This week’s devotions are based on Week 6 of Cross Examined: Don’t you fear God? (LISTEN HERE)
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
No better example of this truth than the two criminals on the cross.
Jesus was right between them.
One hurled insults at the “fool” on the center cross.
He had Luke 23:39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” …
One turned in hope and trust to the King on the center cross.
Luke 23:42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
How could the same person hanging on the center cross illicit such different responses?
One heart had been blinded by the “wisdom of the world” that was prevailing on that Friday. The religious leaders, ones you think you could trust, were calling him a fake, guilty of blasphemy and worthy of death. The soldiers were not intimidated at all by the criminal allowed to be executed by Pilate and enjoyed the fun of mockery amidst the gruesomeness of their task.
When the opinion of the world influences a heart, it views the person and work of Jesus as foolishness.
So the first criminal felt at liberty to join in the same mockery and insults.
But the second criminal saw something differently.
How did he not get caught up in the prevailing spirit of the day?
Read Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians through the lens of that second criminal:
1 COrinthian 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 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.
How did the second criminal hear about Jesus? We don’t know, but the message of Jesus came through to him unaffected by the hatred and ignorance of the prevailing wisdom of society. He saw the foolishness of an innocent man hanging on the cross.
He saw the power of God at work in one who COULD have saved himself, yet chose to stay on the cross.
He understood the “charge” against Jesus as “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” was not a manifestation of a rebellion against Rome, but rather a kingdom that was not of this world.
However this criminal connected to Christ and his teaching, the Holy Spirit was at work in his heart to push the rejection urged by his sinful nature to overcome it with the saving truth and profound wonder of an innocent man dying next to him to be the Messiah, the promised one of Israel.
And so his heart turned in what must have seen like foolishness to so many around the cross, but was an exhibition of true wisdom and trust:
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
This criminal saw no hope in the religious leaders or the political establishment. He knew his memory would be forgotten by those around him. He knew his only hope was in the “fool” on the center cross.
So is ours.
Apply: What messaging from the world around do you have to buffer to keep the message of Jesus growing stronger in your heart?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for being willing to be a “fool” and stay on the cross for us. AMEN.