The Shadow Knows

   The reading in Mark 2 this morning is about Jesus' answer to the question from the people about His disciples not fasting when other leaders, including John the Baptist were practicing this technique of drawing closer to God. Jesus gives them three examples from practical Jewish life, trying to show them the reason why.

   The first example concerned wedding guests and the bridegroom, the second about new cloth sewed onto an already used cloth, and the third about new wine in old wineskins. Each of these carried the message that it would be foolish to live life in that way. Be smart and you will be able to use that which you now have, in these cases, fellowship with the bridegroom, a garment, and the wine and containers. A wise man just would not do this.

   A friend of mine and I had a conversation yesterday about the contents of a book that I had given him to look at. I spoke of this book the other day, the one about a Buddhist-Christian and his search for the authentic Jesus. The author, raised in a traditional religious setting, found that the things he heard in those churches just did nothing for him in the way of discovering God. He wanted more than he was getting, and so he looked for new ideas and sources of inspiration. Besides he found most people in the church teaching one way and living another. There was not a consistency in their lives, and the fact that lives were so compartmentalized gave credence to the idea of hypocrisy in religious matters.

   So, this author went searching for other sources, other pathways to God. His longing for God was real, but the path led him away from God and toward men. He looked at different philosophers, different authors and new ideas, not that searching was bad, it was not, but he seemed to be looking into all the wrong places. His search seemed to lead him away from the God of the Bible and into men's ideas about God and Jesus, ideas that replaced God's Word with men's. New wine into old wineskins as it were.

   I  come away from this book with the idea that the author's search is not complete, that he is still searching and hoping that the next new idea or philosophy will be the breakthrough that he wants.

   God wants us to use our minds, that why He gave them to us, but a search for wisdom and understanding that relies on the words of a man, or men, is a dangerous path when we reject what God has already given, or try to add to it, or take some of it away.

   Studying, yes; questioning yes: alteration no. Caution is required lest all we be left with is a fleeting shadow in a dark alley.