Views Of The Cross-Greek Series

Crucifixion in the Greek Mind

March 2, 2008

Views of the Cross: Greek

What an idiot. We all do stupid things. How many times have you done something in your life that makes the people around you say: what an idiot? I want you to think of something stupid that you have done.

As far as stupid ideas go, this was one of my better moments. I stayed after church one Tuesday night with a number of other kids in the youth group. We were just hanging out and talking for a bit. We were a pretty wild youth group to begin with, but if you know anything about young teenagers you know that the more of them you put in the same place unsupervised the stupider the get. Intelligence actually drops, that is a medically proven fact. This time was no exception. We had been hanging out talking but eventually we got bored and wanted to do something. Now we had a really open church parking lot. One of the guys there had a video camera…which also seriously decreases the intelligence of the group. We proceeded to stack up a few bails of hay and started out by having someone sit in a shopping cart and we pushed them as fast as we could into the curb which would launch them out of the cart into the pile of hay. This was great fun. Then the cart broke…but we would not be deterred. We figured if a shopping cart was fun…a car would work even better. That little voice that tells you not to do things, had gone on vacation for me. So I volunteered to get on the hood of the car and get ramped into the hay. The car went to the back of the parking lot I hopped on the hood and off we went. We got up to about 25 miles and hour before the driver slammed on the brakes and I was tossed from the car to the pile of hay. It worked out perfectly. So we decided to do it again. This time with two of us. I got on one side and my friend Zach got on the other. Same deal, car sped up, this time to about 30 miles and hour and then slammed on the brakes….one problem. This time he slammed on the brakes a little earlier. I left the car first. I was thrown and rather than hitting the hay flat as I had the first time I hit it head first. Zach who stayed on the car a split second longer than I did flew to the pile of hay and landed with his entire body on my head. The stray from the hay pierced the skin all over one side of my face even going though the skin of my lip into my mouth. I went to school the next day as two-face…but it wasn’t Halloween.

What an idiot. That is probably the stupidest thing I have ever heard. I turned my body into an automotive propelled missile…and I am lucky to be alive. If I had been tossed a few inches higher I would have missed the top hay bail and crashed into a tree head first.

What an idiot! Now did any of you have any good stories that you don’t mind sharing? (JORDAN’s STORY) What an idiot…I mean…that is just a stupid thing to do.

If you want to open you Bibles to 1 Corinthians 1:18: While there are not a lot of people in our culture that take great pride in stupidity, we are not as ashamed of it as some cultures. The Greeks were a people who prided themselves in wisdom. Wisdom was the greatest pursuit of the culture and the prize of their people. Above all else wisdom was the one thing the Greeks really sought after. There are many people in our generation that think of themselves as philosophers. For the most part it is their hobby. In ancient Greece philosophy was a profession. It’s no wonder that so much of the Greek culture was based around philosophy for philosophy is the love of wisdom. The ancient Greeks spent much of their time debating over different philosophical topics. They loved using reason, logic, and different forms of rhetoric in order to try and find the truth of how things worked. The Greek people were always searching for wisdom for understanding for knowledge of how the world works and of God. Many Greeks would devote their lives to philosophy… If wisdom is the greatest honor…then the greatest shame would be its antagonist foolishness. Understanding this may shed some new light on 1 Corinthians 1:18:

1Co 1:18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1Co 1:19 For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1Co 1:20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 1Co 1:21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 1Co 1:22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 1Co 1:23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,