Don: We have discussed the Mystery of Goodness and the Mystery of Evil. Today, we will discuss our third Mystery, that which Paul said had been “hidden since the foundation of the world.” It is the truth that god is the god of all mankind.
What does this mean from a theological perspective? What does it mean from a practical perspective? And why was this truth hidden? Did god not want wo/man to know it before Jesus came to reveal it, so he actively hid it from them? Or is it that it was not intentionally hidden—that god had no reason to hide it—it was just that wo/man failed to see it?
A mystery is more than just an incomprehensible truth. It is a timeless truth revealed through the mission, the message, and the ministry of Jesus. Jesus introduced the subject in the midst of parables about the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 13:34-35:
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open My mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.”
Paul picked up the concept in Ephesians 31-10 and explained specifically what the hidden truth is:
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
It is interesting that Paul puts the mystery in the context of god’s grace. He alludes to the need for stewardship of that grace and says that it was given to him as steward for us. This Mystery shows the ubiquity of god’s grace. Stewardship means using things in a wise, sustainable, effective, and efficient way so that something will organically grow from it. Anyone who receives god’s grace becomes its steward and thereby becomes a conduit responsible for passing it on to others, so that it might grow.
Myth has it that there was once a Chinese emperor who was so delighted with the new game of chess that he offered its inventor any reward he desired. The inventor asked for a single grain of rice placed on the first of the 64 squares of the chess board to be successively doubled on each succeeding square. By the 64th square, the emperor discovered he had given away more than all the rice in China. This seems to be how grace is intended to be spread. Grace is not just some ethereal, heavenly, concept but a real, down-to-earth, operationalized artifact that can be applied in the physical world.
The Mystery was not first raised by Jesus or Paul. It is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. It seems, however, to have been deliberately hidden by those who wished to reserve god and his grace to themselves. In Jeremiah 32:27, god tells Jeremiah that he is “the God of all flesh”. It is evident too in Malachi 2:10: “Do we not all have one father? Has not one God created us? …” 1 Timothy 4:9-10 emphasiszes it:
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.
In the sermon on Mars hill, while on a missionary journey to spread Christianity, Paul developed the concept in greater depth when addressing the non-Christian Athenians. Reminding them that they had an alter devoted to “an unknown god” he proceeded to reveal the mystery of this god. Acts 17:22-34:
So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’ Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” So Paul went out of their midst. But some men joined him and believed, ….
At the same time, the Old Testament also has many references to god’s having made a special covenant with the Israelites. Does god indeed have a “chosen people”? The concept grows out of such passages as Exodus 19:4-6, where god told Moses to tell the Israelites…
“‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself. Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
This passage does not negate the Old Testament passages quoted earlier stating that god is the god of all mankind. It simply allows for a chosen group of priests to serve as ministers and missionaries to all mankind.
The concept of possessing god is by no means confined to the Jews. All western churches have it. Not one of them would ever admit to having an incomplete picture of god. Their creeds, statements of belief, and evangelism all lay claim to exclusive knowledge of the real god, and this belief tends directly and indirectly to prevent them from embracing others who also have faith in one god of all mankind. I once chatted with a Mormon who was concerned for the welfare of my soul because I did not embrace the Mormon concept of god. Being an Adventist, of course I thought he was the one at risk! I’ve had similar exchanges with Catholic friends who lamented, with genuine anguish, that since I was not a member of the Universal Church I had no hope of redemption. The belief in exclusive knowledge of god has serious real-world consequences, as we have seen in the horrors of the Crusades all the way up to the present horrors in the Middle East.
One would think that the revelation that god is the god of all mankind would dispel the notion of exclusivity. It should, yet it does not. The reason is that it is a shocking revelation. It was shocking to the Jews of Jesus’ time and is still shocking to Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, Shias, Sunnis and so on. The tragic but typical reaction to the shock is violence and injustice perpetrated in the name of the one true god.
David: It seems to me that Jesus was being parochial and contemporary in addressing this mystery. He was telling Jewish people and priests who thought they had an exclusive on god that in fact they did not. I don’t think that Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, or any other religion that believes in one god (or in one pantheon of gods) would be shocked by the revelation. It was and is not a global issue; it was a parochial issue in Jesus’ immediate geographic and historical context. So to me, it is not a Great Mystery—it is not like the Mystery of the Origin of Goodness or the Mystery of the Origin of Evil.
Joyce: A recent documentary about Jews, Christians and Moslems who visit each other’s places of worship showed them discussing the coming of Christ. The rabbi said “I know my Christian brother will have a question for him, as will I. The question will be: ‘Have you been here before?’” But then, the rabbi went on to say that although we will probably get an answer to the question, it probably won’t matter at that point whether he was here before or not, and it won’t matter whether one is Jewish, Christian, Moslem, or anything else.
Jay: The Mystery we are discussing does seem a little parochial. I think that all believers of any faith believe that god loves everybody, is an inner light to every wo/man. But it also implies a greater Mystery, which is: Why don’t we just leave it at that? Why do we make it far more difficult by insisting on exclusive access to god, on greater insight and understanding? Throughout history, this is what has clouded the Mystery that god is the god of all mankind. We fight wars over it. We fight to impose our understanding of god on others.
I once wondered whether the revelation of this Mystery eliminated the need for religions. But then, in Ephesians 4, Paul talks about how all the parts of the body of the church—all sects, all religions, perhaps?—have different characteristics and need to come together to form a whole. Perhaps god is not complete until they do, and in order to do so, they must first accept that god is the god of them all, not just of themselves. It is not a question of everybody being the same—we can still have different characteristics, different ways of celebrating and so on.
Charles: To me, this Mystery is less of a struggle to comprehend than the concept of infinity and finiteness. We can only approach such concepts from our frame of reference as humans, so they are inevitably subject to the subjective aspirations of our intelligence, of our human need to know, of having existence and reality explained in the context of our human existence and reality. So a concept that all of existence—the universe—is part of a definite scheme of creation, and therefore a manifestation of god—a choice on the part of an omnipotent, omniscient creator to manifest himself through his creation—then all of creation, all of existence is that manifestation and is therefore good. All of the universe, all of the natural order of things, is good, and the good is infinite, timeless, and perfect.
The microscopic component of creation called earth, and the even tinier components called human beings, are just manifestations of the creator. So I have no struggle with the concept of god or with any particular religious sect claiming ownership of god except in the context of an infinite, eternal plan which neither they nor I could ever understand from our limited human intelligence. If each and every one of us is a manifestation of god, then our concepts—limited though they may be—don’t matter. It is natural to want to explain our reality and our existence. We have talked much about the Garden, the Fall, reconciliation and salvation, but we have not yet talked about the concept and the emergence of self-consciousness (when Adam and Eve became conscious of their nakedness), of the emergence of self and selfishness and will where before there was only unity with god—there was no real distinction between god and man.
Grace and goodness are synonymous with the creation, perfection, and unity. The finite, mortal individual within that infinite and good creation has trouble superimposing his or her limited understanding on top of the Truth of the Mystery. Our ways are not god’s ways. In the grand scheme of god’s creation, what we perceive as evil, imperfect, suffering and so on may ultimately be all for the good, in the eternal, unlimited, infinite and perfect timeline of god’s own plan.
I do not have a problem with the notion that god is the god of all mankind. In my opinion, scripture got off track on this point—until Jesus came to put it back on track.
Don: It’s interesting that god challenged Adam’s self assessment that he was naked: “Who told you you were naked?” he asked, as though to say “Your self-perception is irrelevant—you are only naked if I say so!”
Joyce: Churchgoers believe they are saved by belonging to church. So what about unbelievers? I think they are still part of the club, in god’s eyes. I don’t think it is necessary to profess the name of Jesus to be saved.
Don: This is reflected by Paul in the sermon on Mars Hill. Having an altar to an “unknown” god, as the Athenians did, is tantamount to professing unbelief but this is precisely the “groping”—the searching for god—that elicits his grace and salvation.
Joyce: It is beautiful. Churchgoers worry if their children don’t go to church, that their child will not be saved. Non-churchgoers often think of churchgoers as “hoarders” of god and judgmental in their attitude to secular outsiders. It seems to me there is some unreasonableness, but also there is groping, on both sides. People want something to believe in. It gives them peace.
David: I don’t think we go to war over the notion that there is only one god. We go to war over human ideology—as Chuck said, it is our human thinking that is the problem. It is a great mystery that we impose our ideologies on others, but to me it is no mystery that there is only one god.
Don: Why is wo/man so inclined? If it is so easy to apprehend that god is the god of all, why do we persist in developing and applying competing and violent ideologies around it? Perhaps this may even be linked with the Mystery of Evil.
Jay: Innately, everybody knows that god loves everybody. The mystery is that through our religions and our politics and our ideologies, we do not! Where is the disconnect?
Emma: The disconnect is that we don’t know what Love is. God loves all people, but we certainly do not. We have never, ever, learned to Love. If we had, there would be only one religion. I am amazed at those rare instances where I perceive real Love. Yet the very first of the Ten Commandments are to Love God and to Love one’s neighbor as one’s self.
Chuck: We tend to live in social structures, organized communities of one sort or another. That fact of existence might provide the context for conflict. Before the emergence of self in the Garden, there was no concept of separateness, of self. After it, separateness was perpetuated but there has always been a desire to retrieve that sense of unity with god. Social structures perhaps evolve around that desire by creating a collective sense of ownership of some ideal (such as god) while, at the same time, perpetuating individual separateness.
Jay: That adds to the mystery. Social structures are based on and bound by common interests. Yet the most universal commonality is that Love is better than Hate and Good is better than Evil. The mystery is that in our behavior, we don’t acknowledge that!
David: If god is Love, then Love is god. If as Emma so rightly (in my opinion) said, “We don’t know Love” then we don’t know god. God is the ultimate Mystery in all this.
Don: Next week we will discuss a series of vignettes in which Jesus contrasts shepherds and wise men, the sick and the healthy, Jews and non-Jews, disadvantaged women and society, and so on. He repeatedly breaks down the separateness of our social groupings, and tries to make vivid the idea that he is the god of all mankind.
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