Mystery and Apprehension

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things. (Ecclesiastes 11:5, NLT)

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9, NLT)

Such reassuring words, yet words that can cause such great apprehension.

Face it... we may love a mystery novel, but we don't appreciate mystery when it hits us between the eyes. Very few of us are comfortable when there are unanswered questions in our lives. How will the baby's health play out? How will I be able to pay this bill? How will this new job really impact my career? Will this medicine work? Those are some tough "trigger questions," aren't they? To some, mystery is misery!

God is the greatest mystery there is, and He is in charge of everything and responsible for everything, ultimately. We cannot explain the wind and the weather. Oh, we have ways of predicting what will happen, and detecting the conditions that favor certain types of weather. Several days ago, they accurately predicted that this week would be a "chilly" one in Florida (yeah, I get it, Northerners... we Floridians just don't understand what cold is... we'll remind you of that next time we're shoveling sunshine off the driveway). But I can recall back in September how they thought a certain hurricane was going to go one way, then the next day it was going another, then it went another day entirely the day it hit us. We understand so much more than we did a century ago, but the weather still does whatever it wants in the end.

We understand a lot more about how a baby develops in the womb than we used to. It is a fascinating process. We can explain the division of cells. We can explain how things may have gone wrong in some cases, or how genetics caused something to happen. At the end of the day, however, a couple of the best God-fearing OBGYNs and Pediatricians I know say pretty much the same thing... it's a miracle!... which is a wonderfully positive way of saying mystery.

My problem is trusting God in the midst of mystery, which is a problem, because He is mystery. We are called to labor for God in the midst of (often maddening) mystery. We cannot see for sure what will happen. Even now, there are mysteries in my life that I wish like crazy would be solved. But they aren't, and I find myself frustrated with them, looking for answers, trying to figure out what I should do next without taking actions that could be harmful.

So, what it comes down to is this: do I really trust God?

I trust God. I trust God. I trust God. Yep, sometimes I am saying that over and over again just to convince my own soul that it is true. His ways are higher. His thoughts are higher. He is in control. Do I trust Him? I do. I do. I do.

I think there is a simple solution for apprehension when facing mystery. However, I don't think it is a solution easily enacted. The best I have found to do is to pray a prayer, something along the following lines...

Lord, you have begun a good work in me. You are faithful. You are completing it, even though I cannot always see and understand what you are doing. I place my [life... passion... idea... situation...] in Your hands. I place my worry for my [career... family... finances... education... situation...] in your hands. Even though the path seems cloudy and mysterious, I place my confidence in You and Your way of working that out. Father, you know my fears. You know my mind better than I do. Please, quiet my soul. Give me rest. At the same time, I plead with You... show me what to do or what not to do. Do not allow me to abandon Your way.

I trust You. Please bolster my trust. I may be saying it over and over again, trying to convince myself that it is true. I need You now. Show Me Your glory, Your faithfulness and love. I will give You the glory.

May God bless you in whatever mystery you may be facing today... He is there... He cares... and He has this, and you, in the palm of His hand! This is a good thing, because, as it says in 1 John 4:8, "... God is love."

Reflections on a Peculiar Baptism

How could I have known that the most amazing experience of my life would happen as I stood there, dripping wet?

I came that morning to hear the Baptizer. Something big was about to happen. John was a big deal in those days, a controversial religious rabble-rouser to some, a powerful and radical preacher to others, and to some he was just plain weird. You loved him, hated him, or were entertained by him. I came to be entertained, but as he spoke of paving the way for Messiah, I felt increasingly like I was burning up inside. My parents had taught me from an early age the promises of Messiah to come. In the synagogue, my beloved rabbi made us to memorize the Scriptures that pointed to his coming, and we had long lessons on the topic that spanned back generations.

As this rabbi, John, spoke to us, I felt it my duty to repent. After all, the way had to be prepared for Messiah, and if indeed he was about to come, I wanted to do my part in the preparations. John's face was serious, urgent, and yet not unfriendly. I waited my turn, and each one that went into the water came out with differing looks. Some looked as if they had done what they needed to do. Some had a look of, "Well, that was interesting." A few looked as though something major had changed within them. When it was my turn, he baptized me, and as I came up, I felt a wave of gratitude and purpose wash over me, that I was part of something crucial.

There had been audible conversation happening all around the river as the baptisms were happening. Some talked about what John had said. Some talked about the people being baptized. There were those that were baptized that elicited surprise, especially when it was a Pharisee or a someone of good repute. A few guffaws when it was a person of poor reputation. I couldn't hear what they were saying about me in particular before my baptism. It was what happened afterwards that has stayed with me all this time since.

I came out of the water. The Baptizer embraced me and said a few things about the coming "Lamb of God," and that I would find true cleansing in Him. As soon as I left him to return to the riverbank, I heard John shout, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" It became silent silent. Having heard John say similar words just a few moments ago, I turned around, dripping wet, and saw Jesus, the son of Joseph, standing at the edge of the water. "Really? This is the 'Lamb' I'm supposed to believe in?" I thought to myself. "This is Messiah?"

The most interesting thing happened then. Jesus went into the water, out to John. I expected Jesus to take over at that point, if he was who John claimed he was. After all, if he was the spotless "Lamb" John said he was, that meant he was perfect, and didn't exactly need the remission of sins that John preached about. Imagine how shocking it would be, then, to hear him ask John to baptize him!

Could John have been wrong? Clearly he didn't think he was. He immediately told Jesus that he was the one who needed baptism, so John didn't think he was in error. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but then Jesus said to John, "Let it be so, for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."

John's expression became one of absolute amazement. A few moments later, with visible trembling in his limbs and body, John lowered Jesus into the water and brought him back out. Not but a few seconds later, we all saw something like a dove out of nowhere come down to Jesus, and we heard this loud voice ring out over the waters, echoing off the banks... "You are My beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." After the sound of the voice died down, the waters were calm, and you could have heard a feather hitting the water. The drops of water were still coming off of me, and I could hear them as they splashed the water at my feet. The waters sounded like ocean waves when Jesus began to walk out of the water, with the dove leading him. I expected Jesus to stay for a time, but he was soon gone in the direction of the desert.

I walked home that day, lost in thought. What did Jesus mean, "... to fulfill all righteousness"? Wasn't he already plenty righteous, if he was that Lamb of God John described him as being? Then it hit me. That's the point! I mean, look around the river that day, in the water and up on the banks. Not a single person was there that hadn't had to take one of their lambs to the Temple at some point to make an offering for sin. Not a single person was there that was really righteous... until Jesus showed up. And I realized this a few years later, after Jesus was crucified, buried, and then after I saw him alive again with my own eyes. So, clearly Jesus was righteous, and the only one there that day who was. Clearly, me getting baptized didn't fulfill righteousness. My act of repentance and baptism that day... and the acts of everyone else there... great as it was, didn't fulfill righteousness. But Jesus's act did. Clearly the presence of God that day, as we heard in that voice and saw in that dove, verified this. Clearly this was verified later on when Jesus would later rise from death.

You see, I realized that, if anything, I kept righteousness from being fulfilled. Everyone there that day except Jesus had not taken righteous paths. Jesus and I weren't the first ones to have been baptized, so obviously righteousness hadn't yet been fulfilled, and frankly, what could someone as unrighteous as myself do to fulfill it anyway?

Jesus was claiming that day that he was being baptized in order to fulfill righteousness. Looking back, he had always been righteous to that point. He was righteous when he entered the Jordan River. Surely he was claiming he would be righteous throughout the future. He claimed he would remain righteous through the cross and beyond! He was embracing that mantle of Messiah, and was fulfilling that Name we were taught from Isaiah in a deep way: God-with-us. He was identifying himself as God and as one of us human beings in need of righteousness to be fulfilled, that great reversal of what Adam did back in the Garden.

I realize now that that was my only real hope coming into the water! That day I realized that in baptism I was really identifying with him, and that as he was baptized, he identified with me! From that point on, I knew Jesus as the Christ, my righteousness!

Check Yourself and Open Your Eyes

Sometimes what we want to see isn't actually there.

I am kind of feeling that this morning as I start re-studying Revelation for what seems like the umpteenth time. If you grew up a Seventh-day Adventist, it was reinforced in you to know what this book says and what it is about, and for good reason.  However, I have to admit to being more than a bit curious... was I reading it correctly? Is everything I thought I knew and read really what was there, or have I believed what has been preached to me, or what I was hoping was there?

It may seem a minor thing now, but here's an example.

This morning I started over. I went in on Revelation 1:1-3. Now, what I want it to read (or what I want it to say) is, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ..." OK, it does say that, but whenever I have read it, I have read it to say "This book reveals Jesus." In English this makes perfect sense, and it could indeed be what is being revealed. However, upon closer examination, I am not sure this is what it actually says.

I had to go back to my undergraduate Greek studies to dig deeper on this, which isn't easy for someone who hasn't sat in such a class for over 20 years (thank goodness for blueletterbible.com!). Just a look at that first phrase is revealing. We get the word "apocalypse" from the same word we see in the beginning of this verse. However, we have really distorted its meaning. "Apocalupsis," as it would sound in John's language, means to "lay bare/naked," or to "reveal." It can mean a "disclosure of truth," or even "instruction." Whatever is being revealed in this book is something that wasn't seen before, and could be "instructions" that hadn't yet been given.

It is the revelation "of Jesus Christ." Not to repeat what has already been said, but I always read this in English and assumed it was revealing Jesus. But "of Jesus Christ" doesn't quite match up this way. "Christ" means "anointed" in John's language (and remember, he wrote this, not us). "Jesus" means "YHWH (Yahweh) is Salvation." YHWH was the ultimate, transcendent, most mysterious Name for God in the Jewish Scriptures (what we now know as the Old Testament). Here's the thing, though. "Christ" is a proper noun in the "genetive" form in Greek grammar. "Jesus" is in the "dative" form, and the way it is used associates this name with "Christ." So "Christ" is really the one we need to understand here to get what is being said.

What does "genetive" mean? It can be used in a possessive sense: "Carys is the daughter of James." If this was written in Greek, "of James" would be genetive possessive. Another alternative: "James went away from the house." So, the genetive can follow pretty much any preposition (recall English class... over a cloud, through a cloud, under a cloud, from a cloud, etc.).

So, when we read Revelation 1:1, it seems the best (or safest) way to read it is that this is the revelation that belongs to Jesus, or that it is coming from Jesus. It could perhaps be revealing Jesus, but that may not be exactly what John was trying to say when he wrote this stuff out.

After reading and studying through this again, here's a few takeaways I get from it.

1. We need to let Jesus reveal whatever He wants to reveal to us.

I may want Jesus to tell me what I want Him to tell me. I may want His Word to fit my life. But it has to be the other way around. I cannot dictate His message to me. His message must tell me what I should do, how I should change, what I should believe, etc. His word isn't for my convenience or biases. It is for for me to obey.

We should remember that the churches John wrote to were followers of Jesus. I tend to think that John assumed that Jesus was revealed to them already. The messages to the first seven churches seem to be fairly instructive around what they should already have known about Jesus and following Him. So, the question may not always be, "How is Jesus revealed?" but may be "What is Jesus revealing? What is He instructing us to do?" It may be that He is revealing Himself. I wouldn't want to dismiss that Jesus's revealing of Himself is a major theme. However, I would hate to make that so much of what this has to be about that I miss something else.

1. This is a credible revelation.

In Jewish thought, the witness of two or more people is what made it credible (see Deuteronomy 17:6; 19:15; John 8:17). So, when John writes that this is from God, to Jesus, through His angel, to His servant, we can see multiple sources. When John writes that He bore witness to the Word of God and the Testimony  of Jesus (Jesus's bearing witness), and it adds up to all that He saw that makes up this book, anyone who read this in his day (assuming they are Jesus's followers) would have assumed the credibility of this revelation.

1. Attentiveness + Responsiveness (to what Jesus Christ wants to reveal to us) is what brings a blessing (or happiness) to anyone who reads it and to anyone who hears it.

John was pretty clear. Pay attention to this. Make it important in your life! Respond to what you read and hear. Obey the instructions Jesus is giving here. You will be blessed and happy for doing this, because everything you read in here about what's soon to come is really soon to come! Jesus instructs His followers on what to do and how to live because of what is coming. It's not about escaping danger. It's about being blessed. In our context today, it's not about knowing which individual specifically fits which prophecy, or what event specifically fits this thing or that thing we read. It is still about reading, hearing, taking it seriously, obeying, and being blessed!

Let Jesus tell us what He wants to tell us. Believe in its credibility. Pay attention. Respond. That's what this introduction teaches me.

How about you?