12/15/2002: The Journey from Intellectual to Foolish
Wise men traveled a great distance to worship Jesus, yet there were important intellectuals who wouldn’t go six miles out to see if the rumors were true...
Today intellectuals find it difficult to embrace the foolishness of a God who is born a man.
But the wisest of the wise recognize the wonder of what is called impossible and the emptiness what is called intelligent.
Being Intellectual doesn’t make you wise. Technology doesn’t translate into wisdom. I’ve met too many smart geeks who can’t find their way to the back of a store to think being smart is the same as being wise.
In fact our society is riddled with examples of the wisdom of our age. For example:
· How many reasonably intelligent people do you know that order a double cheeseburger, a super size large fry, and a diet coke.
· Can anyone explain why grocery stores sell hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight or why drive up ATM machines have Braille lettering?
· And what about you? You are intelligent people but you’ll leave a car worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put your junk in the garage.
But the opposite is also true…
What some call foolish is sometimes wisdom
Have you ever heard the phrase, “Out of the mouth of babes?” Certainly you have. It comes from the simple truth that sometimes it takes a child to reveal lasting wisdom. It seems foolish but it isn’t!
For example:
· Patrick, age 10, said, “Never trust a dog to watch your food.”
· Michael, 14, said, “When your dad is mad and asks you, "Do I look stupid?" don’t answer him.”
· Michael, wise man that he was also said, “Never tell your mom her diet’s not working.”
· Randy, 9 years of age said, “Stay away from prunes.” One wonders how he discovered that bit of wisdom.
· Kyoyo, age 9, said, “Never hold a dust buster and a cat at the same time.”
· Naomi, 15 said, “If you want a kitten, start out by asking for a horse.”
· Lauren, age 9 said, “Felt markers are not good to use as lipstick.”
· Joel, 10 years old, said, “Don’t pick on your sister when she’s holding a baseball bat.” and
· Eileen, age 8 said, “Never try to baptize a cat.”
The wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are lost and the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom
Life is full of anomalies and paradoxes. Some things seem right that are wrong and some things that seem wrong are right. Listen… The wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are lost and the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
A prime example of this is found in the narrative about the wise men from the east who came to worship Jesus. Especially when you compare them with the wise men of Herod who where in Jerusalem.
Matthew 2:1-2
" Jesus was born in the town of Bethlehem in Judea during the time when Herod was king. When Jesus was born, some wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. They asked, “Where is the baby who was born to be the king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
The wise men were wise men because they were looking for one who is greater
The wise men from the east knew about a spiritual king but they didn’t know about spiritual things.
Who the wise men were is largely a matter of speculation and good scholarly guesswork.
Most scholars believe that these wise men were from Arabia or Mesopotamia – today it is known as Iraq. It’s possible that they were astrologers because they noted a star in the sky that was unknown previously. They were most likely gentiles, as they didn’t know the prophecies of Jesus birthplace. Some think they were descendants of the Jews taken captive during the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Later tradition tells us that they were kings and gives us the names of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar.
What these men were and where they came from exactly and what their names might have been the scriptures simply do not say. What is said is that they were looking for a spiritual king to worship.
Now, contrast this spiritual hunger in these men with the spiritual malaise of the King and his wise men.
King Herod’s wise men knew about spiritual things but they didn’t know about the spiritual king
King Herod and his wise men are just good examples of the foolishness of men which is disguised as sophistication, intellect and reason. They got so caught up in their world they were lost in the absurd. What absurdity is that? The absurdity was that they thought they had a handle on the power of God, on God’s truth, and on the future of man.
These wise men of the king were very smart men. They knew all about God and his word. They studied the law – this is not civil law but the law of God – and they were experts in it. If you asked them a detailed technical question about what the books of the Torah said they would give you a long, technical, and correct answer – without comprehending the real meaning! They were religious fools.
The wisdom of this age is just about as foolish as Herod and his sages
What is seen in the halls of the wisdom of humankind today is not much different. Recently, I read an article by Chuck Colson about a Harvard Professor. Harvard you may not realize began as school of divinity. While it is a highly regarded university and does much good work it is also the home of some of them foolish of man’s wisdom.
According to John Mack, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, “If you wake up and discover that your pajamas are on backwards, it’s possible that aliens abducted you during the night.”
No, this conclusion isn’t from some supermarket tabloid. This is the basic idea of a book John Mack has written called, Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens. The book is based on interviews with patients who believe they were kidnapped by aliens. Under hypnosis, these people supposedly recovered "repressed memories" of those past experiences.
They "remembered," for example, that the aliens were short, gray creatures with spindly legs and large, triangular heads who take people aboard their spacecraft. These aliens are not only more technologically advanced than we humans, but they are also spiritually superior.
Mack concludes that the patient accounts are authentic and that "some powerful intelligence is trying to intervene in human affairs."
To be fair, this last bit was a bit too much for some of Mack’s colleagues, and Harvard conducted a probe of his scholarship. It concluded that Mack should "widen his professional circle of research associates and adopt a more detached attitude toward his subjects"—that is, he should get outside Harvard more often.
That is probably a good recommendation!
There is a spiritual hunger and a need to believe in something bigger than us. If it’s not God we look to something or someone else. And everything from aliens to crop circles; devil worship to witchcraft; and scientology to reincarnation becomes the new wisdom of the age.
Wise men and women look for an all knowing, all loving, and almighty God because there is a need in us to worship him
The wise men were wise men because they willingly paid a great price to worship one who is greater
Matthew 2:3-5
When King Herod heard this, he was troubled, as well as all the people in Jerusalem. Herod called a meeting of all the leading priests and teachers of the law and asked them where the Christ would be born. They answered, “In the town of Bethlehem in Judea. The prophet wrote about this in the Scriptures
The wise men came a great distance to find the Christ child
They didn’t know where he was but they found his star and they set out on the journey. They traveled most likely from what we know today as Iraq to Jerusalem. By car, it wasn’t much of a trip. By camel, well, you try riding on a one-hump camel for that many miles. This was not an easy little vacation from the university Baghdad to the beaches of Israel.
Yet, the intellectuals of Jerusalem wouldn’t travel the 6 miles to Bethlehem
They knew where he was to be born but they didn’t bother to look – not even out of curiosity – and it was six measly miles away. It was in Bible terms a “Sabbath days walk”. That would be a nice easy walk within the distance prescribed by Jewish tradition. In other words, there was no real viable excuse for not going. They just didn’t bother.
Why? Well I suspect that they were enamored with their own knowledge and their own wisdom. They liked hearing the sound of their own voices and didn’t have a place for the voice of the Christ child who would born in a little Podunk village like Bethlehem. They’d rather talk about it than do something to check it out.
The intellectual approach to the spiritual things of God isn’t much different today. There are some really smart people who aren’t very wise in our part of history!
Take for example Shirley McLaine. She’s a good actress – but not so wise. (Why movie stars are quoted I will never understand but here is what she said.)
"We already know everything. The knowingness of our divinity is the highest intelligence. And to be what we already know is the free will. Free will is simply the enactment of the realization you are God, a realization that you are divine."
Now, if you like Shirley McLaine, I’m sorry, but what she said is not wisdom. It is 100%, pure, uncut, Grade AAA, best available foolishness.
C. S. Lewis on the wisdom of Christianity.
C.S. Lewis was a wise man who learned through his personal journey to Bethlehem that God loved us so much that he was willing to give his only son for us. Born in the body of a baby and crucified in the body of a man.
“This is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. It is a religion you could not have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe we had always expected, I should feel we were making it up. But, in fact, it is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have”.
Wise men and women today check out the rumors and discover the truth
Let me tell you a little of Dave Costa’s story. Dave is our Children’s Minister and he found Jesus at an AmWay Convention. I know it sounds crazy but he went there because he was looking for something that was worth living for. He found Phil Driscol, a Christian Trumpet player who told the story of Jesus. When he was done Dave understood that Phil had described his life and given the answer!
He went home and began his two-year journey to Bethlehem. It wasn’t easy and it never is.
The wise men were wise men because they brought gifts of great value to honor the one they worshipped
Matthew
They came to the house where the child was and saw him with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. They opened their gifts and gave him treasures of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But God warned the wise men in a dream not to go back to Herod, so they returned to their own country by a different way.
The wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. These were costly gifts of great value. Costly in that they cost the men that gave them a great deal. Of great value in that they were worth a lot of money.
It was these costly and valuable gifts which were used for the work of God as Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt and lived there with the baby Jesus for 2 years while the King looked for him with the desire of killing him.
God always provides what is needed for his work through those who worship him
The intellectuals, on the other hand, did nothing while the king sent wicked men to kill babies. They didn’t worship Him and they didn’t bring gifts. They were too busy being wise and doing wise things. They were writing wise reports and carrying out wise projects.
And all the while they did these things babies were dying. Mothers were crying while they went about their business of religion. Sadly, It really isn’t any different today.
There are still many “wise” people who go about their personal business and neglect the work of God. Some of them look very spiritual. They go about talking about many “wise” things. But all the time they do they turn their backs on the baby from Bethlehem.
Wise men and women give gifts of great value
There are always needs. God will fulfill them with you or without you.
Let us today – here and now – determine to bring gifts for his work that honor God. Let his work be done through you rather than in spite of you.
The wisdom of God is foolishness to those who are lost and the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
The baby from Bethlehem became the Message from God
"The teaching about the cross is foolishness to those who are being lost, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. It is written in the Scriptures: “I will cause the wise men to lose their wisdom; I will make the wise men unable to understand.” Isaiah 29:14 Where is the wise person? Where is the educated person? Where is the skilled talker of this world? God has made the wisdom of the world foolish. In the wisdom of God the world did not know God through its own wisdom. So God chose to use the message that sounds foolish to save those who believe. The Jews ask for miracles, and the Greeks want wisdom. But we preach a crucified Christ. This is a big problem to the Jews, and it is foolishness to those who are not Jews. But Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God to those people God has called—Jews and Greeks. Even the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1:18-25, NCV)
Have you begun the journey to Bethlehem?
