishness is wiser than man’s wisdom, and His weakness is stronger than man’s power.

Of course, God isn’t foolish, and isn’t weak in any way, but it may seem at times like he is. The cross and the salvation that comes from it, proves that God knows what he’s doing. He is wise beyond this world.

Sometimes somebody might do something, and you might wonder why did you do that,  and then it works out, and works out really well, and then you say, “Now I see what you were doing.”

When Jesus gave himself to be hung on a cross, his followers must have wondered, “Why is he doing this.”, but then when he rose, it all made sense.

Like it says in our Gospel, after Jesus rose, then the disciples remembered and understood what he was talking about when he said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise I up.”.

Jesus knew what He was doing all along. He had a plan; He followed it; and His plan saved us. He showed that He’s wise beyond this world. Conventional wisdom never could have saved the world.

The Greeks thought they could save themselves with their superior, albeit conventional wisdom; yet for all their worldly wisdom they knew nothing about Christ and the wisdom of the Gospel; they had superior knowledge, but lacked the wisdom of God.

As the world goes on, worldly knowledge multiplies. Look at how much more knowledge we have about digital technology, for example, than we had 40, or 30, or 20, or even 10 years ago. There’s all this technical knowledge, yet there’s as much foolishness in the world as ever. People are still people.

With more knowledge in the world, we need more wisdom in the world; God’s Word is wisdom for the world. Let us be very discerning about believing just anything we see and hear out there in the world.

Let us stay grounded and educated in His Word for our wisdom, and enlightened by His Spirit for our understanding. He is able to make us wise beyond this world; wise for salvation, as 2 Timothy 3:15 says, wise for the world to come, where we will have far greater wisdom and love than we do now.

Until then, may God make us wise beyond the conventional wisdom of this world; wise in a way that makes a lasting difference; wise to repent; wise to believe; wise to love; wise to forgive; and wise to serve.

And as God makes you wise beyond this world, He will give you peace from beyond this world; the peace of His Son, which passes our understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, our all-wise, all-powerful Lord. Amen.