We are fools for Christ… (1 Corinthians 4:10, NIV)
We all know a golfing fool. Maybe we’ve even been called one.
In the world’s vernacular, a “fool” is any person who gives oneself over to a hobby in a way where focus on all other endeavors is lost. So you may be a golfing fool, with all the commensurate trappings and décor that fill your trunk and your garage and your office, not to mention your time, time, time. All your friends may be golfers and your TV is always tuned to Golf Channel, except when the tournaments are broadcast on another network.
We call such a person a fool lightly, but we know others as well who have made their pursuit of the game utter foolishness. They’ve surrendered their family, their work, or their housekeeping for the sake of one more hour on the golf course. Some would say they’ve even surrendered their sanity!
So perhaps it is a bit unnerving to read the Apostle Paul’s words about being a fool for Christ. Aren’t we to be much more balanced in our faith than that? Maybe. But if there is one basket into which we should be throwing all our eggs, I would suggest it’s the Jesus basket.
What we fail to consider when we concern ourselves with becoming a fool for Jesus is that Jesus became a fool for us…
…Jesus, comfortable and active in the confines of heaven, came to dwell among the people of earth, nearly all of whom had affections for things other than God.
…Jesus, high and exalted among the Three-in-One, lowered himself to the role of a servant.
…Jesus, sinless in word, thought and deed, bore the sins of every man and woman for all time.
…Jesus, Lord and King, endured the scorn of the rulers, the spite of the soldiers, the derision of the critics, and the will of the Father, going to the cross, where he died the gruesome death of those worse than fools.
This is our fool, the one we call Savior. This is the one who reasoned only with those others of the Trinity, not with those the world called wise. This is the one so hyper-focused that he kept marching to his undeserved death out of love blind not to its aim but sightless indeed to all that would throw it off course. For us, in that shocking hour he became first exactly the thing Paul said he and his fellow apostles had also become—“the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world” (1 Corinthians 4:13).
Foolishness is never pretty. But in Jesus, at the cross, it became beautiful. It emerged as the pattern for our own Jesus-bent lives.
—
Jeff Hopper
October 30, 2012
Copyright 2012 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.