Deep thinking is so uncommon in today’s churches that the one who is doing it will seem quite the misfit. The one trying to understand how all the Bible details were to fit together―the one trying to make sure the doctrines are right―the one who wants to mine the depths of God’s precepts and principles―the one trying to connect the dots between passages―the one willing to examine himself to see whether he is actually in the faith, and willing to examine the church institution in the same way―the one constantly asking questions of the texts and of his friends―this person will not long be welcome.
The others won’t know what to make of him, and will find him a constant aggravant, since he is constantly raising issues they’re content to have remain unraised.
But they can’t very well say, “Go away―we don’t like you”, for that doesn’t sound properly “Christian” to them. And they’re certainly not going to say, “Go away because we’re just not interested in the Bible”, either. And there’s no way they’re going to say, “We’re just hypocrites, and have almost no personal interest in the things of God, so we want you to leave, since your example tends to expose us for what we are.”
So, what do they do? They have to turn the attention away from themselves. And how better to do that than to go after the one raising all the dust? To this end, they have many dirty tricks at their disposal. They can act as if he must be an unbeliever, or as if it’s nothing more than pride that motivates him. They can go after him as being factious and divisive―a mere troublemaker. They can suddenly get hyper-serious about “unity” in his case, and how he is a serious threat to it. Or they can break out the searchlight they normally keep in the closet, so as to look into his life in search of sin, on account of which they can drive him away (even though they would never drive away their favorites on account of the same sins). Or they can put on their “Bible Scholar” hats, and try to stand toe to toe with him by way of twisting the scriptures, so as to paint him the heretic by pretending the scriptures mean something other than what they mean. Indeed, all they need is to catch him in one doctrinal error (real or perceived), in order to throw him out as a false teacher―even though they regularly let the errors of their authorized teachers slide, calling it “grace” to do so.
This is how it has always been done, is it not?
It doesn’t really matter how they do it; the point is that he’s got to either shut up, or leave―and it’s got to happen in a way that allows them to keep feeling good about themselves as people. It’s no surprise, then, that they’ll want to pretend that the whole scenario is a problem with Mr. Questions, and not a problem with them or their institutional culture. After all, things were just fine before he showed up, and it stands to reason that things will be just fine after they run him off. Clearly, he is the problem, and nothing but!
But then comes death, when each of them has his own personal meeting with God, and where the subject of how Mr. Questions was treated comes up. And the individual will not want to take responsibility for it, but will try to defer to “The Church” as an institution (having been authorized by God, no less, to do as it did in regard to Mr. Questions. But God will insist on talking about the recently-deceased’s role in it all, and will pry the matter open like an oyster, laying it all bare. And God will make it abundantly clear that he really got a kick out of Mr. Questions’ desire to know and to understand, and out of his energy to that end. And he will turn it back on the dead guy, and why he wasn’t examining matters right alongside Mr. Questions.
And what answer can Mr. Dead give but the truth―that he had been disinterested, and wanted church to be about something other than learning the teachings of God―and that he resented Mr. Questions, and was glad to get rid of him?
It won’t matter whether he was a leader in the attempt to get rid of Mr. Questions, or just a follower. What will matter is that he called a good thing bad, coming down on the wrong side of the question.
Jesus’ sermons and parables were designed to prompt questions. But few dared to ask. And among them who did were three groups:
- Those who asked for strategic reasons. (Looking to trap him, or to find a way out for themselves.)
- Those who asked, merely wishing the answer was one they were going to like. (Such as the “Rich Young Ruler”.) And
- Those who asked so as to find out―and do―what God wants.
To those in the first and second groups, the one in the third group is an oddball. But not to God. And his is the only opinion that will hold for eternity.
