Third Sunday of Lent, Year B, Second Reading (1 Corinthians 22-25)

²² Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, ²³ but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

As the biblical scholar Jerome Murphy O’Connor has pointed out, as religions go, Christianity is the most unreasonable for it proclaims a crucified criminal as the savior of the world. In the first century, most people would have reacted to such an idea with disbelief compounded by a large helping of revulsion. In fact, it seems likely that some early Christian missionaries played down the crucifixion, speaking only about Jesus’ death. Paul did not agree and saw this as an attempt to dilute the message by compromising with this world’s standards. He felt that the gospel lost power when it was distorted in order to accommodate people’s taste.

Paul states in verse 22 that God has one set of standards and this fallen world another (although those standards may vary between cultures). The Jews look for signs, for miracles, which may look religious but in reality is linked to either skepticism (I’ll only believe if…) or superstition. The Greeks, on the other hand, sought an intellectual understanding of God. Following Plato, they wished to rise above this physical world so they could commune with an ultimate, purely spiritual reality. To these Jews and Greeks (and many others) the cross looked and looks like lunacy. It seems irrational to proclaim a crucified man as the all-powerful God, and there were certainly no miracles involved in Christ’s death. So, we come back to the idea that God’s standards are not those of humans, and with the cross, God turned human values upside down and demonstrated his limitless forgiveness and love.

In this reading, Paul mocks the very idea that humanity possesses any right to judge God based on its own values. Paul seems to be saying here that, because humanity continually refused to accept the fact that God is love, God did something truly foolish (in our eyes). Of course, not everyone rejects the Christian message, for some do respond to it and realize that Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. They understand that every aspect of God is far beyond anything we humans can even imagine.