Christianity often looks foolish, but Fools often reveal great wisdom.
"Stańczyk during a ball at the court of Queen Bona in the face of the loss of Smolensk" by Jan Matejko
“Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.”—1 Corinthians 3:18
Throughout his letters to the Corinthians, Saint Paul would have us know that there is something inherent to Christianity that appears to be foolish. The Gospel, the message of Christ crucified, the Christian principle of power through weakness, the practice of sacrificial love, all of these things, Paul says, is a “scandal to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.” The logic of Christianity is simply not the logic that is typically found in the world, either of religion or of paganism, and therefore it appears to be foolish.
I venture to say that the Christian message looks foolish when we compare it to the ideologies of our day as well. The teachings of Jesus certainly appear foolish compared to our typical political discourse. Consider those statements we call the “Beatitudes” from The Sermon on the Mount:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Each of these statements on the surface appear to be foolish. The persecuted are blessed? The meek shall inherit the earth, not the powerful? We should prioritize mercy and peacemaking rather than avoiding those who hurt us or tearing down those who disagree with us? I doubt that any of these statements are intuitive to most. Certainly, they fly in the face of the “winners and losers” approach to politics and economics we have grown accustomed to.
We might say then that Christianity has a built-in paradoxical nature: it reverses what we might typically assume, and therefore true Christianity simply looks foolish to most people most of the time. And if that's true, then we must also add that to be a Christian is to look like a fool to most people most of the time. Looking like a fool at times is something that will simply be unavoidable if you’re following Christ.
Now, you might expect me at this point to talk about how Christianity actually makes perfect sense and how all the other religions and ideologies are actually foolish. But that’s not what I’m going to do. No, I think we can learn something by doing exactly what Saint Paul said: becoming a fool so that we may become wise. That is, I think there is a kind of wisdom that comes from embracing the status of the fool.
“The Wise Fool” is in fact a recurring archetype within art and literature. Perhaps the most familiar example comes to us from Shakespeare’s King Lear, wherein the King’s “Fool” is actually a source of wisdom who is able to honestly speak truth to the King. While the Fool first appears to truly be outrageously foolish, paradoxically, he is able to offer King Lear new insight, helping him to see his situation from an entirely different angle.
This is the same function that the prophets often serve in the Old Testament: Hosea looked foolish for marrying Gomer the prostitute, Isaiah looked foolish for walking around naked and prophesying, and so on. But in their apparent foolishness, the prophets were able to disrupt conventional logic and to help God’s people see truth in a fresh light. Their “foolishness” and candor exposed a kind of deeper wisdom that couldn’t otherwise be seen.
In the same manner, those who want to follow Christ must realize that the logic of the Gospel will always compel us to act in ways that are counterintuitive to the logic of our day. It does in fact look foolish to be charitable to those you disagree with or to be meek rather than abrasive or self-assertive. It looks foolish to enter into the sometimes hopeless situations that people are faced with and it looks altogether stupid to love your enemies. When we answer the call of the Gospel, however, we simply run the risk of looking foolish.
But let us remember that the Son of God also subjected himself to looking foolish, humbling himself by taking on human form in order to enter into a world that appeared hopelessly lost in sin and suffering. Like the Fool in King Lear, who stood by the King when everyone else had abandoned him, so Jesus displayed a kind of love and loyalty to us that appears to be scandalous, ill-informed, and an affront to the logic of religion itself. When we display such love, it also testifies to the hidden wisdom of the Gospel, ‘the foolishness of God that is wiser than men.’ (1 Cor. 1:25).
As Christians, we follow a kind of upside-down creed which teaches us that God comes down to us, blesses us despite our sin, gives up his life for us, and then teaches us to act in similar ways. It doesn’t make sense to the human mind without the grace of God.
“Let him become a fool that he may become wise.”
Indeed, Lord, make me a wise fool.
Adam Smith serves with Ministry To State in Washington D.C.
ความคิดเห็น