Thursday, January 17, 2013

Jesus is so Much Bigger than My Understanding

Mark 9
January 17, 2013

As I was reading through chapter nine of Mark’s Gospel, a thought occurred to me.  There’s this account of the man whose son was tormented by a demon that threw him into convulsions.  Some of Jesus’ disciples tried to cast the demon out of the son, but they were unsuccessful.  So when Jesus shows up, the man asks whether Jesus can do what his disciples could not.  Jesus can and does.  And later when the disciples have Jesus alone, they ask Him why they were unable to cast this demon out of the young man.  Jesus simply responds: “This kind can come out only by prayer.”  

Now at first glance I hear Jesus’ reply and say: “Oh … okay.”  But then that is quickly followed an audible: “What?  What does that even mean?”  So before you even post something or write me and ask me to explain it, I’ll tell you flat out: “I don’t know.”  I know I’m a pastor and I’ve studied this section of the Bible many times, but my honest answer doesn’t change from “I don’t know.” 

I’ve read through the Bible commentators and listened to the theologians pontificate, but what I hear is at best educated guesses and theories.  So it’s time to confess - there are times when Jesus’ words or actions puzzle me.  At one time, that really bothered me.  I thought things like: “How am I going to be a pastor if I can’t explain every red letter word in the New Testament?” 

But these days it doesn’t bother me near as much.  After all, this is Jesus, the Son of God come in the flesh.  Do I really believe I’m going to totally “master” Jesus?  Doesn’t it make sense that Jesus if far bigger than our understanding?

In the realm of seminary, there are different areas of theology that we study.  There’s practical theology (which I can tell you isn’t always that practically understood by a bunch of guys who haven’t tried ministry in the real world yet); historical theology (seems self-explanatory); Biblical Theology (ditto on the self-explanatory part) and something called systematic theology.  As the name would imply in systematic theology, we take the theology taught in the Bible and put it together in a cohesive system. 

Now there’s nothing wrong with systematic theology.  It helps organize the teachings of the Bible in a thematic structure and anyone who knows me, knows I love themes.  But the problem is, God is so much bigger than any system.  The Bible is not given to us in a nice packaged system.  It comes as a revelation from God to a fallen people who have broken off the relationship with God we were created for, and are now slow to respond to the Savior who has come to rescue them.  BTW that would include you and I as well.

So what I do when I have wrestled and wrestled with a part of God’s Word and still found no clear answer?  Sometimes I end up repeating the words of a father who framed his request to Jesus in a most awkward way by telling the Lord: “If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”  Jesus responds with a question and a challenging statement of His own. First he asks: “If you can?”  (like he’s saying – did you really just say that to me?)  He then tells the dad: “Anything is possible for the one who believes.” 

I have to admit that I love the response of the father who is agonizing over his son’s condition.  He tells Jesus: “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” 

Yep.  That I understand.

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