When Jesus starts talking about his body as bread and his blood as drink, the people are understandably perplexed, and perhaps a bit mortified. The apostle Paul explains it this way, “Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:22-24).
Indeed, the Cross is where we are likely to trip up on our quest for wisdom because it is all so odd, and yet believers find the center of faith and a deep source of wisdom in this mystery. It is illogical and nearly incomprehensible that God would become flesh, that God would empty Godself of glory, that God would willingly suffer and die, and that death would become the portal to life everlasting. Yet we reenact and celebrate this process again and again in the life of the church. God’s seeming recklessness initiates our salvation.
The church’s practice of Communion is one of the more peculiar activities we participate in together as we receive God’s mystical gift by approaching the table with our bodies. Most days we try to approach God with our minds, and wisdom escapes us. During Communion we approach God with our full and humble selves, and the wisdom enters us through the flesh and blood of Christ.