The Mystery Is Jesus

Do you know a believer who scans the headlines not to pray, but to connect dots? You know the type, or perhaps you have been the type. We confidently explain exactly what stage of the apocalypse we are in or which geopolitical crisis serves as the next domino in God’s plan. It feels good to hold the "key" to current events, but we must admit this is often just modern Gnosticism. We treat the Bible like a crystal ball and the news like a code to be cracked, ignoring the ancient boundary that the secret things belong to the Lord as we exhaust ourselves trying to peek behind the curtain of God's administration.

This is not spiritual depth; it is spiritual distraction that mistakes information for transformation. The Apostle Paul destroys this appetite for secret knowledge in Colossians by telling us that we do not need to look for secrets in the shadows because the mystery of God has already been unveiled. The mystery is not a timeline, a date on a calendar, or a political theory, but a Person. Christ is the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If we are hunting for wisdom outside of the character and person of Jesus, we are digging in empty wells because God did not hide His treasures in the shifting sands of geopolitics, but in His Son. The secret is not what is happening next in the capitals of the world, but Who holds the world together.

So, if we want to be sophisticated and show off our knowledge of the deep things of God, then let us stop analyzing the darkness of the world and start manifesting the light of Christ. The true test of our spiritual maturity is not how well we can map out the End Times, but how well we can love our difficult neighbor in the present time. The mystery we are invited to explore is the unknowable, boundless dimensions of Christ's love, and our task is to practice that love visibly and sacrificially. While speculation breeds anxiety and political obsession divides us, love casts out fear and binds us together. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If we want to be experts, let us be experts in mercy. If we want to capture a secret, let it be the daily, grueling, marvelous discovery of how to love others as Christ has loved us. Let us put down the decoder ring and pick up our cross, for the world does not need another prediction; it needs to see Jesus.