What Do You Think About The Christ?

Our understanding of the Christian faith may sometimes be accurate in terms of what it is we believe, but the more important question is always whether our understanding is adequate.  Is it adequate in the sense of getting us to the core of what our faith truly means?  For example, the knowledge of the Pharisees in their Q&A sessions with Jesus was not inaccurate, it was simply inadequate.  The Pharisees understood the law very well, but Jesus’ answer to their question (22:34-40) takes them to the heart of the issue.  You can obey the law and still miss what it truly means, namely to love God and love you neighbor.  It is even more evident when Jesus turns the tables on them by asking them a question (22:41-46).  “What do you think about the Christ?”, Jesus asks.  Their answer is not wrong.  He is the son of David.  But of course, their answer is completely inadequate.  They fail to recognize that this son of David is in fact the Lord.  What do you and I think about the Christ.  Do we reduce or even distort who Christ is by filtering Him trough our own self-interest?  Or will we allow Him to be Lord, the One who cannot be boxed in by our agendas, but who will always rule in God’s kingdom of love?

Question of Authority

The entire Gospel about Jesus presents itself as a question of authority, namely whether He is acknowledged as our authority in life above anything or anybody else.  This is definitely one of the governing themes in the Gospel of Matthew, and specifically highlighted in Matthew 21:23-32.  In these verses, questions are asked all over the place: Religious authorities questioning Jesus’ authority (21:23); Jesus questioning the religious authorities about John the Baptist’s authority (21:24-25); the religious authorities questioning each other about the most politically appropriate response to Jesus (21:25-26); Jesus asking the religious authorities to solve a question with regard to a parable about two sons (21:28-31).  The questions of the religious authorities are self-serving questions as a means to resist the transformational power of Jesus’ authority.  Like these religious authorities, we also find all kinds of questions that will allow us to relativize and complicate the simple appeal of Jesus’ authority in our lives.  There are enough reasons why we can be in denial about the power of His presence through his Spirit, and why we cannot afford to trust His authority 100% in our ordinary lives.  The question of 21:23 to Jesus is in fact our question:  “By what authority are you doing…” what you are doing?

Not Knowing and Asking

Not knowing is uncomfortable.  Even creates anxiety.  In John 16, the disciples could not understand the meaning of Jesus’ words (16:16-18).  And Jesus does not seem to be in any hurry either to give them very clear sound bites that will satisfy their apparent desire for simple answers.  He answered their questions by just piling on more parables in a manner of “speaking figuratively” (16:20-22).  It is as if he wants to make them comfortable with a lifestyle of asking and teach them how to live faithfully in the midst of not knowing everything as clearly as they may have wanted to.  He promised them that it will not be like that forever:  “Though I have been speaking figuratively, a time is coming when I will no longer use this kind of language but will tell you plainly about my Father” (16:25).  And yet, he does not leave them without any clues whatsoever.  When he said, “I came from the Father and entered the world; now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father”, they responded, “now you are speaking clearly and without figure of speech” (16:28-29).  Many times we fall for the temptation to domesticate God with our certitudes of knowing.  What is supposed to be rooms of discernment – rooms in which we ask questions and wrestle with others on what God is up to – quickly become rooms in which we shoot at each other with our bullets of knowledge.  May God bless us today with attitudes of discernment rather than postures of certitude.

Why?

Habakkuk 1:1-4 is a lament in which the writer complains that God does not listen to prayers and that the wicked seem to be winning.  Why is life sometimes so unjust?  These questions of 1:1-4 reflect times of uncertainty and anxiety – times like ours!  But before we ponder the answers that Habakkuk provides to these questions (see this blog later this week), let us just make peace with the fact that God is apparently not only found in the high points of life.  Habakkuk is a good Old Testament example of what the cross of Christ refers to in the New Testament, namely God’s presence among us during times of confusion and suffering – especially when the easy answers to the complicated questions of life seem to evade us.