At the Alpha conference I went to a few weeks ago I had a very interesting conversation with a colleague on the more liberal end of our denominational spectrum. It was particularly interesting in that the Alpha program is for evangelism, and I was surprised to see someone on the other end interested enough in spreading the Gospel to spend two solid days on the subject. As it turned out he was doing research for a paper, sort of like an anthropologist observing the natives... It was also interesting because we actually talked about the issues which divide our church, at least sort of, and the most interesting exchange of all ended when he said “How can we know the mind of God?” Expecting me to agree, of course, that we indeed cannot know the mind of God.
And that is the big difference between us. I believe that we can know the mind of God - at least enough of it to make the decisions which we are called on to make in the world with a pretty solid degree of confidence. "What we have received is ... the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us." [2 Cor 2:12] But there’s a cost. Paul says in the twelfth chapter of his letter to the Romans, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect.” [Rom 12:2] So in order to know the mind of God, as you’ve just heard, we have to stop being “conformed to the world,” and we have to “be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” And that isn’t easy.
In last week’s prayer of confession, there were two lines which capture a classic human tendency: “We have been afraid to ask you for sight, in case we should see ourselves too well.” and “We have not even wanted to know your will, let alone do it.”
This is a tendency that exists in us all, because, as the saying goes “Ignorance is bliss.” It’s sort of like the happy oblivion we were all in before 9/11. We weren’t in any more danger on 9/12 than we were on 9/10, but we sure felt a whole lot more insecure on the 12th, and so our priorities shifted accordingly. But in fact the full saying is conditional: “Where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.” So you see it’s only foolish to try to become informed when there’s nothing you can do to improve your circumstances. And of course there is, but there’s that cost we talked about.
There are three things that we need to know the mind of God: we need Scripture, we need the Holy Spirit, and we need the desire. We have the first two, Scripture and the Holy Spirit, whether we choose to take advantage of them or not. What’s really lacking in most cases is the last - the desire. We really have to want to know God’s take on things. And that, I think, is the real problem with my colleague at the conference, and many of the others who agree with him. Because, you see, as long as we can claim it’s not possible to know what God wants, we’re free to do what seems right in our own eyes. We can say, as many of us do, “If God is just, then God’s idea of justice must be the same as my idea of justice.” Or we can say, and many of us do, God is loving, therefore he should express his love in the way I would if I were God.”
And we see this in the smorgasbord approach to religion which is the fashion in this new century: many people pick one item from this faith tradition, and then choose another one from that, and so construct a spiritual framework which is comfortable and satisfying for them, which answers their questions and soothes their uncertainty without challenging them in any meaningful way. Paul foresaw that trend in his second letter to Timothy: “The time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. [2 Tim 4:3-4]
If it’s true that we cannot know the mind of God, we’re free to do this. If we cannot know the mind of God, we have no response to make to the subjectivism and relativism which permeate our culture and threaten to destroy churches and schools and denominations and movements. Dr. John Piper, a brilliant scholar and preacher from my home town of Minneapolis, defines relativism as “the assumption that there is no such thing as absolutes. What is true or right or good or beautiful for you may not be for me. It’s all relative,” and subjectivism as “the assumption that I, the subject, have the right to determine what is good and bad, right and wrong, true and false, beautiful and ugly for me without submitting my judgment to any objective reality or any objective authority outside myself.”
And that’s very attractive in many ways, because it keeps us from having to look closely at ourselves. There’s no standard against which we might have to measure ourselves and discover that we are inadequate. As long as we are the creators of our own right and wrong, other people have to meet our standards, and of course they don’t measure up. We can remain blissfully ignorant of the true state of affairs, that is the God’s-eye view. But in this case ‘tis folly not to be wise.
How many of you have played peek-a-boo with a baby? It’s fun, isn’t it? Part of what makes the game work is the assumption babies make that if they can’t see you, you can’t see them. And they can play it forever. They’re in control! When they cover their eyes, you disappear; when they open them, there you are! It’s magic! That happens when they’re learning to play hide-and-seek, too. If they can’t see you, then of course you can’t see them. The younger they are, the less concerned they are about stray arms and legs peeking out from behind wherever they’re hiding. A lot of people are playing peek-a-boo with God.
But hey - why should we want to know the mind of God? Why should we want to see things clearly, when the world is much more comfortable through a mist of rosy assumptions and blurry standards? Why should we want to see ourselves clearly when we might have to change, move out of our comfort zone, repent of some favorite sin, give up a forbidden luxury?
It is because knowing the mind of God is the only security we have in a world which is full of all kinds of danger, whether we can see it or not. Knowing the mind of God is the only chance we have to walk through the minefield of this world and come out safely on the other side. Seeking to know the mind of God is the only sane response to living as a fallible human in an uncertain world. And there are two very important clues about what God wants from us, in this passage.
The first is that Jesus’ message has to be our message. We can’t make up a different one that leaves out all the hard parts, even if it means people will call us names. The Gospel is good news, but it is also bad. The good news is that Jesus loves us; the bad news is that the world doesn’t.
The second clue is that being a secret Christian doesn’t cut it. I have a friend back in Minneapolis whose faith I had never noticed until I became a Christian. I knew she was a nice person, a moral person, a kind and strong person. But I hadn’t a clue as to why she was what she was. And she told me that she had chosen to be a “silent Christian” because she felt that actions were more important than words. Well, yes, she has a point - but I had known her for seven years and although I knew she went to church I didn’t know that it mattered to her. It never occurred that it might matter to me. God wants us to be up front and out loud about Jesus - about both the good news and the bad. The good news is that we are forgiven. The bad news is, we need to be.
But in addition to what God wants us to do, this passage has even more important words about who God is. God is the one who sees everything we do. God is the one who will judge us on the last day. God knows the secret intentions of our hearts, God knows the excuses we make for not being serious about being transformed “by the renewing of our minds,” God knows that we are often afraid of the cost of following Jesus too closely. And as I have said there is indeed a cost.
Part of the cost is that some people won’t like us. But the bigger cost is losing our rose-colored glasses. Now, rose-colored glasses are very comfortable. They shield us from all kind of unpleasantness. But they also limit our vision. Remember how the disciples reacted to all of Jesus’ warnings about what would happen to him when they came to Jerusalem? About being turned over to his enemies and so on? They didn’t hear a word he said. Peter, characteristically, objected loudly: “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” [Mt 16:22] Jesus’ response is interesting: “Get behind me, Satan!” [Mt 16:23] The refusal to look at facts squarely is a gift to the enemy of our souls.
And then there’s the example of Hagar. She really got a rough deal, didn’t she? Handed over to her mistress’ husband to bear a child her mistress would claim as her own, and when she produced on schedule, she got kicked out. Not fair by anyone’s standards. So there she is, out in the wilderness, sure she’s going to die. She’s forgotten that the last time this happened God rescued her. You see, the other thing about rose-colored glasses is that they don’t equip you to deal with calamity when it comes, and they keep you focused on your own little world. It was only when Hagar lifted up her eyes that God spoke to her. But instead of sending her back to Abraham ‘s flocks, and telling Sarah where to get off, which would be the very satisfying but all too human solution to her problem, God had her get up and go on, out into a new future.
Rose-colored glasses keep us from seeing dangers, but they also keep us from seeing opportunities. So the cost of seeking the mind of God is indeed high, but the reward is worth it. The reward of knowing the mind of God, the reward of living in the will of God, is freedom. Because if we fear God, there is no need to fear people. Or anything else, for that matter.
What are you afraid of? I’m afraid of many things - mostly of making a fool of myself in public - but what is yours? They’re different for us all. But we all have fears.
This entire passage is about how to be free from fear. This is made plain by the three repetitions of the command not to fear. V 26, “So have no fear of them.” V 28, “Do not fear those who kill the body.” V 31: “Fear not therefore; you are of much more value than many sparrows.” So Jesus’ aim here is to overcome fear and instill courage.
Of course, Jesus is not forbidding us to feel fear. You’re not a sinner or a failure as a Christian if you feel fear. What Jesus is telling us - his disciples- is that fear is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter. It’s not to get in the way of accomplishing what we’re called to do because of it. Fear of God is different from fear of humans. Fear of God is appropriate, given his power. But given what we know his love, fear of God does not paralyze, but liberates. Fear of people makes no sense from the eternal perspective. If anything is going to prevent the spread of the message, it will be fear of humans and of human opinion. But Jesus dismisses such fears as side issues, to be overcome by concentrating on the bigger picture, the eternal perspective.
Jesus is saying, “If you are mistreated for speaking the truth clearly and openly it isn’t unexpected, accidental, random, or meaningless. It’s exactly the way the way they treated me, it shows that you’re part of my household. Don’t be afraid of the names they call you, be proud of them. It’s a seal of approval, in fact, a sign that you belong to me.” The bad news is good news.
The next verse gives the reason not to be afraid - or at least to go ahead and speak the truth even if you are afraid, even if your voice squeaks and you go tongue-tied when you know you might step on some toes. “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.” [v. 26] But how does that help?
It helps us by assuring us that the truth of Jesus Christ will triumph. It will be vindicated in the end. People may reject it now. They may call you demonic, as the Pharisees did Jesus, or they may call you rigid or judgmental or out-dated or closed-minded. They may reject what you say altogether. They may try to bury it and hide it from the world and pretend that it does not exist, saying, “How can we know the mind of God?” But Jesus says, “Stay on the side of truth, because in the end truth with be revealed for what it is, reality will be uncovered. Those who speak up for me will be vindicated. Look forward to the day of “I told you so!” Don’t let fear silence you.
And then Jesus goes on to say, “Cheer up, all they can do is kill you.” That’s a real pick-me-up, isn’t it. But think about it. We all die. Better to die for something. As the missionary martyr Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” We all die. But only some of us will live forever. “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.” [v. 28]
If you keep silent, if you take the easy way out, choosing not to see or speak truth whether for the sake of human approval or for your own comfort, you could actually lose the divine seal of approval! And that, says Jesus, is far more to be feared than what people can do to you. The worst thing people can do to a Christian, worse than death, is to intimidate us out of standing up for Jesus. We should be afraid of being afraid, not of being disapproved of. We should wear disapproval like a medal of honor.
Another important reason not to be afraid is because God knows absolutely everything about what you think and feel and do. Jesus says, “Even the hairs of your head are all numbered.” [v. 30] God knows more about you than you do. Do you know how many hairs you have? Well, okay, maybe a few of you count them carefully every morning to make sure you haven’t lost any more. But the point here is that if you suffer from speaking the truth it is not because God is looking the other way. God never looks the other way, even if you are hiding your head in the sand.
And that’s not all. God isn’t just up there watching, saying "tsk tsk, how sad," when his servants are mistreated. Not only can God see everything, he runs everything. Nothing will happen to you that will interfere with the work he has assigned to you. “You are of more value than many sparrows,” Jesus points out, and furthermore, “not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s will.” [v. 31, 29] As a young missionary named Henry Martyn once said, “If [God] has work for me to do, I cannot die.”
God doesn’t promise that no sparrows will fall. On the contrary. But he does say that if you fall he’ll know where to find you. And we all know what lengths the shepherd will go to in order to retrieve his lost ones.
The freedom from fear that God promises to those who speak up for Jesus does come at a cost. It comes at the cost of really wanting to know the mind of God. Fear of people keeps us imprisoned; fear of God sets us free. Freedom from fear comes from knowing the truth, the truth about God, and the truth about ourselves. As Jesus said, “the truth will make you free. [John 8:32]
But before you can stand up for truth, you have to know what it is. If you want God to look on you with approval, you need to be looking at God. Or at least, looking for God. As the writer to the Hebrews said, “Without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” [Heb 11:6] But that same writer points out that far too many of us are content with just dabbling in the shallows, or as he puts it, still on baby food. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is unskilled in the word of righteousness. [Heb 5:12-13]
In the same way, some of us are still playing peek-a-boo with God, with a quick glance and a nervous giggle, and then ducking back into the shadows. Isn’t it time to seek, rather than hide?
