Personal Matters
The public slur “You fool” is a very powerful one. It may remind us of the stern warning of Jesus, ““whoever says, ‘You fool!” is liable to the hell of fire”” (Matt 5:22), or perhaps his dire predictions of the fate of the godless rich, “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’””(Luke 12:20-21 ESV). What about Paul’s emphatic rebuke to the turn-coat believers in Galatia, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3 ESV). In my case the words “You (silly) fool!” evoke powerful memories of my parents put downs of me as a teenager. From the surprising way this issue has come up recently I have concluded that the fear of looking foolish is far more prevalent than usually imagined, and that the Lord is seeking to release us from such fears into the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:21).
The Great Cover Up
Last week I began to sense something was amiss inside me when Donna kept telling me that the original draft of the sermon she was proof reading (“Crucified Glory”) was far too complicated. In it I mentioned the pain of letting go of several treasured academic pursuits over the years in order to obey Jesus more fully. The X factor was that the pain still seemed real. Then I noticed myself listening to some pastors in a discussion and thinking to myself, “These people don’t know what they’re talking about.” I have been having similar arrogant reflections about popular discussions over “gay marriage”. The unpleasantness these superior attitudes were producing in my spirit led me to seek the Lord very specifically in prayer. As is so often the case he told me something I did not want to hear that issued in repentance.
Underneath my complex thought patterns, sometimes quoting famous theologians and using big words, has been a fear of being thought foolish. It’s all been a rather sophisticated “cover up”. Much worse than this, I have projected this mindset onto many others over the years so that they have found me “scary” i.e. they were scared of saying/doing something foolish and being exposed as “silly”. The standard “cover up” of these folks in the presence of authority figures is generally silence or passive approval. For a minority their cover up or “armouring” is aggression, or perhaps joking. All of this harks back to Adam and Eve’s futile attempt to “cover up” their shame in Eden (Gen 3:7). It is in fact our self-centred protective wisdom that turns us into “fools” and idolaters in the sight of God (Rom 1:22). Thankfully, Jesus is different from us.
God’s Cover
The basic meaning of the Hebrew word we translate as “atonement” is “to cover over”. The sacrifices which God commanded Israel to offer were effective in a preliminary way in covering over their sin from his judgement. Only Jesus however can provide a perfect cover (Heb 9:11-28). Jesus never tried to appear to be anything other than who he was, as the Father’s only Son he felt no need for pretentiousness. The Father was always the covering over Jesus’ life. Contrary to popular Christian perceptions however Christ himself was grievously misunderstood by his family. On one occasion when Jesus was surrounded by needy crowds of people, “when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”” (Mark 3:21 ESV). Mary and Jesus’ brothers apparently thought he had “flipped” (cf. 2 Cor 5:13). The family was trying to lay hold of Jesus by force for his own sake and for their reputation (cf. John 7:5). The great foolishness was however the cross.
Jesus trial and crucifixion is marked by constant mocking which focuses on his identity as King and Son of God (Matt 27:29, 41-44). The utter intensity of such rage directed towards the innocent Jesus cannot be explained in terms of psychology or sociology. The sheer fury of emotion was a deep projection of the hatred and resentment of the fallen human heart directed against the God who had called humanity in the beginning to be his rulers and sons on the earth (Gen 1:28; Luke 3:38). Jesus was everything we should be but had lost, and we hated him because of it!
The terrible cry, ““My God, my God why have you forsaken me?”” (Mark 15:34) has nothing to do with looking foolish before the eyes of humanity, for Jesus despised the shame of the cross (Heb 12:2). The pinnacle of atonement is that Jesus is stripped of the covering of his Father’s presence and immersed in the absolute stupidity of the rebellious attitude of the man who lives for himself, “The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”” (Ps 53:1). The anguish such silliness produced in the heart of Jesus is immeasurable. Praise the Lord however, by resurrection and exaltation Christ is now full of divine wisdom and “crowned with glory and honour …as he brings many sons to glory” (Col 2:3; Heb 2:9-10).
Fear Not
As God’s sons we have need to fear the attempts of others to humiliate us by making us look foolish (Heb 13:6). Your husband, wife, children, relatives, workmates or even fellow believers may try to put you down but with Christ as your wisdom you cannot possibly have the identity of a fool (1 Cor 1:30). The Father of Jesus has adopted you, not simply in terms of who you will one day be, but as you are now. He is unashamed of us even with all our present mistakes, so great is the covering sacrifice of his Son (Heb 2:11; 1 John 2:1-2). Our Father in heaven never says to his children, “You fool!” We must however be constantly alert for the father of lies will always seek to deceive us into thinking that we need to cover over our fears lest our shortcomings be exposed (John 8:44). To submit to his fabrications when Christ has covered us completely is the height of folly (1 Pet 5:8-9). Assured in Christ we are called to go forward with complete trust becoming “fools for Jesus”.
Be a Fool for Christ
“We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute.” (1 Cor 4:10 ESV). As a new convert being called a “Jesus freak” never bothered me, family astonishment when I declined a gift of land and headed joblessly east to study did not rock me. Some years later, when our family of six headed from Victoria to Brisbane without income or ministry a group of steady Christian folk told me directly that I was being foolish. Sad, but in the light of the scandal of the cross, “So what?” Spiritual transformation in Australia awaits the release of a pioneering spirit in believers who know that to be seen as fools for Christ is to be immersed in his glory (Heb 2:10; 12:2). A society wracked by the fear of being seen as “losers” and “wasters”, a culture terrorised by bullying from school yard, to Facebook, to office and in the Church, needs a revelation that God receives us we are, naked and abandoned and foolish in each other’s eyes (cf. Ezek 16:7). In Christ the power of social control has ended and the true freedom of the sons of God has come.