Jesus, on the other hand, hung around with ordinary people, stood up for all the most unpopular people, had his own religious community turn against him, got sold out by one friend, abandoned by most of the rest, and got caught and got executed, dying a criminal's death equivalent to the electric chair today.
Which is why Christians are considered the Next-Biggest-Losers because we proudly proclaim Christ Crucified, whose death is and always has been a real stumbling block for those whose thinking is influenced by popular culture and the media.
Jesus dared to be poor and powerless. He traveled so much that he didn't have a home of his own. His whole lifestyle and priorities still speak powerfully to us today because they turn modern concepts of wisdom on their heads.
Jesus' life and death proclaim that the modern idols of Fame, Riches, and Consumerism are false idols because - YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU!!!!
As Max Lucado says,
"When you're in the final days of your life, what will you want? Will you hug that college degree in the walnut frame? Will you ask to be carried to the garage so you can sit in your car? Will you find comfort in rereading your financial statement? Of course not. What will matter then will be people. If relationships will matter most then, shouldn't they matter most now?"
Jesus lived and died to prove to us that what is most important to God is Relationships - God's relationship with you, me, us. And our Relationships with one another. Because God-in-Jesus was willing to be weak, to be considered foolish for being helpless, and to die on the cross for his overwhelming love for us and belief in us, we are saved. Redeemed. Healed. Given eternal life. God's wisdom is God's unbelievably foolish plan for our salvation.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if our society didn't yell "foolish" at those Doctors and nurses who go to Africa out of love to help Ebola victims, but called them "heroes" instead?
Wouldn't it be amazing if instead of calling people "celebrities" whose multiple marriages manage to last months, we called couples who stay married for fifty years or longer "celebrities"? Of course many think that it's foolish to only have one spouse in such a long lifetime.
Wouldn't it be delightful if we considered the wisest person the one who lays aside his greatest possession - his life - and gives up his life for another?
Fr. Maximilian Kolbe was a Polish Franciscan priest who was imprisoned by the Nazis, and sent to a concentration camp - Auschwitz. When a prisoner escaped, the Nazi commanders decided to choose ten men and starve them to death to discourage any more escape attempts. When Kolbe heard one of the chosen men, a young stranger, cry out "My wife! My children!" he volunteered to be starved to death in his place.
Kolbe was the last to die, enduring two weeks of starvation, thirst, and neglect to comfort the others. Eventually his captors put him to death with an injection of carbolic acid. Calmly he lifted his arm for the injection.
Pope John Paul II declared Fr. Maximilian Kolbe a saint because of his heroism, his Christ-likeness.
Jesus himself said "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13.) Kolbe, like Jesus, embraced the wisdom of the cross: every human being is a friend worth suffering for, standing up for, dying for. Even a stranger. Do we have the wisdom and courage to live a life the world considers foolish? To let our lives proclaim the wisdom of the cross - ?