Written by: Madison Wilcox
Fools present a moral dilemma to the wise. As Proverbs 26 explains, it is dangerous both to engage the fool or to ignore him: It is dangerous for the wise to engage in a fool’s conversation — he may, by association, become a fool himself (Proverbs 26:3); yet it is also dangerous to ignore the fool, for then he will never realize his foolishness and possibly never escape it. (Proverbs 26:4) Ministry to fools, therefore, requires sacrifice, a risk of one’s reputation.
Yet for the wise who choose to embrace the risk, they must remember their past and the foundation of their wisdom. For even the wisest begins as a fool. In fact, as fallen humans, we form a collective fool. Often stupidly insistent on pretend sovereignty, we fret and force our way through life, as beastly and irrational as Solomon’s archetype. Each of us, when we come to our senses, can claim David’s words from Psalm 73 as our own:
“Thus my heart was grieved,
And I was vexed in my mind.
I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before You.” (Psalm 73:21-22)
Yet how has God responded to our beastly behavior? Which path does He choose when He meets the moral dilemma presented in Proverbs 26? He chooses risk. The next verses say:
“Nevertheless, I am continually with You.
You hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with your counsel,
And afterward receive me to glory.” (Psalm 73:23-24)
God risks His own reputation for the chance of restoring a foolish heart to wisdom. Not only does He guide the fool, but He also stays with him, holding his hand.
Nevertheless, the danger of ministry to fools remains, and the divine faces a risk no less serious, which begs the question: Where has God’s choice landed Him in the experiment? Has God ruined His reputation in associating himself with fools?
In some ways, He has. The price He paid to wake the heart of a fool was indeed a price. His alignment with the fools of the world cost Him the esteem of many. When Christ was on earth, the elite of His community looked down upon Him as one who associated with tax collectors and sinners. (Matthew 9:10) For this, He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:1) Even now, the gospel message continues to be foolish to the world. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
Yet paradoxically, the foolish gospel is the singular, stunning hope of the fool. First Corinthians 1:25-28 explains:
“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are.”
Is not the hand of a fool in the hand of God somehow the most powerful thing on earth? It is so, because it is God with us, Immanuel, who holds our foolish hands as we stumble down paths of ignorance and weakness, who refuses to interact with us as the beasts we believe ourselves to be, who whispers counsel in our ears until it is beautiful enough to obey, and who promises a brilliant home and final acceptance into the brightness of that mysterious word, “glory.”
Surely this hope is enough to convince the wise to take the foolish risk for a foolish brother. Held by the beauty of a foolish gospel, we fools have found a home.
