But what do they mean?  Can God be weak?  Can God be foolish?  No, says St. Paul.  Nothing less.  For so strong is God, that his very weakness, if he seems weak, is stronger than all mankind.  So wise is God, that his very foolishness, if he seems foolish, is wiser than all mankind.

Why then talk of the weakness of God, of the foolishness of God, if he be neither weak nor foolish?  Why use words which seem blasphemous, if they are not true?

I do not say these ugly words for myself.  St. Paul did not say these ugly words for himself.  But men have said them; too many men, and too often.  The Jews, who sought after a sign, said them in St. Paul’s time.  The Corinthian Greeks, who sought after wisdom, said them also.  There are men who say them now.  We all are tempted at times to say them in our hearts.  As often as we forget Good Friday, and what Good Friday means, and what Good Friday brought to all mankind, we do say them in our hearts; and charge God—­though we should not like to confess it even to ourselves—­with weakness and with folly.

Now, how is this?  Let us consider, first, how it was with these Jews and Greeks.

Why did the cross of Christ, and the message of Good Friday, seem to them weakness and folly?  Why did they answer St. Paul, ’Your Christ cannot be God, or he would never have allowed himself to be crucified?’

The Jews required a sign; a sign from heaven; a sign of God’s power.  Thunder and earthquakes, armies of angels, taking vengeance on the heathen; these were the signs of Christ which they expected.  A Christ who came in such awful glory as that, they would accept, and follow, and look to him to lead them against the Romans, that they might conquer them, and all the nations upon earth.  And all that St. Paul gave them, was a sign of Christ’s weakness.  ’He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. . . .  He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth:  he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth.’  Then said the Jews—­ This is no Christ for us, this weak, despised, crucified Christ.  Then answered St. Paul—­Weak?  I tell you that what seems to you weakness, is the very power of God.  You Jews wish to conquer all mankind:  and behold, instead, you yourselves are rushing to ruin and destruction:  but what you cannot do, Christ on his cross can do.  Weak, shamed, despised, dying man as he seemed, he is still conqueror; and he will conquer all mankind at last, and draw all men to himself.  Know that what seems to you weakness, is the very power of God; the power of doing good, and of suffering all things, that he may do good:  and that that will conquer the world, when riches and glory, and armies, aye, the very thunder and the earthquake, have failed utterly.