DON'T LET YOUR MIND GET IN THE WAY
“I believe that God created me and all that exists, and that he gave me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my mind and all my abilities.” That is the opening sentence to the explanation of the first article of the Apostles’ Creed. We believe from the pages of Scripture that God has given us every kind of gift, including our minds that have the ability to reason and to logically deduce. And what a wonderful blessing that is! We are able to make sense of numbers and figures based on the rules of math; we are able to come to correct conclusions by taking into consideration the appropriate facts; we are able to comprehend some of the complexities of human language such as figures of speech, sarcasm, and irony; we are able to create; we are able to imagine; we are able to remember. And all of these abilities are rooted in the mind. The mind is one of the most intricate blessings that the Lord has given us. It cannot be duplicated. In fact, doctors and scientists and sociologists are still trying to figure out how it works. The mind is an incredible gift from God. Just don’t let it get in the way.
Don’t let your mind get in the way of the clear words of Scripture. The proper functioning of your mind is essential when it comes to living this life. Because there are many things in Scripture that your mind tells you, “It cannot be!” There are many things in Scripture that your mind would disagree with. Yes, your mind is needed to read the words of the Bible. It is needed to see the connection between two different passages in two different books. It is needed to take these truths of God’s Word and apply them to your own life. But your mind can also get in the way. The Holy Spirit understands this tension between our minds and our faith, and so he wrote these words through the pen of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians: “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.’ Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.”
Even during Paul’s day the minds of people were getting in the way of the clear message of the cross. It didn’t make sense to them. It didn’t logically follow their normal way of thinking. It didn’t correspond with what they knew from their past experiences to be true. Both Jews and Gentiles struggled with this dilemma and for two separate reasons. For the Jews Christ and his cross was a stumbling block. For the Gentiles it was just plain foolishness.
One afternoon Jesus was preaching to the people and healing the sick like he normally did, and some of the Jews there began to wonder, "Where did this man get these things? What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And Scripture says that “they took offense at him” (Mark 6:3). The Jews had watched Jesus grow up - they even knew his family, but the Messiah was supposed to come miraculously to his people from God himself! So Jesus couldn’t be The One, could he? The Jews were expecting a glorious king, but this Jesus looked to be just a normal man. The Jews had hopes of a grand restoration of the nation of Israel, but this guy from Nazareth seemed to avoid the fame and the popularity that would be offered to a national leader. It didn’t make any sense to them. Jesus wasn’t the kind of Savior they had been looking for. And their minds got in the way of their faith. Christ and his cross was a stumbling block to them.
But the Gentiles were no better off. Christ and his cross wasn’t really a stumbling block for them, it was just a ridiculous concept. That’s why Pilate’s soldiers threw a purple robe on Jesus’ back, placed a staff in his hand, set a crown of thorns on his head, and then made fun of him to his face on the morning of his death. They thought that the idea of Jesus being the King of the Jews was a little bit stupid - especially since the Jews themselves hated him! And that’s why years later when Paul was confessing his faith in Jesus while standing on trial in front of a man named Festus, this Roman governor said to him, “You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane" (Acts 26:24). This Gentile just couldn’t comprehend how a well-learned man like Paul could be so brainwashed into thinking that the story of Christ and the cross was actually true! How could a half-way intelligent human being in his right mind believe such a thing? And things haven’t changed.
People are still hung up on the details of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. It seems so impossible! And it would be for a mere human being. It seems like just another tall tale conjured up by somebody’s active imagination! And we can kind of see where they people who say that are coming from. But of course it isn’t impossible; it actually happened. And it isn’t a tall tale, it is 100% true. Christ as true God did come to this earth as a true man. He did die. He did rise. He did ascend. We are forgiven. And we accept this as an accurate historical record not because our minds have gathered up all the facts, weighed the evidence on both sides, and have decided that it’s true, but because God has worked faith in our hearts through these very words to convince us that it can’t be false. By faith we know that Christ and his cross have won our salvation. By faith we know that every word in Scripture is true - despite what our minds may tell us.
It’s not an easy thing to ignore what your mind whispers in your ear, is it? Your mind says a lot of things that challenge the Word of God. Your mind may suggest that maybe God didn’t create the world in just six regular days. Could it be that the word “day” here means thousands of years? After all, look at all of the physical evidence that scientists have uncovered! Isn’t it possible that God created the world over a longer period of time? It makes more sense that way; it matches up with scientific theory that way… But Scripture contradicts what our minds want to conclude. God did make the world in six regular days. God did create everything out of nothing in less than a week. The words of God in Genesis chapter one are not complicated; they just don’t sit right with the way our minds normally function.
Your mind may wonder about the Lord’s Supper: “Jesus was sitting right in front of his disciples when he gave them the bread and wine and told them that it was his body and blood. How can that be? He hadn’t yet shed his blood on the cross and he hadn’t yet forgiven their sins by dying in their place. So maybe the bread and wine are just symbolic of what Jesus was going to do for them. It’s against all logic to think that Christ’s real body and blood were present with those earthly elements then just as it’s illogical to think that they are still present with the bread and wine every time we take the Lord’s Supper today… But Scripture once again contradicts what our minds want to conclude. The bread of the Lord’s Supper is also Christ’s body and the wine of the Lord’s Supper is also Christ’s blood. This food coupled with God’s promise actually does give us the forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ words here are absolutely clear; they just don’t logically make sense to our rational minds.
Your mind might even question the results of Christ and his cross at times. And you start to worry that maybe you won’t end up in heaven after all. What if the cross didn’t work? What if this whole Christianity thing is all wrong? What if heaven doesn’t even exist? How can you really know? Whom can you ask that’s been there? What if there’s nothing after death? You’ve seen pets die and you’ve witnessed the dead bodies of people you’ve known, and your experience tells you that dead things are dead - there’s nothing more and that’s that… But Scripture clearly contradicts what your mind wants to conclude. The cross did work. There is a heaven. And you and all believers in Jesus will go there to meet up with the ones that have gone before you. The results that Christ and his cross have accomplished for us are repeated throughout the pages of Scripture. There is no doubt about the eternal life that Christ has won. It’s just that those words don’t seem to match up with what our minds have experienced.
And so don’t let your mind get in the way. Don’t place your intelligence over God’s clear words in the Bible. You aren’t smart enough to figure out the ways of God anyway! You aren’t clever enough to comprehend his plans or creative enough to keep up with his will. I know that I’m not. I’ve tried! And after years of trying I’ve finally come to terms with my Christian ignorance. I’ve finally accepted the fact that God is smarter than I am and sometimes I’m just not going to be able to understand what he does. Because who says that God has to do everything according to our way of thinking in the first place? Who says that he is obligated to dumb things down enough so that our simple minds can take it all in? The Lord doesn’t ask us to logically explain everything in Scripture; he just wants us to believe it.
And that’s a comforting thought, isn’t it? The Lord doesn’t ask us to logically explain everything in Scripture; he just wants us to believe it. If we were required to explain every detail and prove every fact and mentally grasp every concept of Scripture, we would be lost. Our minds wouldn’t be able to keep up. We would remain continually confused and constantly frustrated. Everyone would be. Because when it comes to the truths of the Bible, “Where is the wise man?” Paul says. “Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.” Christ and his cross is not a matter of the mind; it’s a matter of the heart - and the faith that God has placed in our hearts to believe it. Don’t let your mind get in the way of that. Set aside your reasoning and your intelligence and your logic and your schooling and just take God at his Word. He knows what he’s talking about. Even if you don’t.
Amen.
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” - Romans 15:13
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