Scriptural Murder in the Dark

Suggested Reading: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18

In my younger days, I enjoyed playing a group game called Murder in the Dark. You turned the lights off and hid while one person was designated the murderer. The murderer would have to find people alone and run his finger across their throats. Most often, you would use an entire building or, at least, a large portion of the building to play the game, so frequently, you would end up in rooms you had either never seen or seen only once or twice, alone, in the dark, unable to tell what was really around you. Feeling as much as you could, sometimes you came close to figuring out what was in the room. Quite often what you expected was completely different when the lights came on. But no matter how close your guess may have been, there was always something in the room that you missed or misinterpreted just by touch. It took removing the veil of darkness to see how things really were.

The Apostle Paul described trying to understand Scripture in much the same way. In 2 Corinthians 3:14-15, he wrote, For to this day, at the reading of the old covenant, the same veil remains; it is not lifted, because it is set aside only in Christ. Even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts (HCSB). Paul knew this from experience. He had grown up being taught the scriptures. He had studied under Gamaliel, one of the most renowned teachers of the day. But until Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he misunderstood the Scriptures. Once he met Jesus,  Paul spent three days without being able to see in fasting and prayer, rethinking everything he thought he knew. At the end of those three days, he stood up and began using those same Scriptures he had known all of his life to preach the good news that Jesus was the Messiah who had come to save us from our sins. Despite all of his great study, encountering Jesus was necessary for Paul to understand the Scriptures accurately.

The Bible, while it can be studied from an academic perspective, can never be understood fully in that way. Trying to convince people about the Bible's worth or accuracy, trying to make people understand the Creation account or believe in the Virgin Birth, is a waste of time until you come to believe in Jesus. Until that point, they are effectively wandering around in the dark trying to make sense of the room without any light. They might study and examine intensely and even come close to understanding, much like Paul did. But even having a  great understanding of scripture doesn't save people. Believing in Jesus does.

As we share the Gospel, we should share scripture with them. After all, God promised that His word would never return void. But we should focus on sharing Jesus with them - what the Bible tells us Jesus did but also what Jesus has done in our own lives. We must focus on Jesus above all else. Paul, in his own words, told the Corinthians, "When I came to you, brothers, announcing the testimony of God to you, I did not come with brilliance of speech or wisdom. For I didn’t think it was a good idea to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, HCSB). Paul could have quoted scripture until he was blue in the face and probably could have recited the entire Torah, but he chose not to know anything except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

If we want people to believe the Scriptures, let's bring them to Jesus. He will remove the veil from their hearts so they can understand.

Getting Dismissed Like Drax the Destroyer

Suggested Reading: Luke 12:35-48

In the film Guardians of the Galaxy, Drax the Destroyer reached a turning point when he was beaten and dismissed by Ronan, the film's main villain. Up to that point, Drax's primary focus had been confronting and killing the villain who had murdered his family in cold blood. But in spite of the fact that Ronan was immensely more powerful than him and everyone of his associates wanted to stay as far away from Ronan as possible, Drax contacted Ronan with the hopes of drawing him out and confronting him. From Drax's point of view, Ronan may have been nearly invincible and certain doom to everyone else, but Drax thought he was the exception. Everyone else had to watch themselves and be careful. He would destroy Ronan all on his own. Only after Ronan easily defeated him and left without feeling the need to finish him off did Drax realize that the same cautions that applied to everyone else also applied to him.

In Luke 12, Jesus told a number of parables. Jesus used one of those parables to warn people to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man by comparing the event to a wedding and a home burglary, stressing the need to be alert and ready, watching for Him to come. Peter, apparently confused about Jesus' audience, asked, "Lord, are You telling this parable to us or to everyone?" (Luke 12:41, HCSB). Rather than answer him directly, Jesus tells another parable about the need to be alert and ready, watching for Him to come.

You see, Peter, being one of the twelve, had gotten it in his head that he would be by Jesus' side until Jesus ushered in the reign of Israel over the nations of the world. Somehow, Peter believed that he was special and didn't have to worry about the same things everybody else did. So when Jesus, who had been telling parables that had seemed geared to everyone across the board, shifted into the uncomfortable territory of teaching the need to remain alert for something he had assumed he wouldn't have to worry about, he needed clarification. Jesus' response robbed Peter of some of the certainty that he was alright and only other people needed to worry about being alert and ready.

Too often, we make the same mistake that Peter made, assuming that the messages and warnings of scripture (sometimes given through pastors, friends or family) are meant for other people and are not really for us. We can convince ourselves that we have everything together and God is really just speaking to that person over there. Like when the preacher brings a message on forgiveness and our first thought is, "I sure hope that bitter old man is listening to this," rather than thinking about the fact that we're still holding a grudge against someone. Or when we read an article on sexual purity and our minds immediately go to the pregnant girl at school rather than to images we've been viewing on our cell-phones in incognito tabs. Or when a call goes out for sacrificial giving and we never even consider giving more because we're already strapped for cash. In those moments, our voices echo with Peter's, "Lord, are You telling this parable to us or to everyone (else)?"

Let's not worry about who else needs to hear the message that we've been given. All we can worry about is the fact that we heard the message and our God is not a God of coincidences. We must take the message to heart ourselves. If we persist in believing ourselves immune from the same scriptural warnings as everyone else, we may end up defeated and dismissed just like Drax.

Berean Baptists and Open Mindedness

Suggested Reading: Acts 17:1-12

Growing up, one of the things my good Baptist mother drilled into my head was that I needed to be able to back up whatever I believed with scripture. She also taught me that I was to respect other people's beliefs if they could show me from scripture why they believed what they believed, even if it was different. It was one of the things I really loved about being Baptist. Then I went to a Baptist seminary and discovered that not all Baptists actually practice such open-mindedness. In fact many of the people I encountered were not open-minded at all. Oh, they were open in terms of the behaviors they accepted. But their definition of "open-minded" became very closed if your examination of the evidence led you to a different conclusion than theirs and you stood by your conclusion.

In Acts 17:11, we have a great definition of what it means to be open-minded. Luke records, "And the people of Berea were more open- minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth." (NLT). To Luke, the author of Acts, being open-minded meant that a person was willing to look at an idea and evaluate the support for that idea. Open-mindedness was not a blind acceptance of another person's opinion as valid, nor did making a firm statement of opinion negate one's open-mindedness.

Being open-minded does not mean that you have to check your own opinions at the door. Being open-minded means that you are willing to look at the evidence before you make your decision, not that you have to agree that everyone's interpretation of the evidence is valid. For example, agreeing that two plus two equals six because your friend thinks it does is not being open-minded; being willing to check his math is being open-minded. But checking his math and then adding, "but I guess you have your own valid system of addition," is just copping out.

Believe it or not, you are not closed-minded for having an opinion and believing it is right. And you are not closed-minded if you strongly disagree with someone who views the evidence differently than you do. You are closed-minded if you refuse to evaluate an opinion (yours or theirs) on the basis of the evidence. Be like the Bereans. Be willing to look at the evidence; don't just blindly accept what people say.