1 Corinthians 1:10-18

I've mentioned a few times that Paul and Peter had differences. A few of them are laid out in the books of the New Testament; circumcision, eating pork. Here we don't get any specifics, but we get a clear statement that there were different denominations before Christianity even became Christianity. The ones we know the most about were synthesized into Catholicism and spread by the power of the Roman government in the 4th century. The rest were burned or hidden or otherwise lost. Some to be discovered in the last century.

The statement about “foolishness” is fairly obvious in the standard narrative of Jesus being the messiah and the way to heaven. It is also a statement that gets bandied about by scholars as evidence for the existence of a real Jesus. Paul does not appear in the Bible until after the crucifixion. His experience of Jesus comes as a vision on the road to Damascus. Much of his language describes Christ as a spirit. But this half of a verse puts Jesus on the cross. Or does it? By “message of the cross”, is he referencing the story from the book of Mark? Either way, the story needs an explanation.

What Paul seems to be speaking to here, Bart Ehrmann puts this way, “Rather than a powerful figure who destroyed God’s enemies, Jesus was a lower class peasant who got on the wrong side of the law and was *squashed* by God’s enemies.” That is, Christ's crucifixion was a stumbling block for early Christians, something to figure out, to find a reason for. It's not clear what all Jews thought about the messiah at that time, but some probably saw it as a replacement for the David character, a powerful political ruler. Jesus was not that.

Today, the cross is the entry point, it is the first thing that is explained to you. If you go into a Catholic Church, the image of Christ on the cross is the first thing you will see. For progressive Christians, Christ being on the “wrong side” of Rome and the elite clergy is actually the “right side”. For slaves and other oppressed people throughout history, his peasant status makes him their hero.

Just how he is the hero is less clear. In this passage, we get a brief explanation that the cross is the “power of God”, it's how you get saved. Details, as always, are not forthcoming. Paul did convince a lot of people. There continued to be debate for 200 years, then Augustine picked up the banner of Paul's words and they became the dominant voice until very recently. It's amazing what half of a verse can do.

Matthew 4:12-23

When John (who is pretty much leading the movement, bringing people together) is imprisoned, Jesus has to step up his game. He will do that next week, quite profoundly, with the Sermon on the Mount. Some say it is proof of his divinity, others say it's mostly bad advice. But I'm getting ahead of the lectionary.

In this passage he says the famous words, “make you fishers of men”. I don't find the words all that significant, but what is, is where he decides to go. He could go to Herod and confront this political move he made of jailing John. He could point out the weakness of it. He could show Herod he has imprisoned one voice, but the movement continues. He could go to the priests and elders and convince them of the rightness of his words and actions. Instead, he goes to Galilee and gathers the people he wants to help.

I see people doing the opposite of this so often, in business and in non-profit work. People with ideas bring them to the money and to the power. If they get support, they launch their program, and it fails. Then they blame the ones who are implementing it, or worse, the ones it was supposed to benefit. They should have talked to the people they meant to help in the first place. They should have talked to people who are in the trenches doing the work.