Michele and I have a Christmas tradition of watching the musical Scrooge every year, usually after Christmas. If family is with us, they are stuck watching it, too. In the movie, Scrooge, who is played by Albert Finney, sings a song called “I Hate People.” I picked up on an unusual phrase in the song years ago: “cretinous wretches.” Here it is in the context of the song:
Life is full of cretinous wretches
Earning what their sweatiness fetches,
Empty minds whose pettiness stretches
Further than I can see.
Little wonder I hate people,
And I don’t care if they hate me!
Ebenezer views most people as empty-minded, petty, cretinous wretches. According to the dictionary, “cretinous” means foolish or stupid. Most of us would be offended if someone called us a cretinous wretch or a fool. Yet the Bible has a lot to say about fools:
- Jeremiah 4:22 – For My people are foolish, they know Me not; they are stupid children and have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.
- Psalm 53:1 – The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God,” They are corrupt, and have committed abominable injustice; there is no one who does good.
- Romans 1:21 – For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Paul has much to say about fools and foolishness in his first letter to Corinth:
- 1 Corinthians 4:10 – We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor.
- 1 Corinthians 1:20-31 – Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than mean, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:18 – For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
There seems to be two kinds of foolishness in the Scriptures: the fool who doesn’t believe in God; and the fool who does and follows Him. The difference in these is a matter of perspective. The one who does not acknowledge God is seen as a fool by God. The one who follows God is seen as a fool by the world. Jesus captured this well on the road to Emmaus as he responded to the ignorance of the two disciples – “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” (Luke 24:25). These two travelers were His followers and should have been fairly conversant with the prophets, but they did not understand what had happened at the cross and the tomb. To be fair, it would be hard to imagine even the most ardent disciple of Jesus grasping the full impact of the events of that weekend at that time.
Christ-followers can be foolish when we ignore God and attempt to live apart from Him. Unfortunately, much of my life is spent in this kind of foolishness. But if we are living for and in Christ, we are still fools in the world’s eyes. I guess we can’t win – we’re always fools to someone. It is much better, however, to be thought a fool by the world than by God. Since we haven’t yet glimpsed Heaven, this world is all we know. But we have to adopt a long-term view, an eternal view, and live as fools in this world so we can live redeemed and restored in the next.
Ebenezer’s story is one of redemption. At the end of the movie, his song has changed to “I Like People.” Some probably thought him foolish early in the movie because of his stinginess and sour outlook on life. Others probably thought him foolish at the end of the movie as he danced like a child and gave away money. As strange as it sounds, old Ebbie is a role model for we who are redeemed. We should be living changed lives and we should act foolishly in the world’s eyes.
So, on the very remote chance that someone calls you a cretinous wretch, try to consider it a compliment that you are living as you should.