Once more, let’s travel just a little further down this staircase of mystical truth. I say “once more” because we will keep in Trinitarian Spirit and close this meditation out with three parts. (Otherwise this will turn into one of those 17 month sermon series on Lamentations like I sat through growing up :D)

In continuing to reflect upon what we talked about last time, with regard to that aspect of suffering which results from the learning of new ideas that necessarily causes the death of old ones, my thoughts were drawn to Jesus’s famous “Sermon on the Mount”. Specifically, I pondered Jesus’s refrain, “You have heard that it was said…But I say to you…” How long did it take Jesus to develop these thoughts? To formulate these ideas and make them presentable in this memorable manner? How much searching and pondering he must have done!

In his incomprehensibly loving incarnation, Jesus went through the process of internalizing the Scriptures, and also spent time observing how they were playing out externally in real life. It’s interesting to note that his public ministry did not begin when he was 10, or even 20. Why is this interesting? Well, if he had held on to his omniscience as a human on earth, he very well could have begun his brilliant teachings when he was, say, 5 years old. Heck, he could have started as soon as he was able to talk I guess, at 2-ish, right?

But he had to learn. He had to learn because he really took on human form and mind and heart and limitations, identifying with us at the quantum level. At 12 years old he was listening and asking questions of the religious leaders, not instructing them (Luke 2:42). Afterward he went home with his parents and was obedient to them (v.51). This is the one childhood example we have of him learning what it means to obey. He learned what was involved with obedience the way any of us do–by the experiences of life.

Here is a provocative word from a Bible reference book called Hard Sayings of the Bible that kind of took me aback:

there are some things that even God can experience only by becoming a human being with all of our human limitations. Obedience in the face of suffering is one of them.

Jesus memorized, studied, and prayed the Hebrew Scriptures, always seeking his Father and His will in them. He then took note of how the religious people were interpreting them and living them. That was not always pretty, as we know.

So when the time was right, he delivered his big sermon, showing the people of his day, and us, what we’ve all heard before, and in contrast, what God’s heart truly is. He showed us where we have strayed from the agape of God and missed the point of it all.

There had to be some suffering involved with this process. The ancient Greeks had a saying–Mathein Pathein–Learning is suffering. Suffering is learning. Surely it broke Jesus’s heart to see the holy teachings being misused; to witness poor, oppressed, and broken-hearted people not being cared for properly. Then there was the volatile opposition from the synagogue leaders who claimed to be on his Father’s side! Stressful indeed.

Jesus saw how we humans desperately try to define the undefinable, to tame it, and box it up; how we tend to attach ourselves to systems more than God. We systematize the mystery out of religion, out of GOD. Adopting systems of theology, abiding in them, leads us away from intimacy with our Lord. Jesus said, “Abide in ME.” How quickly do systems replace personal interaction with the Divine. Dogma swallows up prayer. Letting go of techniques is tough. You may have to sacrifice familiar and comfortable teachings for….the Voice–the Spirit speaking now. We of course have boundaries, and follow the teachings of Jesus and Holy Scripture, but we must fight the urge to define it all in the neatest little package that is never again opened. When did Jesus ever say the narrow gate would be a conveniently systematized, easily defined formula? If anything, he taught the opposite with his parables showing just how undefinable, and awesome, the Kingdom of God really is (see Mt.13).

It’s no wonder so many people these days say, “I’m spiritual, not religious.” With so much institutionalizing of the mystery, joy, and care for people, animals, and earth out of everything, can you blame them?

Alrighty then, let’s try to bring this back around full circle. Matthew Henry said in his commentary on Hebrews 5:8 that “We need affliction, to teach us submission.” And William Barclay, in his commentary on our verse, wrote, “God speaks to [us] in many experiences of life, and not least in those which try [our] hearts and souls. But we can hear his voice only when we accept in reverence what comes to us. If we accept it with resentment, the rebellious cries of our heart make us deaf to the voice of God.”

We follow the living Presence of God, brought to us by Jesus, and available now in the Spirit. Mathein pathein. We learn through suffering–when we submit to the Voice. Submission is the soul’s silence, giving it the ability to hear. Resistance is the soul’s screaming and yelling, drowning out the voices of Pneuma (Spirit) and Sophia (wisdom).