Expectations of God’s coming Messiah were many and varied. Most of those expectations included military might and an overthrow of those who had oppressed God’s people for far too long. None of those expectations included a cross, a public and humiliating death, weakness and defeat. Human beings revere winners: the strong, the powerful, the famous, even the dishonest, clever criminal who somehow escapes the consequences of her actions. Those oppressed, downtrodden, and at the mercy of those in power do not envision and hope for a savior to meet the same fate as they did. No wonder Paul says both Jews and Greeks see the cross as foolishness, a stumbling block, a scandal. Jesus, a poor carpenter from some backwater village, pulls together a small group of uneducated fishermen and despised tax collectors, garners a following of desperate crowds, gets himself in trouble with secular and religious leaders, and ends up executed for all to see. Who would see God at work in such a failure? Who would see God as such a loser?

Only the formerly perishing who have been saved through this Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection recognize God’s glory in Jesus’ defeat. Only those like Paul who have been struck blind, rendered helpless, surrendered, and been given new eyes to see. Only those twelve who have seen their teacher and friend, once dead, now alive, wounded, scarred, but breathing the Holy Spirit. Only members of the crowd who have lunged at the hem of his garment and been healed, called out for mercy and been heard, handed over a pitiful piece of bread and seen it miraculously feed thousands. In short, only the foolish.

God rarely meets our expectations. The cross is proof enough of that. God inevitably exceeds all we could ever hope or imagine, rendering our plans utter foolishness. God in Christ reveals a wisdom we can never attain on our own and a power made perfect in weakness. We harbor hopes for revenge, Christ desires mercy. We want success, Jesus tells us to be servants. We stay up thinking about how to get even, Jesus commands we love our enemies. We hold grudges, Jesus says forgive seventy times seven. All of this godly wisdom seems so foolish: there is nothing more powerful than vulnerable, sacrificial love. No wonder we prefer a sign or some worldly wisdom. But once we’ve been redeemed by such foolishness, all we ever want to be is a fool for the One who saved us.

Thankfully, God uses what is weak in this world to show forth divine strength. God takes the broken and unwise, the formerly proud persecutors of the gospel, the uneducated, the ignorant, the despised, the needy, all manner of human beings who really thought they wanted signs and status, and uses them to bear witness to the saving power of the cross—God’s foolishness that silences any earthly wisdom.