“We believe in the foolishness of the Cross.”

This Sermon on the Mount is one that Jesus preached on a hill near Capernaum. When Jesus saw the “crowds,” he went up and sat down on a mountain. Then his disciples came to him. He then teaches about “Blessings” that we call “The Beatitudes”. They have been loved by many people across ages, religions, races, and borders, and Gandhi always meditated with them by his side. Look at the eight (or nine) blessings in the text.

We can summarise with one word from each of the eight sentences: poor, mourning, meekness, righteousness, mercy, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecution. At a glance, poverty, mourning, and persecution are what we want to avoid. The rest—meekness, righteousness, mercy, pure in heart, and peace—seem to be good things people generally need. But in reality, these also point to situations we want to avoid. It is difficult for meek people to live in this world. To thirst for righteousness means that one now suffers from injustice. Even for those who are merciful is not easy to survive in the age of competition all around. The same goes for those who are pure in heart. Peacemakers are hated by people who take war for granted. In a word, the Beatitudes are spoken to those groups whom God believes worthy, not by virtue of their own achievements or status in society, but because God chooses to be on the side of the weak, the forgotten, the despised, the justice seekers, the peacemakers, and those persecuted because of their beliefs. These beatitudes are uncomfortable words for those invited to live out their lives as disciples of Christ. Maybe it’s something that hits our mindsets head-on–our love of money, our fear of poverty, our avoidance of anything and anyone which might lead to our own rejection and shame.

Those who received this teaching were some of Jesus’ chosen disciples and the crowd who desired to follow Jesus there. What did Jesus want to preach to them? Before this teaching, in Chapter 4 of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus calls his disciples, proclaims himself to the world and heals the sick. And then, in today’s text, He now preaches God’s blessing, the Beatitudes, and Jesus meant the Beatitudes to be for us. Then how can how can the task of living by them be accomplished in our own time? What is the point of the Sermon on the Mount? First, it is obviously different from the happiness or blessings we commonly speak of in the world. It’s not just different; it’s the exact opposite.

The upside-down foolish wisdom of God and the confession of the cross

The Apostle Paul said to the saints of the Corinthian church, “For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Following this, he talks about the vanity of wisdom believed by the world and contrasts the worldly standards of wisdom with God’s wisdom. The two wisdoms of the Corinthian church that Paul mentioned are that “the Jews seek signs, Greeks seek fancy wisdom.” These signs and worldly standards of wisdom are the beliefs of the world at the time and the prevailing notions.

What signs do Jews seek? It is demanding God to do something visibly. It is an expectation of God’s power to satisfy their own claims and desires miraculously. To those with this belief, Jesus on the cross is a stumbling block. It makes no sense.

Another group is the Gentiles, that is, the Greeks. They regarded the crucified Jesus as a fool. The reason they thought so was because ‘wisdom’ was their highest value. Wisdom to them was based on rationality and philosophy. So for them, the love of wisdom is philosophy, and from this point of view, the death of the cross is worthless. So, in other words, a wise person does not go the way of being executed on a cross, which is a Roman punishment.

The power and the wisdom of God

Paul has a powerful voice about their ideas. “But to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” What does it mean? The crucified Christ is the miracle the Jews sought, that is, the power of God and the wisdom that the Greeks pursued. Paul’s statement is astonishing, and it is a statement that completely overturns the thinking of Jews and Greeks. Paul’s answer is the message of the cross.

Then, what is the message of the cross? Shall we listen to Paul’s resonant confession in 1 Corinthians 2? “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Paul had a very passionate experience on the road to Damascus, encountering Jesus Christ, the Son of God who was resurrected from the death of the cross. And it is because of this that he knew that Jesus Christ on the cross is God’s power and God’s wisdom. We are the descendants of such faith.

If we have a prosperity faith like some of the Jews had, the Beatitudes would be too holy and an impossible calling. Also, from a rational and intellectual standard, the Beatitudes become a standard that is not worth keeping.

To follow Jesus is to stumble onto the holy fool’s path, the inside-out, the upside-down journey of descent into humility and openness rather than the self-boastful task of becoming right and wise in the eyes of others. Jesus lived a life of self-emptying love and so also are we called to do.