Mystery II

Don: It is odd that a book that Christians affirm has the answers to life discusses and elaborates on many “mysteries.” It confirms my thesis that the bible is more a book of questions than answers. In the New Testament, the issue of mystery is raised over and over again, first by Jesus and then by Paul as he discusses the ministry and message of Jesus. The Greek word mysterion (μυστήριον) is used 28 times in the New Testament, and is translated as “mystery”. But it denotes rather “truth revealed”—something previously unknown or not comprehended.

As both Jesus and Paul used the term, it refers to and is centered around the ministry and the message of Jesus. Jesus repeatedly referred to a truth revealed, and in Matthew 11:25-27 he talked about it in the context of spiritual maturity:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

And then he extended an invitation (verses 28-30):

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

This was a declaration that the truth revealed is something that can be understood by innocent babies but not by the so-called wise and intelligent, and it is an invitation to take rest in Jesus.

The idea that mystery is revealed in the ministry and message of Jesus is also borne out in Romans 16:25-26:

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith;…

Here again, Paul emphasized that the revelation of mystery is linked to the preaching, the message, and the ministry of Jesus Christ.

It seems remarkable that god would be in the business of revealing truth. Why do we bother to search for the truth knowing that we can never find it? Perhaps we may never find some ultimate Truth, but incremental timeless Truths are being continually revealed.

In a famous speech in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt identified Four great Freedoms that all people on earth ought to have:

• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of Worship
• Freedom from Want
• Freedom from Fear

Over the coming few weeks, I propose to explore what seem to me to be Four Great Mysteries, four timeless truths about god that were revealed by Jesus and in other scripture. They are mysteries which all people on earth, in all ages, have sought to understand:

• The Mystery of Godliness—the origin of goodness. Where does goodness come from? What is its purpose? It is referred to in 1 Timothy 3:16.
• The Mystery of Iniquity—the origin of evil. What is the radical truth revealed through the ministry and the message of Jesus? What is it that was not understood prior to that? It is addressed in Thessalonians 2:7.
• The Mystery of the Ubiquity of God’s Grace—the exposure of the radical truth that god was everybody’s god, was not exclusive to Israel. It is revealed in Ephesians 3.
• The Mystery of the Transforming Power of Grace—the revelation that we shall all be changed, that the corruptible shall become incorruptible. This mystery is revealed in 1 Corinthians 15:51.

But what was understood about good and evil, and about the ubiquity and the individually transformative power of grace prior to Jesus’ revelations? What do we know about mystery in the sense of “truth revealed” by the message and ministry of Jesus? Can we develop a theology of mystery? Why is Mankind’s need to know so persistent and pervasive? How can one lead a satisfactory spiritual life while living with mystery?

Jay: Our “need to know” is tied to the issue of god’s will vs. wo/man’s will. When Adam and Eve chose (that is the same as saying when we choose) not to surrender freedom of will to god and were (are) therefore out of alignment with god, mystery became their (our) problem rather than god’s. We have to—we want to and we need to—figure out the mysteries ourselves. If we could subject ourselves completely to god’s will, there would be no need to figure out the mysteries. God would take care of things. But here we are, in this class, trying to figure out the Four Mysteries.

The mystery of the origin of evil seems to me to have been revealed in John 9, when Jesus healed a man blind since birth. Based on the beliefs of the time, the disciples understood that either the man or his parents must have sinned for such evil to be inflicted upon him. Jesus taught them that this was not so, that there was no causative link between evil and sin: The evil was god’s will, Jesus said in essence, for the purpose of revealing his glory. That was (and still is) a radical departure from the common supposition.

David: I wish we had a rabbi in the room. Has Judaism changed in any way as a result of Christianity and its radical revelations? Or does it cling fast to the teaching of the Old Testament alone? What does Judaism make of Jesus’ revelation that god and his grace are not exclusive to Israel?

Don: I am not an expert in Judaism, but my understanding is that it does not accept Jesus’ revelations as valid because to them, Jesus was not the real Messiah, for whom they are still waiting.

Kiran: A couple of years ago I participated in an interfaith meeting between Jews, Moslems, Adventists, and Catholics. I was surprised to learn that the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament is different from the Christian interpretation.

David: I suppose it is inevitable that the Christian view of the Old Testament is colored by the New Testament.

Jay: We definitely look at the Old Testament through the looking glass of Jesus.

Don: Jesus and Paul repeatedly point out that things were poorly understood before he revealed the truth of the mysteries.

Chris: Colossians 1:25-27 addresses this:

Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

At that time, the Jews believed god belonged to them. The Old Testament (starting with Exodus) said so. Jesus said it was not so; he was there for everyone.

Joyce: I have never liked the Old Testament. It is scary, has black and white rules that are hard to live by and that incite and even dictate hatred and war and genocide. When you look at the results, it does not seem to have been very successful. The Old Testament is a mysterious book—you have to keep re-reading parts to try to understand its messages. The teachings of the New Testament make the mystery of the Old Testament seem even more strange and disturbing, and its god even less loving and lovable. What a huge transition between the two! In the cruel world of Jesus’ time, how enormously difficult it must have been to go through that transition. Even among denominations of any given religion today, the transition remains undone.

Jay: In Jesus’ time, the Jews could not look at things through Jesus’ eyes. God was theirs exclusively and would do right by them if they did right by him in following his rules as laid out in the Old Testament. So when god told them to go kill all the virgins and cut them into pieces, what’s to argue with?

The New Testament can be frustrating in the sense that it is not so black and white as the Old. It is more mysterious, but in the important sense of showing that God is ultimately a mystery. He is not as black and white as some parts of the Old Testament would make him seem. The mystery is vital to maintaining the concept of a god who is ultimately unknowable. Absent mystery, god cannot be the god of all people. He can be my god, because I know him; but he can’t be your god, because you don’t know him as I do. But if none of us know him, he can be the god of us all.

Don: There is not a single reference to mystery (in Hebrew) in the Old Testament.

Kiran: Even people who don’t read the bible are confronted by the same mysteries such as the purpose of life. Many search their hearts for answers.

Charles: To accept Mystery as the revelation of the Truth about God, I suggest that we need to begin with acceptance of the premise that our thoughts are not God’s thoughts and our ways are not God’s ways…. If we perceive Eternity as flanked by “The Creation” (however defined) at one extreme and what Jesus referred to as the “End of the Age” at the other; then the continuum is tantamount to the story of man’s relationship with God. The story of journey from a perfect relationship founded on total dependence and contentment with God’s Word/Will (The Garden), to a corrupted relationship due to man’s desire and dependence on man’s will (The Fall) and God’s subsequent attempts over time to reconcile his Word through man (Moses and the prophets) and through God (the Ministry of Jesus). When viewed through such an “eternal” lens, the spiritual revelation of this big ‘M’ mystery helps me to understand a small ‘m’ mystery as to why a God for all people (and all times) would deny such large swathes of humanity throughout history no exposure to the God of Israel and subsequently to his Word made flesh (Jesus) because of worldly limitations imposed by geography and communications. To have access to Salvation seemed a matter of dumb luck—of being born in the right place at the right time. Why would a loving God abandon those born Buddhist, Moslem, Hindu or Jew for the simple sin of ignorance and lack of access?

But perhaps this mystery can be revealed if viewed through the lens of Eternity as man’s spiritual relationship with God. If God’s Word is the path to reconciliation, then perhaps the revelation of the Mysteries matters more than the vehicle of revelation. When viewed through this eternal lens, Jesus becomes the way, truth and light as revealed by God for man’s reconciliation and Salvation. The birth and death of Jesus—the manifestation of the Word as flesh—and the way to eternal life— is seen as God’s penultimate attempt to reconcile. The ministry of Jesus is another signpost along eternity that man was getting it all wrong. Man’s reliance on man’s will and interpretation of the Word as revealed by Moses and the prophets (an example being the senseless killing of virgins) were actually Man’s thoughts and Man’s ways…not God’s thoughts and God’s ways. Jesus’ ministry gives man the choice of getting back on the right path. His birth and death gave to everyone who has ever lived—before or after him–of any or no religion—access to the Big T Truth about God and to the primacy of God’s universal grace.

Similarly with the Big M Mysteries: Jesus in his ministry and his teachings, on that long continuum of the universe from Creation to the End of the Age provides an opportunity for all with eyes to see and ears to hear (in other words, all of us, who cannot seem to get it right ever since we fell from the Garden of Eden) that God went so far as to send his only son as flesh to give us that ultimate example not only of what the Word means in terms of how one should conduct one’s life but also of what is promised if one will totally accept god’s Word and live by his Will.

This helps (at least, it helps me) to separate out the Big T Truths about god and grace and the spirit from the small t truths revealed through nature and suffering. It highlights our inability to totally comprehend and accept God and our struggle to frame things up through our human perspective and to depend upon ourselves, our choices, our will, rather than God. Similarly, I’ve tended to focus on the human persona of Jesus rather than on the Mystery revealed through his ministry, death and resurrection. When one focuses on Jesus as God’s revelation of the path to reconciliation….then God and Salvation become accessible to Hindu, Buddhist and Jew….to anyone prepared to embrace the intent of God’s Word.

Don: 1 Timothy 48:10 (especially the phrase in bold) speaks to what Charles just said:

…[B]odily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers.

Knowing that god is the god of all mankind is better if you are a believer, but even if you are not it does not change the fact that he is still your god.

Kiran: God was the god of all mankind until Abraham came along. Only then did he become exclusive. However, he told Abraham that through him (Abraham) all the families of the earth would be blest; in other words, through Abraham, god would become the god of all people. It seems to me, with respect, that Judaism has taken god’s choice of Abraham and misinterpreted it to mean god’s choice of a people.

Perfectionist people overburdened with responsibility are likely to break down. They are not perfect and can see their own mistakes. Paul said it beautifully when he said words to the effect that salvation could only be achieved through the fall of Judaism. The beauty of a breakdown is that it opens the door to god’s grace. Yet Christians are no different from the Jews. We form myriad sects each claiming exclusivity to the truth about god. It is just human nature to be this way.

Joyce. Since god knows the beginning and the end, he had to know the chaos that would happen in between. So was this all part of god’s plan—the chaos too? We give our children clear guidance as to what is expected of them and establish discipline to try to keep them in line. The purpose is to turn them into good, responsible adults. Our heavenly father does not seem to want to help us in this way. He just leaves us to our own devices.

Francine: Kids are brought up to go their parents’ preferred way but some end up going their own way anyway. God says to us: “Don’t worry about that. Trust me. I have a plan.” Yes, that’s a mystery. The cruelty we see on TV every day is another; and again god says: “Trust me. It is part of my plan. I am the one who will make everything right.”

David: I wonder if we are not privileged today to be witnessing some movement toward religious unity and away from exclusivity. God was surely disadvantaged by the absence of cell phones and social media for most of history. His message, though everywhere received, could not readily be shared so that a universally agreed-upon understanding of the truth about him could be established, and we ended up with all the different and mutually exclusive religions and sects and truths about god.

Judaism is unique in not going out to evangelize. Which makes perfect sense if Jews are god’s chosen people. Outsiders are not chosen, by definition (which makes it rather odd that Judaism does accept voluntary conversion by gentiles). Christianity, on the other hand, needs to evangelize its own exclusive ownership of the truth about god. So both claim exclusivity for their Truth, while only one maintains exclusivity of membership. The Mystery of the Ubiquity of God and his Grace as revealed by Jesus is really saying that none of the religions—including the one named after him—has an exclusive contract with god.

Because modern media are making everyone aware of the different truths about god, religions are starting to come together around a common truth. The interfaith meeting Kiran attended is a tentative step in that direction. We could be witnessing the beginning of the most radical revolution in religious and  spiritual thought since the life of Jesus.

Charles: However one frames up the continuum up to the point of the Creation of wo/man, scripture paints that Creation as a good thing. The gift of free will gave us the opportunity to choose between God’s will or man’s will. We can choose the way of the spirit and the way of the flesh. History suggests that for most of recorded history we have collectively made the wrong choice. God did not make a mistake in giving us that choice, it was part of the plan.

As Fran said, parents ultimately want their children to make their own choices. They may choose to go in a wrong direction and then reverse course or go down a different path later in life. God wants us to choose. God’s Way leads to peace and eternal life, man’s way leads suffering and death. God let’s each of us decide for ourselves.

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