Immeasurable Mystery
There are things that often appear hidden to the world and to us. They are difficult to perceive, hard to appreciate and live. In 2 Corinthians 5:6-10,14-17, Paul says that we live “by faith, not by sight.” Because of Christ’s resurrection, the world is a different place. In fact, everything has changed.
Paul’s perspective has changed as part of this new world. When he looks at other people, other Christians, himself, anyone, he sees them in a fresh new way. When he looks at the Messiah, he sees Him in a new way from how he did before.
Verse 17 summarizes: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” The “new creation” refers to the person, but also the world they enter. All of this seems contrary to the type of faith that we have crafted in our culture — or at least the faith that has been passed down to many of us which values the strong, not the weak. The hidden is not valued because we want to “see” results, we want to be recognized for our accomplishments.
The desire for results put us in danger of having a faith that is shaped like a business model, instead of a mystery. It can be somewhat frightening to realize that our result-oriented faith is not really faith. We feel lost and out of sorts because we do not know what to do with the mystery.
Mystery is immeasurable, full of words like love, peace, hope, forgiveness, and grace. With no way to measure the difference we are making in the world — the effectiveness of our love, faith, service and prayer — we conclude that God is absent or does not exist. If you cannot measure it then it has little or no value. If something does not have a measurable outcome, then you are wasting your resources.
If we are going to scatter seed like the farmer in the parable (Matthew 13), we want to know that we will get the results that we want. Yet Jesus tells us that we have no control over the results - that the kingdom of God, which is hidden in the seed, grows independent of human effort. If we can hold onto that mustard seed of faith that we have, we can hope, trust, and take courage that in the mystery of the hidden, the one who loves us and the world is setting things right.
Much of our work is lowly and hidden, but that is the beauty of the kingdom. That is the miraculous in your life. Miracles do not produce faith, faithfulness produces miracles. Jesus, the one who speaks, is the one who was born a tiny mustard seed to a poor family in a peripheral province of a vast empire. He has nowhere to lay his head. And he is telling us that the mustard seed will grow to become a bush thousands of times larger than the seed itself, and that this bush will provide shelter for the birds.
And what is true of Jesus is also reflected in his disciples. Those who are listening to him are just tiny mustard seeds amidst the forest of society. Yet they too, in imitation of their master, will grow in unexpected ways. They will even provide shelter for birds, from whom seeds must usually hide. Our efforts may seem to be in vain, but in the end, we will marvel at the harvest. We will rejoice with those who we in some way were able to provide shelter, rest, and shade.
Stephen Hanscom
Stephen pastors Divine Life church with his wife Karen. He has a love hate relationship with running and obsesses over keeping his fescue yard alive during the Oklahoma summer.