February 7th, 2008
Our Understanding
“With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.”
Mark 4:33
Last Thanksgiving we traveled with my mom, dad, Brian (my brother) and Jen (my sister-in-law) and their children out to Indiana to visit my mom’s family. Because it would probably be one of the last vacations for awhile with Brian and Jen, we took our time and stopped at some motels on the way there and back. Well, at the third hotel we were at, I noticed the differences in the names of the provided toiletries. For instance, one hotel’s shampoo was named “Sol Terre” and boldly pronounces on its label “awake Shampoo…Sunflower and Grapefruit Essences”. The soap at that motel was named “Sol Terre Calm Facial Soap..Sunflower and Grapefruit Essences” (Please explain to me how one can be calming while another awaking, and both point to their sunflower and grapefruit essence as their magic ingredient??) Another motel named their soap a “Gentle Essence Facial Bar.” The shampoo at that motel was “infused with aloe extracts + vitamin E.” Don’t those sound luxurious? I must admit, I took the labels because I laughed so hard at their attempt to give their products descriptive lavish names.
What’s in a name, anyway? For instance, what do you think of when we say the name Jesus Christ? Most of us understand that to be the historical figure who lived and died 2,000 years ago and who also is eternal as God. The past two weeks I have read more about who Jesus is than probably at any time in my life. I don’t mean his actions, I mean who he is. Did you know that there are different ways of describing him (please don’t get overwhelmed here, just skim over the words to get to the point!)? Homoousios is correct. Homoiousios is not. His Divine Nature and Human Nature are not mixed, they are unified. He is not created but begotten. I will humbly admit that I read one early church father’s writing and thought, “Wow, this is a great description of Jesus’s natures” and then read another and realized the first one was actually deemed a heresy! I won’t continue to bore you. My point is, I have been overwhelmed with all the nuances of meaning, the careful need to watch every single word used to describe Jesus, and many times I said to Tim, “I am just not smart enough to understand all these nuances and meanings.”
Today I read the verse above and, boy, did I feel relieved. Jesus spoke to those following him, “as much as they could understand.” He did not expect them to understand all the deepest meanings of who he was, what the Kingdom of God was…He taught them what they needed to know next. I write this not to let us all off of the hook from learning. But I realized that often you, like me, may feel that you don’t quite understand what the Bible is saying. Perhaps there’s a passage you don’t quite “get”. And honestly, I am finding the more I study the more I realize I don’t know! However, that’s ok. Because, if we could understand all about the God of the universe, then he’s a pretty lame God.
So, today, as you read the Bible and struggle with meanings, ask God to help you understand and learn exactly what he wants you to learn. Thankfully, he knows each of our lives and wants to teach us right where we are!