 | Cheryl Lynn Questions Miracles/Faith
Current mood:  contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy Cheryl Lynn blogged, and I am responding here:
Consider the following similar verses, and ask yourself where in scripture someone is brought to faith or made to believe through witnessing some extraordinary supernatural event.
Mat 11:21 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Compare:
Luk 10:13 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
What these verses are saying is that there was something Jesus COULD have done to bring certain people in certain towns to repentance, but, for whatever reason, Jesus chose NOT to do it. Jesus wants each person to do their own thing. Sure, Jesus could have shown up at Zaccheus' house, in a whirlwind, zapping lightening bolts. But what happens? Zaccheus, encumbered by the crowds, climbs a tree to get a better view of Jesus. Jesus looks up and sees Zaccheus, and is impressed by such enthusiasm and ingenuity.
If you climb up that proverbial tree, then, surely, metaphorically, you shall have Jesus at your dinner table, and Buddha, and Krishna, or whatever it is that you envision God or Holiness to be.
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Now, when Jesus tells Nathaniel that "I saw you under the fig tree..", i.e. knowing something that Nathaniel felt no one else could possibly know, then Nathaniel exclaimed something about Jesus being the promised one.
The same with the Samaritan woman at the well. When Jesus revealed his knowledge that she had had a number of men, and the man she was with was not her husband, she too seemed brought to intense belief.
But, consider the Pharoah and his magicians in Egypt, during the 10 plagues. After the fourth plague, when the magicians could no longer reproduce the illusion, the magicians exclaimed to Pharoah "surely this is the finger of God." But, Pharoah was hard of heart and never believed.
We know that the apostles, and presumeably Judas Iscariot, had some power to drive out demons, for they ask Christ why they had failed to drive out a certain demon, whereupon Christ explains that some demons are driven out only by much fasting and prayer. Yet, whatever wondrous things Judas may have experienced, Judas does not seem to have faith.
Also Luke Ch. 10:
Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you; heal the sick in it and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'
We hear Jesus tell an apostle, "leave the dead to bury the dead." One can only assume that Jesus means the "spiritually dead."
Even the powerful of the synagogue and government, ask to see some miracle. But, their requests are motivated by a lurid curiousity to see something unusual. Such people would not have been spiritually transformed by seeing a miracle. In fact, stop and think about the first miricle of transforming water to wine at the marriage in Cana. Only the servants realized what had happend. The people who drank the wine had no idea.
Consider the parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The rich man asks Abraham to send someone back from the dead, to warn his family who is still living. Abraham answers something to the effect that "you have Moses and the Prophets, so if you pay no attention to them, then you would not take heed even if someone were to return from the dead."
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What I am trying to get at, in this blog, is the notion that those who are spiritually dead cannot be raised and given faith.
What do we read? "IF you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed.... " This implies that you have a teeny bit of faith to start with. Jesus does not go around zapping people with lightening bolts of faith. In fact, when Jesus first approaches John the Baptist, in the crowd, John the Baptist says, "There is in your midst one whom you know not." Jesus did not float ten feet in the air, and glow like a neon sign.
I think it is in Ch 9, verse 11 of the Bhagavad-Gita, where it says "the wicked do not recognize me when I take human form."
Jesus does not bash people over the head with words either.
He says, "search the scriptures, for therein will you find eternal life."
Jesus does not tell us which verses to read.
Jesus tells one man, "You are not far from the kingdom..." Jesus does not give him a Mapquest print-out of how to get to "the kingdom."
When one man asks Jesus, "Oh good master, what must I do to gain eternal life?" Look at how interesting the very first reply is: "Why do YOU call ME good, since there is none good save God?" Now, Jesus does not forbid the man and say "DO NOT call ME good, since only God is good!" No. Jesus asks the man a deep question, which flys right over his head. If we look at this first reply in a certain fashion, then it would seem that Jesus is dropping a hint that he IS God. Except Jesus never tells people things, but rather asks questions and invites. But let us see what Jesus says next: "Keep all of the commandments." Well, the man protests and says, "But, I have kept the commandments from my youth up! What more is lacking!" Now, look at how interesting the next verse is. It says, "Then, Jesus LOVED him, and said..... " Search the Bible sometime, and tell me how many places it mentions Jesus LOVING (not God, mind you, but Jesus). Now, here is an important thing. Jesus ALREADY KNEW that this man was a wealthy man, and would not be able to follow the next advice. "If you would be PERFECT, then sell all that you have, give it to the poor, take up your cross, and follow me." That man went away sore grieved. But, wait... since clearly Jesus already KNEW that the man was wealthy, and would walk away,... well, why does Jesus tell him such advice.
Now, by contrast, Moses was one scary dude. His staff became a snake. He turned water to blood. Transgressors, such as Miriam, were stricken with leprosy.
Moses works wonders, but they are destructive wonders. We see the Prophet Elias raise the widows dead son. We see the disciple of Elias, Eliseus, feed a multitude (2Kings 4) by a miracle of multiplication of loaves of bread. And we see Eliseus cure the leprosy of Naaman. It is only gradually in the Old Testament that miracles become healing and nourishing, rather then destructive.
We can find a key to understand something of these mysteries if we look at two parables: the parable of the talents, and the parable of the workers in the vineyard.
One man receives 5 talents. A second man receives 2 talents. A third man receives only one talent. Substitute for faith for talent, the "gift of faith".
Now, each man has free will choice regarding what he will or will not do with the talents, during his term of stewardship. In our parable, the man with one talent chooses only to bury it. When the master returns, the man said, "There, you have what is yours." Perhaps this is that person who is given a human birth, life, health, in a free society, in an historical period of peace and prosperity, but, does nothing with that life and opportunity. In the German foreign film, Zentropa, an idealist young German American, goes to Germany right after WWII to help with the reconstruction. He sees an old catholic priest and asks "Father, since both sides prayed to God, and both sides cannot be right, how does God decide." The old priest says, "God looks at the warmth (zeal) of each heart." "If you are neither hot nor cold, then I spew you out of my mouth."
Ok, so the guy with the one talent screwed up. The people with the 5 and 2 talents pleased the master, by doing something with their talents, to make INCREASE (which, by the way, my dear friends, is WORKS).
But, tell me. Why does one man receive FIVE talents, and the other only TWO talents? They are both good people. They both do the right thing. AND, we are told nothing about those who received NO talents.
Now, regarding the parable of the laborers, some were hired at early morning. Others were hired at later times in the afternoon. Some were only called in the last hour. All received only the penny wage, and a few complained. But what of those who were NEVER hired, never called, never given even one talent?
Think about it!
What can we deduce from all of this?
One thing, perhaps, is that it does no good to whine and nag God, to "fix everything" and make things better.
What good does it do those workers in the vineyard, who nag and whine that they receive the same wage as those who only worked the last hour of the day? I mean that was YOUR deal with your employer. YOU agreed to work from morning until night for a penny. So, what businessess is it of yours if the master chooses to give the same wage to those who only came around in the final hour. We nurse resentment out of our false sense of entitlement.
The guy who got only one talent can't whine and nag that he did not get ten talents. The master is GONE, out of town, NOT AVAILABLE, do not disturb. Besides, if he DID get ten talents instead of one, then, he would have buried TEN talents, and pissed off the master even MORE.
Ok, but, if the master, who gives the talents and dissappears, is really the all knowing God, who ALREADY knows what each person will do with what they are given, then, why does the master even bother to give that one fellow the one talent in the first place?
This discussion naturally leads to another discussions, which I have posted some while back, entitled The River Of Fire and The Gift Of Faith.
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Perhaps each of us has not received in equal measure. The why of this inequality is an eternal mystery. But then, the "Our Father" prayer does say "they KINGDOM come" and not "thy democracy" or "thy socialist state". But the fact remains that each of us has received much. We have been given a court, a net, rackets, plenty of tennis balls, and a nice polo shirt and shorts. The ball is now in OUR court.
The ball is in YOUR court.
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