Every child loves to play “Hide and Seek”. And every grandparent loves to play with them. But the lesson I learned is that playing “Hide and Seek” is a delicate operation. It is a test of grandpa’s interpersonal skills. “Hide and Seek” is about more than using your powers of observation to find where the little ones have tucked themselves away. It is about being sensitive to what it means to be hidden.
In our back yard there is a corner filled with flowers and ornamental grasses and a small tree. Just in front of that corner is a rock path, and beside that path a more densely packed bed, with low-slung holly trees and well developed azaleas. At one end of the path there is nothing but my compost cage, and at the other end there are blackberry and raspberry vines. So, if you can get the picture, there is only one way in and out of this path into a garden jungle, a path my granddaughters call their “secret place”.
So if they want to play “Hide and Seek” naturally grandpa volunteers to be “It.” Wouldn’t matter if I volunteered or not, they have two votes, and I’m “It”. I close my eyes, and off they go, giggling and chattering about their secret place. When I announce, “Ready or not, here I come”, I have two choices. Since to my adult mind, which works on logic, it is perfectly obvious that all I need to do is go down that rock path a few steps to look under a holly tree or peek behind the compost, I can find them right away. Or, since I am grandpa and therefore not as much interested in winning the game as I am in seeing the girls have fun, I can pretend to be half-blind and stagger all over the yard, clamoring, “I can’t find you, where are you, I can’t find you.”
Now here is the lesson I have learned, the lesson about interpersonal skills. If I find them right away, just because I can, they are upset. It isn’t any fun for them to be found immediately; they like to indulge in the notion that they can fool the old man. But if I pretend too long not to be able to find them, if I stagger around the lawn wallowing in stupidity for too long, they cannot contain themselves. They snicker and they speak up and they even run out of their hiding places, because staying hidden is not fun either. It is a violation of their expectation that Grandpa will congratulate them on how well they have hidden. And waiting for the congratulation is just as unhappy as being found too soon. I have learned that “Hide and Seek” is not just a game of logic and observation; it is a measure of interpersonal skill. For we want to be found when we are hidden, but at the right moment, neither too soon nor too late.
It is always true that revealing what is hidden is not simply an intellectual exercise. It is always an interpersonal experience. Revealing what is hidden is not just about passing on information or solving problems; revealing what is hidden is about a relationship. And that, brothers and sisters, is what God does for us in Jesus Christ. God reveals, in Jesus, in a personal way, the depths of His mind and the intents of His heart. He does not simply provide information; He enfleshes Himself, He incarnates Himself, in Jesus of Nazareth. In Jesus we discover the truth hidden for the ages; and when we do, it is not just to satisfy intellectual curiosity, it is to redeem and restore our very lives. Revealing what is hidden is not just about information; it is about relationship, redemptive relationship, always personal.
The word “hidden” shows up in three places in the Letter to the Colossians. I want to take you to each of those three passages and show you how God is revealing to us what has been hidden for just the right time, and how, when He reveals what is hidden, it’s personal, intensely personal.
I
In the first of these passages, Paul links what has been hidden with his own imprisonment. He tells us that his own suffering has meaning because it teaches him that God is suffering for us – something hidden from sight before but now revealed in Jesus Christ.
I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.
I am rejoicing in my sufferings … and I am completing … Christ’s afflictions … to make … fully known, the mystery that has been hidden. What strange language! That somehow as Paul suffers imprisonment and deprivation he is completing what Christ has been doing. What can this mean?
If I were going to invent a religion, I would invent one where you get what you pay for. I would invent a religion where, if you make a mistake, God would tell you what the penalty is and you would pay for it and be done with it. You do the crime, you do the time. Over and out, done with – if I were to invent a religion.
But God’s hidden plan is totally different. God’s plan is not like what I would do. God’s plan is that you and I do the sinning but He does the suffering. God’s plan is that because we neither know nor understand how sinful and how needy we are, in Jesus Christ and in His cross He will demonstrate how profoundly personal is the hurt He feels when we sin. God reveals what is hidden about our human condition, because when we see Jesus, dying on Calvary, we see how God suffers. No other religion does that; no other faith, no other philosophy leads us to that. It is only in Christ that the depth of God’s suffering is revealed, God’s hidden suffering because we have hurt Him by our willful sin.
And now watch this: what Paul sees is that not only is the Cross of Christ God’s plan to reveal His love for us, it is also the way that God shows us that our own suffering has meaning. It is the way that God shows us that when we suffer loss or pain, when we are confused or frustrated, God understands. God has been there. And, most of all, God is able to use that pain to add to the redemptive work He began in Christ. “I am rejoicing in my sufferings … and I am completing … Christ’s afflictions … to make … fully known, the mystery that has been hidden.” God uses our pain to complete His work.
I knew a woman who had been through many things in her life. She had been married and divorced, and was in another relationship that didn’t seem too positive; she had struggled with destructive habits that had damaged her health. She was trying, as a single mother, to provide for her daughter and to get healthy enough to hold a job. None of it was working well. It all seemed to crumble. We talked at great length about how she could escape her problems; sometimes things improved and sometimes they did not. Sometimes life became a little easier, and sometimes it went down the tubes. But one Palm Sunday, a little more than ten years ago, when the invitation was given, Marcia came down the aisle of our church and gave her life to Christ. She said, “Today when I heard again how He suffered, I knew it was for me. I want what Christ has to give. I’m ready now.” Hidden until the right time.
But stay with me. We baptized Marcia at Pentecost that year; just a few months later we held a revival, and one night, coming down the aisle at the invitation, was Marcia again, this time leading by the hand her fiancé, the one whom I described as a relationship not too promising. But as he and Marcia had struggled, he found hidden in her pain a power that he knew he needed. God was using Marcia’s pain to complete the sufferings of Christ and redeem another life, at the right time.
And when, about five years later, Marcia died very suddenly, the Sunday after her funeral Marcia’s daughter Janette, by now a Metropolitan Police officer, fairly ran down the aisle to give her life to Christ. Why? Why at this time? Because, she said, she had seen the power of the suffering of Christ in the pain of her mother.
Our pain has meaning. It may not be revealed now. Its significance may be hidden. But I tell you, in God’s good time and in God’s own way, the mystery hidden through the ages will be revealed. And it will not be revealed as ideas or philosophy so much as it will be revealed personally. We will be able to say, with Paul, “I rejoice in my sufferings ... I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions … to make fully known the mystery hidden throughout the ages …”
II
But now let’s take this a step further. Let’s recognize that what is hidden is not only the truth that God cares for us and that God suffers for us. What else is hidden from everyday view is that Jesus is our companion, our friend, and our fellow traveler. He is forgiveness for the past, He is companion for the present, and He is guide for the future. Read this passage and you discover that Paul is intoxicated with Christ. Christ, Christ, Christ! Listen to Paul’s passion:
For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you, and for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face. I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Christ himself. Yes, we live in a multicultural world. Yes, there are plenty of religions around us, and plenty of philosophies. Yes, I would agree that there are things we can learn from the Buddhists; how to be serene in the midst of stress might be one of those things. Yes, we can learn some things from Muslims, like the value of disciplined prayer and charity. Of course there are things we can learn even from the atheists; questioning assumptions is a good thing. Take whatever philosophy, whatever religion you wish, but measure it against Christ. Test it against Jesus. And you will find that not only in the risen Christ is there a unique and unrepeatable historical event; you will find that it is only in Christ Jesus that there is a person, a presence, a power that penetrates your life and makes sense of all the world’s philosophies. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. In Him is a love and an encouragement that assures us and guides us and strengthens us.
When I pray, I do not pray to an idea written in a book; I pray to one who is nearer than breathing and closer than hands and feet. I pray to one who is personally present, standing beside me, touching my life, speaking to me, one whom I can trust. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not just because I can examine His teachings to see if they work, but principally because He is alive and He is available. I want you to have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Remember who this Paul is who writes so lyrically about Christ. Remember that Paul, first called Saul, was trained as a classical rabbi, a Pharisee, steeped in the ways of Judaism, and convinced that Jesus was a huge fraud. So Saul set out, as he tells us in his own words, to destroy this pernicious sect. You remember the story, how Christ appeared to Saul on the Damascus Road. What happened there? The man was changed from a raging rabbi to an avid apostle. And how? He was not argued into it, he was not educated into it, he did not reason it out. He simply met Christ personally. It was the personal encounter with the living Christ, at exactly the right time, that changed his life forever.
Now, yes, of course, he tells us that he did, after that experience, go off for a while to think it through. Saul the Pharisee took some time to do some intellectual work en route to becoming Paul the full-fledged theologian. But the essential transformation of a man bent on destruction to one turned toward the good news came because he encountered Jesus Christ personally. Paul discovered that the riches of assured understanding came because He had been found by Christ Himself.
I tell you, when Jesus Christ encounters you personally, you will be changed. You will never again want to fall back on rationalism or superstition or intellectualism or even on religion – you know, don’t you, that religion can be the enemy of relationship (surely you have not forgotten Micah’s visit of a few weeks ago!)? When Christ enters your life, Christ Himself and not just ideas about Christ, you will not be the same again. I have seen that in this very congregation – people who have struggled with serious issues, but who in Christ Himself, personally connected, are finding strength for a whole new journey. So like Paul, I stand before you to say, I want you to know how much I am struggling for you … [to have the knowledge of] Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
III
Where you are with all this? Where are you? In our little “Hide and Seek” game, where are you exactly? Are you still wandering around, lost and without direction, not clear that your life can ever be different? Or maybe you are skeptical, not at all sure that these extraordinary claims the church makes about Christ are true? Or, again, maybe you are shy and unsure of yourself, not certain whether you can live through your pain and work through your confusion? Then I beg of you, I urge you, listen to the promptings in your heart. Feel the presence of the One who is with us, near us, active in us.
The third time the word “hidden” is used in Colossians it is very personal indeed. Intensely personal:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You have died, the old you who cannot make sense of it all. The old you who cannot figure it all out. That’s gone. If you are in Christ, that’s gone. And Christ Jesus sweeps us up into His arms, gives us hope, gives us power, gives us glory. Our life is hidden with Christ in God.
You’ve been hiding profound personal issues; but set your minds on Christ, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He is able to take horrible habits and destroy them and turn you into a witness for redemption.
You’ve been hiding disturbing doubts; but set your minds on Christ, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. He is able to let you live with the questions and is willing to stand beside you while you struggle.
You’ve been wondering what to do with the rest of your life, whether that be only a few years or nearly a whole lifetime; then set your minds on Christ, in whom all the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge are revealed, and He will empower you, heart and mind and soul and strength, to do great things.
You’ve been wandering from teacher to preacher, from guru to garbage. You have explored the elegant halls of learning and the back streets of debauchery, and you know that your life is nonetheless hollow and empty. Then set your minds on Christ, on Christ, on Christ, in whom you can die to it all and can be raised a new creation. And then, hidden with Christ in God. For when Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. And the wandering will cease, the confusion will end, and you will never, never again be lost.
When we play “Hide and Seek”, my granddaughters and I, on that rocky path at the back of our yard, it almost always happens that one of them falls and skins her knee or bloodies her elbow. At that moment, it is no longer about where they can hide or about how long it will be before Grandpa either finds them or pretends to give up. At that moment, that painful moment, that right moment, it is only about who has the first-aid kit and kisses the hurt away. It is only about a personal relationship.
