“UNBEARABLE TRUTHS”
Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 24, 2016
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”
John 16:12 (ESV)
Anyone who has ever been a parent can tell you that most (if not
all) children go through what is known as the “why?” stage of
intellectual growth and development. I’m referring to that period of
time when children want to know all the details about everything that
has anything to do with anything. No matter how many different times
you explain things to them or in how many different ways you explain
them, your comments will always be met with the child’s inevitable
follow-up question: “Why?” That can become very frustrating. What
makes it especially frustrating is the fact that you know in your
heart of hearts that the child will never fully understand what you’re
talking about, no matter how you might try to explain it. And so you
are doomed to continue hearing that monotonous and annoying question
over and over again: “Why?”
I sometimes get the feeling that, as the children of God in Jesus
Christ, we are in a permanent “why?” stage of spiritual growth and
development. Like little children, we always want to have the “why?”
of everything repeated to us again and again, whether we are capable
of understanding it or not. Perhaps this desire on our part to
understand everything shows itself most prominently when we
contemplate the great Mystery of our God Himself: that He has revealed
Himself to us in three distinct and self-existing Persons (Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit), and yet He is and always will be One God, not
three. That just doesn’t make any sense to our limited intellect.
But our curiosity over this and over all of the other unbearable
truths of God must be tempered with the realization that we are not
ready for everything that the Lord has to reveal to us and with the
confidence that He will reveal everything to us when we are ready, as
well as with the assurance that faith, given to us by the Holy Spirit,
can help us to accept those things that our understanding will never
be able to grasp in this life.
The truth of the matter is that we are no more ready to understand
the mysteries of God than small children are ready to understand the
countless things that they want to know about. And so we also go on
with our own endless “why?” questions: “Why does God allow so many
basically good people to suffer so much?” “If God wants all people to
be saved and if He alone has the power to convert them, why are there
still some people who are without saving faith?” “Why does God allow
something as terrible as child abuse to go on in our world?” “Why
does a perfectly just and all-powerful God allow injustice to continue
and even thrive in the world that He claims to love?” I have to admit
that I don’t know the answers to those questions. I don’t know the
answers because God has not yet chosen to reveal those things to me or
to anyone else. And the reason why God has not revealed those things
to us is because, to use Jesus’ words, we “cannot bear them now.”
There are actually two reasons why these things have not been
revealed to us--two realities that illustrate why they are more than
what we can now bear. First of all, there is nothing to be gained for
us to have these things revealed to us. We can’t comprehend them
anyway. For God to reveal such deep mysteries to us would be about as
fruitless as if we were to try to explain the operation of a nuclear
power plant to a one-year-old. As a matter of fact, it could be
argued that certain information can actually be counter-productive if
it is revealed to someone who is not capable of understanding it,
because all that it will do is cause that poor person to become
totally confused even about the things that he previously did
understand.
It is also helpful for us to bear in mind the other reason why these
things are not revealed to us now, and that is the fact that we will
fully understand all of the mysteries of God when we are made perfect
in God’s kingdom of glory. That will happen when Jesus returns to
take us home and to restore all things to the perfect condition in
which He created them. Sin has corrupted us and has thereby made us
unable to comprehend and appreciate the things of God. Once sin is
totally removed from us--when the process of sanctification is
completed in us (either at our death or at the coming of Christ in
judgment), then we will be able to bear these things that Jesus says
we cannot bear now. The apostle Paul comments on this in his first
letter to the Corinthians when he writes: “Now we see in a mirror
dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Our
lack of understanding in spiritual matters is not a permanent
condition. It is merely a part of the “imperfect” which, according to
Scripture, “pass[es] away” “when the perfect comes” (1 Corinthians
13:10).
Underlying all of this, of course, is the matter of trust. If we
truly trust someone, we will not be unsettled by the fact that we are
not able to totally and completely understand everything that that
person says and does. The ongoing trust relationship that we have
with that person is able to overcome all of those doubts and
misunderstandings that seem to trouble us so much at the moment. A
trusting child instinctively reaches for his parent’s hand and goes
with that parent even when he’s not sure where the parent is taking
him or why. We need to have that kind of childlike faith in our God.
Our heavenly Father has demonstrated both His almighty power and His
infinite love for us in the life and ministry of His Son Jesus Christ.
By becoming human in Christ and taking our place under His own Law and
judgment He has shown us that He cares about us and that He is able to
deliver us from the things that trouble us the most: sin and death.
Our knowledge of this, given to us by the Holy Spirit through the
Gospel of Christ, ought to be enough to make us trust Him even in the
things that are beyond our understanding.
No matter how intelligent and inquisitive and intellectual we are or
would like to think we are, we have to realize that there are some
things that we cannot fully know and understand. This is especially
true of the great mysteries of God--those unbearable truths to which
Jesus refers in today’s Gospel. This lack of understanding on our
part may be frustrating at times, but it doesn’t have to be. The key
to it all is faith--faith in the One who gave His all for us,
suffering and dying in our place to make atonement for our sin--faith
that is able to accept what our intellect cannot comprehend. The Good
News for us is that that faith is already ours, having been given to
us by the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, as it was
given to little Zoe this morning, and being nourished daily by the
means of grace through which He sanctifies and strengthens us as we
live with the frustrations of this life on our way to the glory that
Christ has gained for us by His redeeming love. With this assurance
He gives us the confidence to say with Ralph Waldo Emerson: “All I
have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.”
Amen.
May the God of peace, who brought again from the dead that great
Shepherd of the sheep, our Lord Jesus, by the blood of the everlasting
covenant equip you thoroughly for the doing of His will. May He work
in you everything which is pleasing to Him, through Jesus Christ, our
Lord, to whom be honor and glory forever and ever. He who calls you
is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.