I have some friends with some very different theological positions. How did this divergence happen? What I think happens is that we make up our minds about what we believe, and then we read and find what we want to believe. We see what we want to see. We surround ourselves with like-minded people and reinforce our beliefs. Life gets comfortable and we don’t allow our feathers to get ruffled. There is no need for change, since we have made our theology fit us. We make the Scriptures fit our lifestyle. There is no longer any offense to the Gospel. It is good for everyone because it doesn’t step on anyone’s toes.
My theology says that I should be uncomfortable with the state of things in this world, and the state of things in my life. The holiness of God creates offense. Living without being uncomfortable with the state of things, with sin itself, would be like living with a million watt light bulb in the room and not being blinded, not because it isn’t bright, but because we won’t admit we are blind. God’s holiness creates such a brightness that we can’t help but see our own sinfulness, and the sinfulness of this world. How could we live with it? How could we become comfortable?
Jesus picks out one particular stated belief of the teachers of the law, a very exclusive group in His day. They taught that the Messiah was David’s son, just a human being, nothing more. This fit with their theology. The Messiah was to be a strong figure like David or Moses. He was to be an extraordinary person, but still just a person.
But Jesus points out that David himself said that God Himself spoke to his master. David’s future son could in no way be David’s master. There had to be something more here than met the eye. The God of the Universe was telling David that his future son would be of a different, higher essence. When that happened, David himself would be able to see that this One was his master.
To maybe put it in a different way to make the difficulty more easily heard in our culture that doesn’t have masters, let me give you a simple example. I would not be able to say to my biological son, that he is my biological father. It can never work that way. He came from my wife and me. I cannot come from him. No matter what marvel of science happens, my son can’t become my father.
So when the teachers of the law limited the Messiah to being merely a human person, they had to rework this passage of Scripture. They had to gloss over the clear implication that Jesus pointed out. The inconvenient and complicated became simple by ignoring it.
I am afraid that this process of ignoring Truth is becoming all too common. There are hundreds of excuses for the current stop in temperature rise, sea level rise slowing, and historic ice coverage, but these don’t fit the facts. So the facts get ignored and the prophets of profit keep preaching, all the while raking in the cash.
The preachers of tolerance continue being intolerant of anyone who holds a firm opinion. The only opinion allowed is that you can’t have a firm opinion.
And we allow the world to so influence what we believe that we lose the saltiness of the Gospel. Salt stings and heals open wounds. And our world is filled with open wounds. The only hope is that we allow the Gospel to thoroughly change us in such a way that we then become beacons of light and hope to a dying world.
The Arnold Journey 