Competing Definitions

Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." So they said to Him, "What then do You do for a sign, so that we may see, and believe You? What work do You perform? (John 6:29-30)

Some time ago I was having a discussion with a man in our church who is unhappy with what I do there. He is rather uncomfortable whenever I am allowed to lead out in Bible discussions and during our conversation remarked that he felt it was totally unnecessary for me to bring up the issue of definitions. He commented that we should just accept the words in the Bible at face value and not ever question our commonly accepted assumptions of the meanings.

His comment rather surprised me at first, but then as I thought about it later I realized that it reveals rather well why he has such agitation about my style of facilitating. He seems to prefer compelling people to believe in a very narrow and rigid line of thinking without allowance for any serious questioning. I suspect that he views questions as something of a form of rebellion and seems to feel that it is his duty to intimidate all such questioning into silent submission. Thus he tends to view me as a serious threat to the unity of the local church and has repeatedly sought to maneuver votes and opinions in the church to sideline any ministry that I might be involved in.

This issue of whether definitions are important or not seems to me to be at the crux of the difference between legalistic, control and fear-based religion and a true spiritual relationship with God. I have observed that the very methods used for how most evangelism and teaching is carried out in churches, if objectively observed reveals that we have very little use for teaching people to exercise their own minds and learn how to think through things clearly for themselves. Instead, we usually line up a list of questions ahead of a study or sermon, line up a list of texts that supposedly answers those prepackaged questions and then fire away with very little feedback of any significance.

To me that seems to be a great insult to a thinking person, which is maybe why it is so difficult to attract thinking people into an intelligent conversation about God much of the time. We seem to feel afraid to open up a discussion to allow honest questioning and examination. We feel that if we don't have superior ability to immediately have an airtight answer for any and every question that may arise that somehow we are a loser, a failure, that we have shamed the reputation of God. Therefore, to avoid any such embarrassment we simply keep a tight control on every planned period of 'Bible study' and make sure that nothing comes in that might threaten our complete control of what is said or taught.

But when we are afraid to challenge our own assumptions, afraid to go back and examine the words and their meanings in the original languages, like this man told me we shouldn't bother doing, then it is a sure sign that we are living primarily in fear and even bigotry to some extent. People who are intimidated by the idea of open discussion and are afraid to challenge their own beliefs are not founded on a sure foundation of truth at all but on prejudices and opinions and usually on someone else's teachings they have adopted rather than on a personal acquaintance with the Word.

In this passage I am seeing a classic case of the problems that arise when people are unwilling to face their own faulty thinking or their inability to grasp the true meanings of words and phrases. And the reason these people were unable to pick up on what Jesus was really trying to convey to them was not because they had inferior brains but because they had handicapped themselves severely by refusing to let go of their preconceived ideas and prejudices. Willing ignorance is one of the greatest curses of this world, both inside and outside of religion. Many bright minds who subscribe to the theory of evolution have to work very hard to maintain mental gymnastics to avoid clear evidence that contradicts their bizarre beliefs. But likewise, many in religion equally maintain convoluted mental games to avoid the penetrating convictions that would be sure to come if they were to allow the deeper meanings of the teachings of Jesus to do the work they were intended to do.

Like us, these people were so intent on maintaining their views of reality and God as defined by their traditional religious beliefs that the words of Jesus had to be constantly skewed and twisted to fit into their very narrow rut of thinking. But as Jesus made His teaching more and more incompatible with their narrow view of religion they became offended at the seeming illogic of His language. Part of the problem of their misunderstanding was that they were unwilling to allow Jesus to define the words and terms that He was using. Instead, they insisted that only their ideas about these words should be allowed and thus many things that He said simply continued to make no sense to their minds.

These people had just asked Jesus what they might do to work the works of God. Jesus responded by explicitly defining exactly what He meant by His use of the word 'works' – He gave them a flat out definition of the term. But they could not reconcile His definition with their entrenched ideas and opinions about what God wanted and so they continued to use their own definition of the word instead of allowing God to define His terms. In doing so they created more confusion and failed to grasp vital truths that would have helped them understand even more things that Jesus was trying to explain.

Jesus says here that the work that God wants in our lives is for us to believe the representative that He sent to this earth to reveal the real truth about Him. I have come to an intensive study of this book to unpack as much as I can exactly what that kind of belief involves and what it looks like and feels like. I am doing this because I don't want to miss out experiencing it for myself, I don't want to remain in unbelief like so many of these Jews did in these stories. I want to learn from their mistakes and avoid making the same mistakes as they did and as so many around me continue to do.

In the very next verse it becomes clear how they were unwilling to allow Jesus the freedom to define His own terms. They took His definition and by the end of their response to Him twisted it back around to fit their own preconceived context. Instead of being willing to ask for clarification or being willing to admit that maybe they didn't understand correctly, they asked for yet another sign as a precondition for belief. They then connected the concept of miracles and signs as being the essence of what 'work' means instead of being something different. Thus they insisted on only applying their own definitions instead of allowing Jesus' clear statements to open their minds and help them see things differently.

Over the past few years I have learned many new things after I learned to challenge my assumptions about definitions. Some of those things have been thrilling and exciting and others have been very disturbing and uncomfortable. But I have found that as long as I am willing to allow the Bible and the Spirit of God to be the authority for defining words and terms instead of forcing my own preconceived ideas onto the text, that these passages continue to grow and amplify and exude more and more life for me. As I apply the new insights of what God is really like that I learn from the life of Jesus back onto passages from other areas of the Bible, I find that the revelation of God through Jesus is the most powerful tool for unraveling many very difficult questions and cuts through much of the confusion that surrounds a lot of what we read in the Bible.

These people also demonstrated yet another potentially fatal assumption about belief. They felt that belief had to be supported or even initiated by supernatural events in order to be valid. Many today are led down that same path of believing that if someone can wow them with supernatural exhibitions then whatever they teach must be the truth. This opens up the door for many deceiving spirits in the world to lead us away from God which is clearly spelled out in the book of Revelation.

God actually is rather reluctant to perform miracles many times just because of this very problem. As humans we have a strong addiction to the presence of miracles in our lives. The entertainment value of miracles is also very compelling. It doesn't take long to see this penchant in us if one only looks at the nature of most of the movies people enjoy watching. They are full of people or creatures that exercise supernatural abilities in some way, and the ways in which they use them in the plot lines says a lot about what we would like to see God do in our own lives if we could just get Him to cooperate.

These people in Jesus' day were no different. Their imaginations were just as active as our movie producers and they were hoping for a real superhero to appear and lead them out of subjugation to Roman oppression to be the superpower rulers of the whole world. They dreamed this, they taught this, they interpreted the Scriptures to back this up and anything that detracted from this nationally cherished dream was carefully suppressed or discounted. They too had media manipulation.

When the Jews saw miracle after miracle from the hands of Jesus their excitement began to mount. Maybe this really was the Messiah they had been waiting for and maybe God really was about to fulfill their widely held aspirations for greatness. They begin to imagine how His miraculous abilities might be put to use to facilitate their beliefs about what the Messiah was supposed to do, and so their excitement grew quickly.

Yet there were many disturbing and disruptive things about Jesus and His ways and teachings that seemed to seriously interfere with the accomplishment of their dreams. They felt uncomfortable with some of His ideas about living in humility and loving your enemies. This did not fit at all with their plans to conquer their enemies and rule the world through the domination of force. Many of Jesus' ideas directly undermined their traditional teachings and thus they found themselves arguing repeatedly with Jesus trying to get Him to align with their plans instead of allowing Him to reveal to them His plans and the ways of heaven.

What they thought they needed was more miracles. But Jesus was actually reluctant to perform miracles sometimes and He never did so for His own benefit. In fact, the Bible says He could hardly perform any miracles in His hometown because of their unbelief.

What was it that they didn't believe? Was it that they didn't believe He had the power to work miracles or was it that they refused to believe that His true identity was different than what they insisted they knew about Him and His family? They were not just resisting the idea that Jesus was much different than those He had grown up around, but they resented the fact that Jesus claimed that God was very different than what they always believed Him to be like. Jesus was challenging the pictures of God that everyone had and was offering such a radically different concept of a loving, compassionate Father that people felt threatened and offended by many of His actions and teachings.

Too often I struggle with the same problem. But I want to be open to having my heart changed from the inside by fresh revelations of the Father from the stories of Jesus. I want to be willing to have my own preconceptions transformed, my assumptions challenged, my prejudices exposed and replaced with real truth. I want Jesus to reveal the real truth about God to my heart and cause me to reflect that to others.