Verse 22
The Jews characteristically asked for signs as demonstrations of God’s power (cf. Matthew 16:1-4; Mark 8:11-12; John 2:18). In contrast, the message of the Cross seemed to be a demonstration of weakness, specifically, Jesus’ inability to save Himself from death.
Likewise the Greeks typically respected wisdom, an explanation of things that was reasonable and made sense. However the message of the Cross did not appear to make sense. How could anyone believe in and submit to One who was apparently not smart enough to save Himself from suffering execution as a criminal when He was not one? Furthermore how could anyone look to such an One as a teacher of wisdom?
". . . the ’Jews’ and ’Greeks’ here illustrate the basic idolatries of humanity. God must function as the all-powerful or the all-wise, but always in terms of our best interests-power in our behalf, wisdom like ours! For both the ultimate idolatry is that of insisting that God conform to our own prior views as to how ’the God who makes sense’ ought to do things." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 74.]
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