Word Fight
Monday, January 15th, 2007Traditionally, people shy away from arguing the definition of words. The dictionary serves as the ultimate authority, and the higher number/higher usage of your particular definition wins out in the end. This is all well and good except when it comes to normal day-to-day conversation and discussion. I think humans in general have a tendency to disagree on minute (as opposed to fundamental) differences in their ideas and arguments, but that’s not my point. The problem is a mistaken perceived agreement because of underlying differences in word usage.
Let me give an example from my world. Talks centering around God, for example, tend to suffer these particularities. I think it’s a safe assumption to say that everyone has a different conception of what/who God really is. Even from the exact same text or background, people lean toward disagreement more often than agreement. While Christians would like to say we all believe in the same god, if you emphasize love and I emphasize wrath, we come out with a completely different character. You could drop back and say “I believe in the god of the bible.”, but I would retreat to an argument about exactly how you interpret that, or which pieces you weight more than others. In the end, two people saying “I believe in god”, “I believe in god”, and “we agree” could be entirely mistaken. The first might believe in god, the symbol of the incomprehensible first-cause of the universe. The second might believe in a god who is very active and personal. That’s not to say at all that there can’t be overlap. But if you say “I know Michael”, I say “I know Michael” and your Michael plays only baseball and loves to build with lego, and mine enjoys soccer and can’t stand to be alone, a third party wouldn’t be foolish to wonder whether or not we were talking about the same person.
The word Jesus is a culturally, religiously, historically, emotionally, spiritually, politically, and every-other-word-under-the-sun loaded word. It really is. Jesus means so many different things to so many different people. And just like there is always an argument over what represents “true religion” or “true morality”, there are debates over who was “the real Jesus” (and plenty of songs too). While normally such debates just strike me as a little presumptuous, I’m a little surprised that they are not taking place much more frequently than I see them now. For one because the character of Jesus is important to you if some huge fraction of the world is correct, and secondly, even if you agree with that huge proportion you may still not “know him.”
Let me explain. I think I’m stealing some ideas about to come from Donald Miller, but even if you’re not a pot-smoking hippie with a soul patch, you might still want to listen. I’m going to cherry pick verses and tell you what to think (just because I’m forward with it doesn’t mean that’s any different than what you encounter in a normal week of “biblical interpretation”, and I’m not trying to be cynical).
John 8:13
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?” “You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
Ok, so apparently those who know Jesus also know God the father. If Jesus and the bible are credible anyways, and we’ll assume they are for this exercise. The key then, to knowing God is knowing Christ. This has been preached for ages by many different people, my favorite being Bonhoeffer. Moving along…
John 10:14-15
“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. “
So Jesus’ sheep, his followers, are those that know him. Not only this, but he lays down his life for his sheep. According to doctrines of substitutionary atonement, and the various popular methods of interpreting the word “gospel”, it’s very necessary that Christ die for your sins, seeing as how it’s otherwise impossible to atone for them yourself (Romans tends to hammer home this idea). So those who know Jesus are saved. Cool.
We see the opposite with another verse:
Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
This is a fun one. Jesus has a bunch of people who have done miracles in his name approach him in what appears to be some sort of afterlife and they are shot down because he “never knew you.” The ancient confession of faith “Lord, Lord” was not enough. Faith to drive out demons and perform miracles…doesn’t look good enough (I know you want to argue with me there). What’s wrong with them? “I never knew you.” Now we have trouble. Knowing Jesus appears to be a bigger deal now. I’m willing to bet popular logic lends to suggest that dying only to hear “Away from me, you evildoer!” is not such a great thing. But wait, the old testament! Setting the stage for salvation. What does God himself say about knowing Him? I think it will surprise you:
Jeremiah 22:16
He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.
Defending the cause of the poor and needy. What? This one through me loopy, especially given its context. I’d love to hear arguments against a lot of things, but it seems pretty clear here at least what this verse says, and no argument of the “overall theme of the bible” is going to easily overshadow this one.
James, one of my favorites (and very close to the top of the list in my “Pastor of Excommunication’s list of books to throw out”) tends to agree with the old testament verse here:
James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
The endless journey to “know God” has never been an easy one. For me, it’s fraught with confusion and despair, but also sprinkled with moments of joy and pure bliss. I don’t like pat answers to complex questions, and the bible tends to agree. If you want a simple answer, you’re going to have to spend a lot of time fighting and jumping over verses that don’t want to agree. In contrast to the idea that these contradictions negate the possibility of divine authorship, I think they reek God simply because I don’t find Him very easy to understand. The contradictions explain God in a way that really is not an explanation. Just like Augustine feels that it’s better for a man to endlessly wonder than to cease to find God by supposing him discoverable. A lot of people disagree with me on that one, and I’m ok with that.
But to easily tie this back to the original topic, our connotations and differences in perception of words and their meanings can have far-reaching consequences. I just wish people were more open to talking about what they really mean when they say things that are apparently very important to them. What is faith?