It's been over four months since the presidential election and still there is much talk about the ‘great divide’ in America.  This divide is between the red states and the blue states.  The media is making much of the ever-growing divide between Republicans and Democrats.  It seems as if there are more hard feelings and more ill will between the two groups than ever before. 

It used to be that members of the two groups in congress would debate their differences but still agree to work together on many issues.  But that is now happening less and less.  Things like the appointment of judges used to be a given.  The minority party at any given time might not always like the President’s choice for a judge, but after the debate a vote would be allowed. 

Not anymore.  Now the appointment of judges, which used to be a bi-partisan given, has become a political battlefield.  In the last session judges that were given the highest recommendation by the bar association had their nominations halted by a filibuster that would not even allow for a full Senate vote on them.  This was done for no other reason than animosity, and to highlight the division in beliefs and philosophies between the two political parties.  

Chances are this divide will continue to grow

Feelings on both sides run deep and strong.  The rhetoric keeps escalating on both sides.  Just last week in Kansas the recently appointed chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, was telling supporters about the conflicts between Republicans and Democrats, “This is a battle between good and evil.  And we’re the good.” 

When you start placing people in categories of good and evil that is what I call a great divide. I don’t think it would take any great prophetic insight to predict that in the not too distant future, if this type of thing keeps up, this American great divide between red and blue will somewhere erupt into violence. 

The Bible also talks about a great divide.  And that divide is between the wisdom of men and the wisdom of God.  And nowhere are those two opposing wisdoms more greatly contrasted than at the cross of Jesus Christ.  We are continuing our series leading up to Easter by looking at the fourth “Tremendous Result of the Cross.”  The cross of Christ created the greatest divide of all time.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25  For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

 The great divide that the Bible talks about is stated extremely bluntly and clearly for us in verse 18.  What we have here is one of those classic “On the one hand and on the other hand’ type of verses.  On the one hand we have those people to which the cross is a problem.  On the other hand there are those who experience the power of God in the cross.  And between the two there is a great divide.  And the interesting thing is, according to this passage God planned that it would be that way.

The apostle Paul goes on in this passage to elaborate on that thought.  He gives two general examples in how the cross is viewed as a problem, and also talks about God’s plan in this.  We need to keep in mind that both of these examples are generalizations.  Paul says that the cross is to Jews a stumbling block and to Greeks it is foolishness. 

He does not mean to imply in this that all Jews will stumble over the cross.  He himself is an example of one Jew who has come to accept the cross.  He is also not implying in this that the cross might not be a stumbling block to people other than Jews.  It very well may be.  In the same way he does not mean to say that all Greeks would view the cross as foolishness. 

By the way, the term Greek applies to more than just Greek people.  In those days, even though Rome had taken over the world Greek was still the dominant culture.  Greek was the main language spoken around the world; it was the common language of the people and the language of business.  So the Jew would often categorize the people of the world as being either Jew or Greek. And by Greek they meant anybody that wasn’t a Jew.  That is why the words “Greeks” and “Gentiles” is used interchangeably in verses 22 and 23.

I suppose if a person wanted to get technical, the Jews subdivided the term ‘Greek’ into two categories.  Greeks referred to the civilized people and nations of the world and then they used the term ‘barbarian’ to refer to all those people that didn’t carry Capitol One credit cards in their wallets!

Anyway, the point Paul was making here is that for the vast majority of the people in the world there were two main ways the cross was viewed.  For some it was a stumbling block and to others it was foolishness. 

If you know much at all about the history and the culture of the Jewish people it is easy to see why the cross was a stumbling block to them.  They were earnestly seeking and waiting for the promised Messiah.  They desperately hoped for this deliverer that had been repeatedly promised, predicted and prophesied in God’s Word.  The problem is they had developed their own view of what this Messiah would be like and what he would do.     

The Jewish religious leaders and teachers ignored or twisted into different meanings passages like Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 that showed the Messiah as a suffering servant coming to die for the sins of the world.  Those kind of verses didn’t fit what they wanted so did away with them.

Instead, they focused on the passages that talked about the Messiah’s eternal kingdom and the fact that he would rule over the nations.  They liked all the verses that showed Israel being the center of power and religion.  They loved the predictions that showed the people of the world coming to Jerusalem to kneel before the Monarch of Israel.

As such, by the time Jesus showed up the average Jew was absolutely certain that the Messiah would be born to a rich and noble family in the line of David.  They believed he would come onto the scene with dazzling fanfare and power.  That is why verse 22 states, “For indeed Jews asks for signs…”  They were looking for that dazzling fanfare.

The Messiah would be a man of prestige and honor. They were sure he would raise a mighty army and become the conquering hero over the Romans.  And that he would establish Jerusalem as the capital of the world and that the temple would be the center of all religion.

The cross definitely does not fit into that scenario.  The very idea that the Messiah might die, let alone die on a cross was repugnant to the Jews.  Death on a cross meant that a person was cursed by God.  Deuteronomy 21:23 says that anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse.  So obviously that could never happen to the Messiah, who was supposed to be God’s anointed. 

Therefore, when the apostles and early Christians went around preaching the crucified Jesus Christ as the promised deliverer, God’s Messiah, the Jews rejected the idea outright.  That could never be.  A savior wouldn’t die, would he?  The Messiah wouldn’t experience God’s curse, would he?  The cross was too big of a stumbling block for them to get over.  They would not believe that someone that had been crucified could be from God.

For the Greeks the cross presented a little bit different type of problem.  Verse 22 says that, “The Greeks search for wisdom.”  Even secular historians would agree with this statement.  The Greeks were in love with the idea of human wisdom.  Philosophy is a Greek word, which literally means ‘the love of wisdom.’  As a culture they basically worshipped education. 

Unfortunately, without exception, man’s wisdom tends to elevate himself and lowers God.  Human wisdom, by virtue of its nature, caters to man’s self-will, pride, fleshly inclinations and independence.  In the intense pursuit of human wisdom the Greeks developed dozens upon dozens of philosophical and religious systems.  That is why they had so many gods and idols in their culture.  The more complex of a system they created, the better, because that would appeal to the human ego.  And they loved to hear about new systems or philosophies just in case they found one better than the current one they were following. 

That’s what happened to the apostle Paul when he visited the city of Athens.  You can find the account in Acts chapter 17.  I would encourage you to spend some time this week reading that account.  In a nutshell what happened was Paul found himself alone and wondering through the city of Athens.  He saw hundreds of idols representing dozens of philosophies.  So he wanted to start preaching and when he did the people were eager to hear him.  Acts 17 starting at verse 19 says, (READ 17:19-21)

Acts 17:19-21 And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. (For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.)

The Greeks searched after wisdom, but they wanted only human wisdom--a rational wisdom that they could comprehend and understand, as their response to Paul’s preaching in Acts 17 proved as the vast majority of the listeners mocked what Paul said.

So on the one hand the cross is a stumbling block and foolishness, but on the other hand, to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  God has demonstrated His mighty power in many ways.  He spoke into the void of nothingness and the heavens and the earth came into being.  From the dust of the ground he formed man and He breathed the breath of life into him. 

When His chosen people were caught between the armies of Pharaoh and the Red Sea God parted the waters and made dry land as an escape route, while He held of the hosts of Egypt with a pillar of fire.  God displayed His mighty power when on the day of Pentecost he took a rag-tag group of disciples and poured His power into them by giving them the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. 

In many and various ways God has exhibited His incredible power.  But one of the greatest demonstrations of His power took place on the cross.  For it was on the cross that the sins of the entire human race were heaped upon the body of Jesus Christ.  On the cross the inescapable penalty of sin was paid in full.  And on the cross redemption and forgiveness of sins was purchased for us.  Those were things that man could not do for himself.  That’s why the cross is the power of God to those who are being saved.

You might be thinking, “Well that is interesting history, I didn’t know that about the Jews and the Greeks, but is the cross still a stumbling block or foolishness today?"  And the answer is, most definitely yes! 

The cross is still a stumbling block

If a person believes that by good living and high morals they can please God and gain entrance into heaven, then the cross is a stumbling block.  If they expect to be able to gain God’s favor simply because of their national heritage- you know the idea “Of course I’m a Christian.  I’m and American.”-   then they will find the cross a stumbling block. 

If a person is sure they will go to heaven simply because of the family they belong to, or the church they go to, or some religious ritual they have gone through, then the cross will be a stumbling block. 

The cross is foolishness to those who believe that everybody will go to heaven someday because God is to loving to punish people for their sins.  The cross is foolishness to those who deny the reality of sin and the need for a savior.  The cross is foolishness to those who believe that at his core man is basically good and that with the right education and enough training and the right environment man can solve all of his problems. 

The cross was a stumbling block and foolishness in Paul’s day, it still is today, and it will be until that day when Christ returns.  And do you want to know why?  Because the cross tells us some very unpalatable truths about ourselves.  The cross reminds us that we are sinners under the just condemnation of God and there is nothing in and of ourselves that we can do to save ourselves. 

Christ bore our sins and condemnation for us precisely because we could gain release from them in no other way.  If we could have been forgiven by our own good works you can be sure there would have been no cross.  Any person who takes an honest look at the cross seems to hear Jesus say to them, “I am here because of you.  It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.”  Nothing in all of history or the entire universe cuts us down to size like the cross!

And because of that the cross has become a stumbling block and foolishness to many.  But notice the verse says it is foolishness to those who are perishing. 

In one terrible act God has destroyed the wisdom of the wise.  He has set aside the cleverness of the clever.  Where is the wise man?  Where is the scribe?  Where is the debater of this age?  They cannot stand against the wisdom of God for even the so called foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. 

And God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.  So the main question for you this morning is, “What side of the great divide are you on?”  Have you viewed the cross as an interesting idea, but not really necessary for your relationship with God?  Or do you see the cross as absolutely essential and the only source of your salvation? 

Your eternity hinges on how you answer that question.