A Hand Over My Mouth
Imagine for a moment what Jesus was thinking when he began his ministry.
A mainstay of our belief, distilled from Scripture, is that Jesus enjoyed what theologians call a hypostatic union, meaning he was 100% human and 100% God, but willingly set aside his divine privilege and primacy to live as a servant to the humanity he had created. So, here he sits in the Judean dust contemplating how to communicate enough of the God story so his hearers (including us) could grasp what is needed, but not too much so as to swamp any boat that tries to ride the wave. If that were you in his sandals, how patient would you be? Would you be tempted to dump the whole load and wish them the best? But it looks like Jesus dispensed truth as though with an eye-dropper, a bit at a time, usually wrapped in plain talk and stories, leaving the vast majority unspoken.
Here's my train of thought about this: of all that Jesus knows, there is the knowable that we know, then the knowable we don't yet know, but can learn or discover. The rest is unknowable to us, God's territory and beyond our understanding. If you look at this as a pie chart, Imagine how small a slice of what we can know is in relation to the rest. Now, that's pretty humbling. We follow a big God.
It sounds a bit like the poetic story of Job. This man lost everything, then three friends came and for 37 chapters filled the air with words trying to answer the why behind the what of Job's heartache. Job ends up frustrated and railing at both his friends and at God. Finally, God responds with thunder. He pulls back the curtain a bit to show just how little is known of his workings in any situation.
In response, Job sits in silence. He has no more words. Here is a snippet of their conversation in ch. 40:
The LORD said to Job: "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? Let him who accuses God answer him!"
Then Job answered the LORD: "I am unworthy — how can I reply to you? I put my hand over my mouth. I spoke once but I have no answer — twice, but I will say no more."
In short, Job admits he doesn't know it all, and, in a real sense, becomes a bit of a divine agnostic where his belief in God is solid but is befuddled by the immensity of what he can't understand. And I often feel the same way. Agnosticism is usually attached to the person who is ambivalent about God, doesn't believe but also doesn't not believe. The term is a Greek one, a-gnosis, that literally means “not knowing”. I can relate to that term. There is much that I just don't know about this God stuff. I too often spout off like Job and his pals, but in the end, I, like Job, need to put a hand over my mouth instead of posturing while wrestling with some of the big issues, especially those above my pay grade.
There are times I feel like I'm throwing darts in the dark trying to figure some of the seemingly unanswerable questions we all have. Many times we just get glimpses of God in the margins of the story left to us, and he seems to say, "That's enough for now." But because we desire (demand?) order, and answers, and systems to distill truth into postulates, we take what we know and extrapolate whole systems of religion. There is nothing wrong with holding firm to one's theology, but any thoughtful person might be wise to exercise a bit of self-restraining humility with respect to the more outer rings of beliefs. Now, that can be scary. There we enter the realm of faith.
What we do clearly see as we read the story of God in the bible is a creator who loves and pursues his creation. The crescendo of the drama shows Jesus, the God-man, who lived among his creation, giving his life to ransom and redeem his people from sin and death. He stands as Victor. He defeated the last enemy and freed his people from bondage and gave them a new name, and promised them a future with him beyond description. This we know because that is part of what he left for us to see and believe.
And the directions left to us often come across as purposely spare: love God, love people, stay unified. Much of the implementation of following Jesus is left to time and place. For example, I can't find absolute point-to-point instructions on how to do church (maybe that's one reason so many variations abound), or what faith must look like in the modern social landscape, or in today's home. Sure, there are general instructions gleaned from letters written to specific people facing their own circumstances. We rightly discern principles, and then, with wisdom, apply them to our situations. But that still leaves much room for differing interpretations and applications. And I need to remember, just because someone has a differing view on life and faith doesn't necessarily make them wrong...or me right.
So, as people of faith, we take what we know and move forward, entrusting ourselves to the Father who called us his own, to the Savior who died and crushed sin and death, and the Spirit who lives within us, reminding and encouraging and nudging and empowering. Faith trusts in the mists of the unknown, because God said what we have is...enough. And the truth is that what we know is plenty to occupy us for a lifetime.
Since God has chosen not to tell us the whole story, I assume he's fine with us bumbling along with our best efforts to live faithful lives with what we do know. We routinely bump up against the fence line of what can be known, and then discern ways to best love God and others in the midst of life. The so many different ways folks have expressed faith throughout history demonstrates this not-knowing-the-whole-story...yet.
What might be take-aways from these musings? Maybe one of these:
Ponder the bigness of God, and rest in the truth that he knows what he is doing (Ps. 139)
Give yourself the freedom to not know, and pray for growth in trusting Jesus with what you do know (Mk. 9:24)
Free yourself from the pressure to answer stuff beyond your scope, and yet be ready to give words to the hope within you (1 Pt. 3)
Revel in all that has been revealed to us, and work out your faith in daily living (Phil. 2:12,13)
As for me, count me as a trying-to-be-faithful guy with plenty to work on as I develop understanding of my slice of what life with Jesus looks like, with my hand over my mouth. I'm working on not being the one with the answer to every question and am still getting comfortable with, "That's a good question, but I just don't know." But I do believe that God has left me enough to live well with him and with everyone I meet, and invite others in on the good news of Jesus. That seems like enough for me to last a lifetime.
Music for the week...
Stellenbosch University Choir with a medley
A slice of 1947 Gene Krupa from the movie "Beat the Band"
And a Mighty Fortress with lots of folks
...and one bad joke for the road
The orthopedic surgeon I work for was moving to a new office, and his staff was helping transport many of the items.
I sat the display skeleton in the front of my car, his bony arm across the back of my seat.
I hadn't considered the drive across town. At one traffic light, the stares of the people in the car beside me became obvious, and I looked across and explained, "I'm delivering him to my doctor's office."
The other driver leaned out of his window. "I hate to tell you, lady," he said, "but I think it's too late!"