At the cross wisdom is forever redefined. It does not seem wise to place your trust in a weak bloody man dying a criminal’s death on a tree. It does not seem wise to worship a crucified God. It does not seem smart to place your hope in a message that seems like sheer madness. It seems ridiculous and foolish to devote your life to following a King who has a cross for a throne and thorns for a crown. It seems crazy to believe that the God of the universe would be found on death row.
For a man to become truly wise, he must become a fool. The wisdom of God is the folly of the cross. The cross obliterates every human definition of wisdom. To the onlooker, the cross is madness and folly but to those on the inside it contains the riches of God’s wisdom. We shamelessly hang our entire lives upon the cross and empty tomb of the God-man. His wisdom is our wisdom. His folly is our folly. We strive to live lives of wisdom. These lives look ridiculous and they always entail a cross. It can be no other way for at the heart of the biblical definition of wisdom stands the hill of the skull.