Be a fool, like Jesus

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

When we moved from 1999 to 2000, there was a fear that the world would be paralyzed by a computer network that used only double digits of the year. But even after the time when we were so anxious, we spent two decades already. The anxiety at that time was just a fuss, but now mankind is going through an unprecedented crisis. Today's human race, which has enjoyed the benefits of high-tech science and medicine more than ever before, is under tremendous threat to life and health due to an invisible virus. It seems that humans who seemed to take control of the earth and fly into space seemed to have been captivated by a virus.

In addition, the economy is becoming more difficult due to the social distancing for quarantine. As health and life are entangled in economic problems, anxiety and pain are overwhelming. No one can estimate how long this situation should continue, and how much medical and economic sacrifice it will take in the process, until the treatment and vaccine are developed. Moreover, because of this epidemic, exchange and communication are not smooth, making inter-Korean relations difficult. Also, personally, it seems difficult to avoid the depression experienced by the society in which you live even if you are not directly influenced by 'Corona Blue'.

Many experts predict that it will be necessary to divide the eras before and after COVID-19. Not to mention the economic structure, it is said that, more fundamentally, the way of life must be also changed. There are also many controversies over the cause of the virus' emergence, but the emergence of new species cannot be unrelated to the ecological environment for any reason. Even if it's from the Institute of Biological Weapons, it's unpredictable what kind of monster it's going to be if it leaves the hands of humans, and if it's spontaneous, it's terrifying. Even such a natural occurrence could be a self-purification of nature caused by excessive human ecological destruction. In other words, even natural evils such as spontaneous generation are buried deeper in the moral evil of ecological destruction, so there is no way to solve it by pointing fingers at others. What should we do?

Let's go back to the old days. In medieval Europe, there was a “the Feast of Fools” from the 11th century. On the day of the 'Feast of Fools', made for socially low-ranking servants or slaves, the most stupid of these were disguised as a false king of the country, false Pope, or the false army. And the lower classes enjoyed the day, venting their year-long pent-up feelings of oppression. Here,'stupid' does not mean 'insufficient intelligence', but it means they cannot do anything because of the poor origin and status. Even if the people at the lowest level of society can mock him, who is pointed out as a fool, there is no problem.

A person whose existence is not accepted by anyone, or someone who has no way to resist even if ignored, is targeted in a wrong way. It is to project the anger and hostility of the people on the fool of the feast by making a fool of an absolute monarch or pope and making fun of him. So the pope or the monarch is out of the anger of the people. The “Feast of Fools” was a product of highly calculated control politics that relieved the stress of the people who suffered from the authoritarian oppression of the absolute monarchy and the Catholic Church at the time.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, written by Victor Hugo, also tells the story of the Feast of Fools. The main character of this work, Quasimodo, is a low-lying life victimized by the power and prejudice of the world, with nowhere to go down. Quasimodo, who knows nothing, is first covered with a crown on his head and dressed in colorful uniforms. He is happy to hold a scepter in his hand and to be cheered by the crowd. However, at the end of the festival, he becomes the object of ridicule and feel sad.

However, there is something we need to pay attention to in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Fool Quasimodo sacrificed himself to protect his beloved woman Esmeralda, and in the process revealed the hypocrisy of the world. Victor Hugo revealed the hypocritical authority and oppression of 19th century French society in comparison to Quasimodo, who had a beautiful soul. It's a work that shows the reason why we should pay attention to the role of a fool.

One of the famous fools in the West is ‘Don Quixote’, and maybe a fool familiar to us is ‘Ondal.’Idiot Ondal was so naive that he could not be naive. When King Muje of Zhou invaded, Ondal defeated the great army in Isan and returned as a triumphal general. At that time, the king tried to give him a government post, but he refused to go back to his hometown and lived as a countryman. Later in in his life, Silla invaded Hanbuk and the people there were put in a miserable situation, and he dragged out old tools and fought and died in Adan Province.

Who is a fool? It refers to a person who seems to be separated from his mind and behavior, but he refers to a person who likes to lose money here, but who likes it even though others are doing well and they are wrong. Of course, this is not a psychopath or a vice versa. In Sanskrit, the fool is called ‘Moha.’ Literally, it means “to be immersed in eternity,”and when translated, it means “God loves you.” In that case, fools are ridiculed, but it means “the one whom heaven loves.” What does it mean? How did that happen?

When you look at the Bible, there are many foolish people. In Genesis we find the stupid Abraham. After living with his nephew Lot, and the clan flourished, he could not live in one place. So Lot told him, “Is not the whole land before you? Let’s part company. If you go to the left, I’ll go to the right; if you go to the right, I’ll go to the left.” (Genesis 13:9). Then Lot chose a fertile land. Then, without saying anything, Abraham chose to settle down in a barren land. Is he not an idiot?

Moses was also an outright fool. Moses, who grew up in the royal palace for 40 years as a adoptee of the princess, the daughter of Pharaoh of Egypt! Had he been in the royal palace, he would have lived in goodwill. But one day he saw his own people being beaten by the Egyptians, and he became furious and killed him. He quickly fled to the wilderness and lived for 40 years flocking to Jethro. He is not a fool? Of course, Moses also had it all for the first 40 years. However, for 40 years in the wilderness, he became a man with nothing. When he was called by God at the age of 80 and led the Israelites out, he went into the wilderness without going to the shortcut Palestine. Apparently, Moses was a fool to the modern men.

David was also a fool. When the Israeli army was almost defeated by the Philistine army, he went out alone and defeated Goliath and led Israel to victory. When he returned as General of the Triumphal Arch, Israeli virgins sang and danced for him. For this reason, he was driven to the cave by King Saul, and it was a good opportunity to kill him when Saul entered the cave, but he cut off his clothes and let him live. David who saved the king who came to kill him and sent him back! What would it be, not a fool?

But today the apostle Paul said that God became a fool. In 1 Corinthians 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. Here, the Greek word for “foolishness” means “by being stupid.”God himself became a fool. He created the world and made people even though he had nothing to lack for himself. He came here not as a powerful man, but as a humble and weak person to be crucified. How can he do this without being a fool? Why should he do that?

It seems so foolish that it sounds like a mystery that cannot be solved by human reason or wisdom. So humans cannot understand. Even in the time of Paul, people tried to accept only the extent of visual confirmation. Traditionally, what the Jews have been seeking was miracles and signs. It was a sign from heaven that the Jews from Egypt, led by Moses, sought for 40 years in the wilderness. As the North and South dynasties split and were taken prisoner in Babylon, the Israelites who were waiting for Messiah expected great things to happen whenever God's golden day came.

But what they saw in Jesus was not what they expected. It wasn't that it wasn't the New Age of Moses or the Messiah who would bring the Golden Age. In other words, it was not a Messiah who would bring the new state of Moses or David or the golden age. At the age of 33, they could not believe that the young man, who was taken to the high priest's residence and the court of Pilate, was sent to death on the cross by God. So they rejected Jesus by proclaiming the Deuteronomy law of “because the one who hanged on the tree was cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Therefore, instead of proving to the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God, the cross became a decisive proof that he was not the Messiah. So Paul said that the crucified Christ is a stumbling block to the Jews.

On the other hand, Paul says that the Greeks, who produced many philosophers from ancient times, rejected Jesus on the basis of wisdom. “Sophia, the Greek word for wisdom, originally meant well. But later, it became a saying that used clever thoughts and clever words to make the bad look good. Instead of trying to find a solution to the problem, people who enjoy mental play, artful bases and smooth apology, applause from audiences, and people who like the mood, referred to these people as sophists.

Dio Chrysostom described Greek wise men like this. “They are in a frog shape. They are the poorest people in the world. They think they are wise without knowing their ignorance. They show off their popularity and number of disciples like peacocks. It is nothing different from a peacock's tail.” The Greeks regarded God as the supreme of goodness and beauty. They thought this way. "Doesn't it mean that God has changed that he has come down to the human world? It is impossible for the Qin(眞) to the Wei(僞), for the Good(善) to the Evil(惡), for the Beauty(美) to turn into the Chu(醜), and who can hope for this?" So they were disgusted by the idea of the Holy Spirit that God had worn a human body. They wanted to find a very noble and speculative God. Therefore, Paul said that the fact that the Son of God came to the world itself seemed foolish and foolish to the Greeks.

But God has come as a man by taking such a foolish method that he is reluctant to Jews, which is seen by the Greeks as foolish. So why on earth did God come to us and love us in such a way as "foolish" and "foolishly"? The answer is in the Gospel of Luke. He came to this earth, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19). It was that he came down like a fool to humble himself to share the suffering of the captive, the blind, and the oppressed and preach the gospel of liberation. If God had come as the supreme power overwhelming the world, who could have understood and accepted the world as a gospel to liberate the oppressed?

However, there is a more important meaning. It is that Jesus came so foolishly to reverse the reality of such oppression by revealing the folly of those who are intelligent in the world, in the reality that those who think themselves smart and brilliant are trampled on those who are not. Like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Nevertheless, why didn't we even get it right? That's what it sees in our eyes, not necessarily, Paul argues. Paul says in verse 25: For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

Why is that? How can we understand these declarations? It can be confirmed by looking back at ourselves. Mysterious spiritualist Thomas Merton accuses us of his work in his book, The Seed of Meditation: “Many seekers were not themselves. They did not become the free form that God originally created. They believed that God must be someone other than the one planted in the heart. There is strong self-conceit and competition. Nature reveals itself as it is, but only humans are trying to reinvent themselves as if they were God."

But how is the world re-created by humans? We know from experience that it would be a better world if there were more good people, smart people, reasoners, and cases, but it wasn't. Science develops more and more, and so humans live more comfortably for a while, but it's good evidence that the ecological disaster is getting bigger and bigger. Here we can look back at what's going on. We thought that humans would live more comfortably and happily if we developed more nature, but because nature is so destroyed, nature is retaliating against us. What's more serious is that people with power and wealth have destroyed nature to have more, and the poor are suffering more first. But will the rich continue to live well?

Ecological experts say there is no beginning. But it is said that it is too late to warn you. It is a situation in which we human beings are passing on to our own ideas. Today's epistle that God's work may seem foolish, but more wise than man, points to it. And it teaches that the world becomes a place of warmth and love only when there are many fools who serve without words, yield, and speak silently as God did. Of course, we know this well. In fact, however, we are striving to be smarter ourselves, hoping that the people we meet will be fools of warm love. I'm not trying to be a fool, but I want others to be so fools. However, Proverbs says: The way of fools seems right to them but the wise listen to advice.(Proverbs 12:15).

Given the history of Christianity in the past 2,000 years, when did the church face crisis and become corrupted? It's when stupidity disappeared inside the church. The church was rather corrupted and the world lost hope at a time when the smartness of putting oneself up with the belief that one's faith was absolutely right. This is what the French philosopher Voltaire said in the late modern Enlightenment era, when Christianity began to fall in Europe. "He who thinks he is smart is a fool." After all, we think that we humans are wise and smart, but this is self-contradictory, which made the world we live in more difficult and corrupted the church.

In the end, the world is becoming more difficult because of us who are so smart that we are trapped in our own tricks. And now we're paying a lot of this stupid price. God knew this in advance and taught us that living as fools is a more wise way in the end. So now let us not just accept Jesus as the Son of God, but let us take note of his folly, noting that he has become a man. Let's take a look at why even though he is God, he became a fool, emptying himself and humbling himself to death. Let's pay attention not only to religious doctrine that salvation is the salvation of the ransom, but to the deeper meaning, the wisdom of the paradox that such stupidity enriches the world.

Had Jesus been as smart and intelligent as we wanted to be, we would have been drawn to Zacchaeus' money, Mary Magdalene's beauty, and Pilate's power. When the Greeks came and asked him to defect before he crucified, Jesus would have followed them. Then you wouldn't have been crucified and died in that miserable pain. But when Jesus heard this, he volunteered to walk toward the cross like a fool.

For this Jesus, the philosopher Nietzsche called Jesus a fool in a book called Anti-Christians, which was misunderstood a century ago. The book is not against Christ, but rather against criticism and oppression of Christianity. In that book, Nietzsche said Jesus knew that he was going to die, and he had to go on the way of the cross, which makes him a fool. Half a century ago, theologian Harvey Cox also described Jesus as a reckless fool to transform the world in his book, "The Foolish Emperor."

So now, let us be honest and accept how foolish we are trying to be clever, but we have no choice but to fall into self-esteem. This will not be confirmed in the distant future, but the reality we are seeing right now. Isn't our reality already proving this? So let's put down our silly cleverness and become a fool. So I hope that we can follow the path of the great fool that Jesus walked along with us at least a little bit. Because God has opened the way of salvation in a foolish way, we can be saved in a foolish way, and this is a way to overcome the difficulties that we are facing now and to live more abundantly.