Having the Right Credentials

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:8-18

Several years ago, I graduated with a Master of Divinity degree and am currently finishing a PhD. I have spent more than a decade in higher education classrooms and I know lots of people with multiple degrees. Some of my best friends hold a PhD.  So I have both a great appreciation for and a healthy skepticism of higher learning. I appreciate the education one can gain, especially in biblical studies, but I am also keenly aware, because of so much time spent with so many people who now have higher education degrees, that academic credentials don't change who you are. In fact, academic learning and credentials typically make you much more of the kind of person you already are. With education, people are simply better at justifying what they already believe and more practiced in defending it.

Recently, however, I was reading through Acts 4 and I was reminded of an entirely different and yet more pertinent kind of credential. Peter and John had been arrested due to the public upheaval they created by healing a lame man. They had been brought before the Sanhedrin and called to account for preaching in the name of Jesus. When Peter and John responded cleverly and with conviction, the Sanhedrin's reaction to them is recorded with these words:  "When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13 HCSB). Neither Peter nor John had any legitimate training or education in the eyes of the most educated Jews of the day yet they were able to make a solid case for preaching the gospel before the very people who were trying to intimidate them into stopping. The only explanation the Sanhedrin could come up with was that these men had been with Jesus.

In another example, but at the opposite extreme, we can see the Apostle Paul. Paul was a very highly educated man. He had studied under Gamaliel, a man whose counsel the Sanhedrin grudgingly yielded to just a few chapters later in Acts. Paul had all of the educational credentials that a Christian minister could hope for in the first century. Yet, at the beginning of each of his letters, when he lists his credentials for his readers, he never once mentions his education or training. Instead, he only ever mentions that he had been called by Jesus, that he was a slave of Jesus.  As far as Paul was concerned, the only legitimate credentials were those related directly to his relationship with Christ.

Now, don't get me wrong. I believe in being as educated as possible, especially for the ministry. I believe in having all of the tools available to help one rightly divide the Word of Truth. But the only credential that really matters is whether or not we have been with Jesus, whether or not we are following his call in our lives. What credentials do you tend to flash for people? Are you more impressed than you should be by other people's credentials? Or do you rely too heavily on the wrong credentials yourself? There's ultimately only one credential that matters.

Making an Android Jesus

Suggested reading: Mark 3:7-19

In the early seasons of Star Trek: the Next Generation, there is a controversy that surrounds Data, the Enterprise's Android officer. Is he a person or a tool? Is Data really alive our just a complex series of algorithms that make him look alive? The two different camps break down somewhat predictably. Those who have served with him, spent recreation time on the holodeck with him, played poker with him, and generally gotten to know him believe that Data is alive and deserves all the rights and protections of a living being. On the other hand, those who want to use Data, to turn him into an army of Android slaves, those who see Data through lenses of what he can do for them, see him as nothing but a machine, a complex tool to be used however they see fit.

Mark chapter three contains a passage that demonstrates that, when it came to Jesus, people tended to break him into those two categories as well. The first part of the passage describes how the crowds mobbed Jesus because they knew about his abilities to heal and cast out demons. These people were only concerned with what Jesus could do for them, to the point that Jesus instructed his disciples to have a small boat ready for Him, so the crowd would not crush Him (Mark 3:9, HCSB). Notice, this was not a boat for him to teach from because people were coming to him in order to be healed. This was a getaway boat just in case the people started to crush him!

Contrast that scene with the one a few verses later where Jesus called some of his followers, the ones he wanted, and "named them apostles — to be with him" (Mark 3:13-14, HCSB). He also called them to teach and cast out demons, but the first reason given is just so they can be with him. What a contrast from the scene just a few verses before where Jesus instructs his followers to have a getaway boat ready in case the crowd starts to crush him!

But what about us? Are we more interested in Jesus as a person or as a machine? Are we only interested in what Jesus can do for us? Or do we want to be with him? When Jesus set the disciples apart, one of the primary reasons Jesus gave was for them to be with him. Yes, they were going to preach and do miracles and turn the world upside down, but to do that they had to know him first. They had to be willing to spend time with him on his terms and not just hang around to see what they could get out of it. Are we willing to just be with Jesus? Or can we only see Jesus through the lens of what Jesus can do for us? Are we willing to get to know him or is Jesus just a tool to us?

How will we choose to treat Jesus? Is he a Person whom we get to be with and know or is he a tool we use to get what we want?