Friday Fools (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Christ assures us that the folly of Christ’s cross is salvation manifested by the power of God.  How can this be?  This sounds impossible because the cross is a method of execution.  Why would we want this symbol?  The tragedy is that we are tempted to sanitize this symbol, but why is that so tragic?  What could be the possible benefit of this cross?