Faith is foolish.
The message of the cross is that God’s thoughts are higher than anything we can ask, think, or imagine.
The fact of Christ crucified is the evidence on which the world’s wisdom crumbles. The idea that meekness is strength frustrates logical intelligence.
For faith relies on God’s power rather than human reason. The truth that Christ Jesus is the single source of wisdom and redemption is the step of faith on which we are all destined to fall.
The question is what happens when we are on our knees: Do we submit to God’s righteousness or do we demand a different sign?
With faith, stumbling blocks become stepping stones.
With hope, strawberry-skinned knees become stories of resilience.
And in love, we fall, pick ourselves up, and follow the One who speaks the truth into our hearts.
For the eyes cannot see, nor the ears hear, the loveliness of what God wishes to give us through the Spirit.1 To the thinking person, that sounds foolish. But to the believing person, that feels like heaven.
The Sovereign Lord says, “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.”
Isaiah 28:16
Jesus was sent to cause the falling and rising of many. Jesus Christ the Lord came as the “stumbling stone” on which we fall and break loose of laws and works; we rise up into faith. Our effort cannot produce righteousness without first believing in the Most Righteous God.2
We stumble into our brokenness in the same way we are called out of darkness. In the light, we are held together by mercy, strengthened by grace, and renewed by the Lord’s message of peace.
The stone on which we stumbled becomes the cornerstone on which we transform and rebuild, rooted in the divine mystery that life’s most important treasures are invisible to the eye. A life built on the Living Word is a radical shift from the culture of things, but the Lord promises that those who trust in Him will never be put to shame.3
For example, when Jesus made His humble, triumphant entry into Jerusalem the people sang out, “Hosanna,” or “Save us now.”4 Jesus is our Savior, but His way of saving does not look like the king’s reign many expected. Indeed, appearance can be a stumbling block.
God wants to show His greatness by using nothingness.
Mother Teresa
Jesus confronted the money-seeking merchants and taught openly in the temple courts, knowing the chief priests and elders were watching and waiting for any reason to arrest Him.5 And when they questioned His authority, Jesus spoke in parables and cited Psalm 118: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
“Have you not read?” Jesus asked.
In other words, can you not see the Word as flesh right in front of you?
He insisted on their ignorance and spiritual blindness despite religious expertise. The Holy Spirit causes the thoughts of our hearts to be revealed, and Jesus, the Living God, brought into light the hypocrisy of being versed in scripture but dull and resistant to the truth that provides its meaning.
Their definition of God gave typical religious authorities power, but God with us busted the ivory tower mentality of being set apart and above. Jesus came to teach us that righteous rigidity falls short when faith goes into the margins.
God comes close and walks among us. When we choose Christ’s hand in friendship, when we decide to walk the narrow path and follow after Him, we also receive the promise of the Word: “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.”6
Jesus is the door home to our Father, and we are mercifully justified through faith in His reign and hope in His message.
