Embrace the Mystery

We are a curious lot.  Humans have been given this deep desire to know.  If we have questions we want them answered.  This has been going on ever since the first human walked the face of the earth.  Sometimes the desire to know is so overwhelming that we are willing to sacrifice what is good, right and true in order to find it.  Adam did it and look where that got him (and us!).

But Adam is not the only one whose insatiable desire to know drives the pursuit of knowledge.  We live in a culture in the West that has been built on the foundation of "knowing".  You have heard it said "knowledge is power", and to some degree that is most certainly true.  But we need to ask this very important question:  "Why do we need to know?"  And, "is the pursuit of knowledge something that is good in and of itself?" 

The conquest of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution has taught us that knowledge is almost always a good thing.  But it is dangerous to simply accept a premise of our culture without seriously examining what it's all about.  Doesn't God tell us not to be conformed to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds?  This would tell me that I should be asking the Father to teach me what knowledge is good and right, and what things are important for me not to know!  Yes, it's true, our God and Father does not want us to know some things because they are not good for us to know.

Even saying that sounds strange--how could not knowing be a benefit to us?

Well I have already mentioned that in the Garden, Adam was told not to eat the apple because he was not to know the things that would hurt him.  Another time in scripture two of Jesus' disciples ask Him a question regarding their position in the afterlife and Jesus responded to them by saying "it is not for you to know".  So we need to accept that there are some things that we shouldn't know.

Here is why I mention that--in our church there are things that we shouldn't know as well.  But we struggle with this because our worldview has been trained to expose everything because knowledge is seemingly always the right thing.  What this usually translates into is the removal of mystery.  To us, mystery is the absence of knowledge and the absence of knowledge is always something that is limiting and somehow bad.  But if this is true then we are going to be in a hard place when it comes to our relationship with each other and with Jesus.  Here's why:

Colossians 2:2-3 Paul writes "my purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."  What Paul is saying here is that God has introduced to human beings the deepest mystery of all--and that is Jesus.  But knowing Jesus does not mean that I have all knowledge of God, instead what it means is that now I have been introduced to the mystery, and the mystery is standing right there before us!  "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge"  are still hidden in Jesus.  Jesus is the One who we are introduced to that can lead us into the kinds of knowledge and wisdom that God wants to teach us, but for us to arrogantly imagine that all mystery is now overcome is false.

To know God is to know mystery.  Jesus is mystery incarnate.

True knowledge is based on relationship and will always have elements of mystery built into it.

So for Christians, true knowledge means that I must accept the mystery that comes with it.  This is a good thing because it will always expect me to be humble whenever I speak of it.

Lord, help us to be humble.  Help us to be renewed in our thinking that we will honor You as we should.  And help us to live out this kind of knowledge in the practical aspects of our daily life.

BT