Pride and the Supple Heart
From John 10 – 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?”
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
Pride, GK Chesterton said aptly in Heretics, dries up wonder. In an interesting pairing of personalities, Bob Dylan sings similarly in "Visions of Joanna," "Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial."
Of course, the same bitter reaction predates them both and is distilled in God's Word. As recently as yesterday, I thought John 10:31 to be assertive, sanctified sarcasm. If so, praise be to Christ its Author for His assurance of Who He is under withering assault. Now, I think we might have missed the literal, which is more impactful, and in keeping with what Chesterton and Dylan together realize.
The flesh wants to measure and grade instead of wonder and bow before. Wonder is for children, it carps and withers. That which we once wondered at is to be looked back upon, studied with detachment, and reevaluated with supposed maturity. Wisdom and perspective, we tell ourselves, demand a more clinical approach. The goodness and glory of Christ, then, we can't get our arms and understanding around, becomes offensive.
Is our experience with Him relegated to a museum? Is our wonder a little, or a lot, less supple than it was yesterday? Or, by grace through faith, do we expect to be surprised and humbled before the day's events? The tests of our state of the heart may be more accessible than we first consider, as Chesterton says in the same snippet that pride's impact is to dry up laughter. When did we last laugh? How close is true mirth to our surface as a child of God?
Chesterton's trifecta also helps us to turn this from a useless inward musing. He completes his thought by telling us that pride dries up chivalry. Are we able to see the adventure in faith's today challenge to put the self second? If grappling with our flesh is enough to vex us, sometimes enough to depress us, ought not the inverse be true?
Should we not be able to see this chivalry in slight victories, in scratching the surface and finding the glory of God? That, Jesus says, is the true scandal, that we would experience communion with the Divine amidst Earth's daily stuff, and be open about it.
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
Pride, GK Chesterton said aptly in Heretics, dries up wonder. In an interesting pairing of personalities, Bob Dylan sings similarly in "Visions of Joanna," "Inside the museums, infinity goes up on trial."
Of course, the same bitter reaction predates them both and is distilled in God's Word. As recently as yesterday, I thought John 10:31 to be assertive, sanctified sarcasm. If so, praise be to Christ its Author for His assurance of Who He is under withering assault. Now, I think we might have missed the literal, which is more impactful, and in keeping with what Chesterton and Dylan together realize.
The flesh wants to measure and grade instead of wonder and bow before. Wonder is for children, it carps and withers. That which we once wondered at is to be looked back upon, studied with detachment, and reevaluated with supposed maturity. Wisdom and perspective, we tell ourselves, demand a more clinical approach. The goodness and glory of Christ, then, we can't get our arms and understanding around, becomes offensive.
Is our experience with Him relegated to a museum? Is our wonder a little, or a lot, less supple than it was yesterday? Or, by grace through faith, do we expect to be surprised and humbled before the day's events? The tests of our state of the heart may be more accessible than we first consider, as Chesterton says in the same snippet that pride's impact is to dry up laughter. When did we last laugh? How close is true mirth to our surface as a child of God?
Chesterton's trifecta also helps us to turn this from a useless inward musing. He completes his thought by telling us that pride dries up chivalry. Are we able to see the adventure in faith's today challenge to put the self second? If grappling with our flesh is enough to vex us, sometimes enough to depress us, ought not the inverse be true?
Should we not be able to see this chivalry in slight victories, in scratching the surface and finding the glory of God? That, Jesus says, is the true scandal, that we would experience communion with the Divine amidst Earth's daily stuff, and be open about it.
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