INTRO
True, we've never before had a nearly-instantaneous, nearly-worldwide network connected to devices in our pockets alerting us to rising temperatures and the temperamental outbursts of tyrants or the spread of malicious insects and viruses.
And being constantly aware of all this can feel disorienting and surreal.
But even so, we're not convinced we should be so quick to call our times "totally unprecedented." Our ancestors weathered tyrants and plagues and renovated their political thought and activity when facing the consequences of previous human actions.
And for those of us within the Christian Tradition, we must always remember that our predecessors took on the challenge of reinterpreting all of reality in light of the singular life of Jesus of Nazareth.
What is not "unprecedented" is humans encountering the unprecedented. And in the midst of our own unique challenges, we unnecessarily feed the bad reactions that can come with fear and uncertainty if we believe we face our challenges alone.
So, in this series, we look at people and moments in the Tradition where those who came before us give us precedents for facing our epoch-shaping tests and tasks.
This time we meet a man who faced the pressure that comes with the overwhelming number of options presented to us in a pluralistic environment, and still managed to make the kinds of decisions and commitments that make life rich and meaningful.
STORY
Around the year 100 CE, a boy named Justin was born in an eastern region of the Roman Empire. At this time Rome had conquered lands all around what we today would call "near" and "middle-Eastern" countries. And Rome's rule also extended east along North Africa, spread north into into what is now Britain and France, then circled all the way back East into Justin's homeland.
Controlling the lands and people all around the Mediterranean this way meant that while there was a dominant culture we can call "Roman," the empire also included a vast array of other people groups and cultures. So those within the Roman empire knew of Caesar and the Roman Senate, but they might have also known of their own Tribal Chieftains our councils. They may have revered the Roman gods like Jupiter and Apollo, but also had their hearts and imaginations tugged at by Egyptian myths, Hellenistic philosophy, and stories of their own local deities right along with the Hebrew stories of YHWH and Moses.
Rome's official policy of dealing with these different cultures and religions was one we can call, to a certain degree, "pluralistic." Rome welcomed any regional or tribal religion and made room in their pantheon of gods for local deities, made space for different schools of philosophy and granted a degree of leeway for different political systems, so long as the conquered people also submitted to Caesar and offered token sacrifices to the Roman gods.
And when it comes to the intellectual challenges that come with a pluralistic environment, we don't tend to put things like infrastructure high on the list of stimulating topics. But just think: where would our current culture be without the internet? And where would that web of connectivity be without the cell towers and satellites and the people who designed and built them?
So, an important part of the story of Roman pluralism is their infrastructure. Things like their roads, and ubiquitous military presence that suppressed regional warfare, both made serious travel easier than ever before. Which made it possible for people and ideas to interact in unprecedented ways. And this meant people didn't just become mentally aware of different gods and ways of making sense of their world or varying systems for organizing their life together.
Like smartphones can mean anxiety and tension, Roman infrastructure meant everyday people sometimes felt the pressure and uncertainty that comes when central cultural forces like law and philosophy and religion collide.
So people living in Rome developed structures and methods for making the kinds of choices that many people before them never even had to think about. You see one example of this in an episode of the New Testament book of Acts, where the Apostle Paul takes the gospel of Jesus - which grew out of the near-eastern Hebrew religion, to the Greek city of Athens. There, the Athenians used a place called the Areopagus to hash this stuff out. There were even people who devoted most of their time every day to hearing and debating new ideas. Sort of like an ancient Reddit, in a way.
All this to say, people with an internet connection, or who've sat in a college comparative religions class, were not the first to experience the pressures that come with a pluralistic context. And recognizing that we are not the first to face a season like this might be an important step in navigating our own pluralistic context well.
And isn't learning that we might not be completely alone good news? When faced with all the choices available to us, it is tough enough to decide what tablet or phone to buy or brand of laundry detergent to use or whether to have Tai or Mexican or Mediterranean food for dinner. How often, be honest, have you spent more time scrolling Netflix than you did actually watching whatever you ended up landing on? How do you choose when you have nothing higher than your own choice to guide your choice?
And if a choice about shopping and entertainment can devour hours of our lives, how do we chose between the various options on matters of ultimate importance?
This is a genuinely tough predicament. But it becomes unnecessarily tougher if we start to believe we have no mentors or examples who can help us discern our way through it. So we'd like you to consider Justin as one of these potential guides.
He tells his own story in a book called "Dialogue with Trypho" that he wrote somewhere between the years 155-160 CE. We've linked this book in the episode description. And to chart a path through the philosophical and religious alternatives of his day, Justin began by touring the options. But Justin did more than scroll or read some wikipedia pages and maybe risk posting a thought or two in a forum. He found a mentor, and under this teacher's guidance, fully immersed himself in a way of life.
At first, Justin tried being a Stoic. And there, he learned much about being practical and developing discipline and mental resilience. But his Stoic master proved to be uninterested in the kinds of things Justin took to be matters of ultimate importance.
So he found an Aristotelian mentor, but this guide seemed more interested in collecting fees than in pouring into his students. So Justin moved on and studied under a Pythagorian. There Justin learned much about music, geometry, and astronomy. But the deeper he dove into these fields, the more forceful became Justin's desire for knowledge of God. His pythagorean mentor was uninterested in exploring things beyond numbers and stars and harmonies, so eventually Justin came to study under a Platonist.
Here, Justin sensed, he was finally making substantial progress. In his words, Justin felt as if his mind was given wings, and he hoped in time to come to see God.
Now, there was much about the categories and ways of thinking found in Plato that early Christians like Justin found very helpful. And in the next episode of this series we'll look at some of the ways they engaged and incorporated the philosophy of their day. But there was a crucial point of Platonic thought regarding our knowledge of God that needed to be revised. Precisely how Justin's mind would have been equipped by this platonist to fly to God becomes crucially important for this story.
Plato taught that to come to knowledge of divine things, one must ascend by a feat of pure intelligence. This demanded a total separation of the mind from history and human events and bodily senses. To Plato, the mind was the only part of humanity that carried anything remotely divine, so it was the only thing that could handle anything remotely divine. If anything bodily - like the eyes or ears - or if human emotion got involved in any way, Plato taught, they would certainly mess things up and pull us away from God.
And this is interesting for Justin's story, because he eventually converted to the Christian faith after talking to a Jewish follower of Jesus. This man began to introduce the faith by telling Justin stories from the Old Testament about God creating the world and rescuing the Jews from Egypt and shaking mountains and speaking through prophets. Stories passed on generation by generation by human testimony. Stories that pretty thoroughly involved God with history and human senses, and, well, the very stuff Plato said you had to escape to reach the divine.
Now, in both Plato's and Justin's day, there were plenty of Greek stories about the gods involving themselves in human affairs. But Plato strongly criticized these myths as being unworthy of theology proper, because they portrayed the gods not just acting out of the kinds of greed and pettiness and lust that characterized so much of humanity, but also because the stories simply showed the gods tarnishing themselves with the concerns and stuff of this world. Both of which was, to Plato's mind, unfitting for divinity. To Plato and his devoted followers, even a smoking and shivering mountain or Prophetic Oracle was scandalous, and unworthy of communicating anything about a truly transcendent God.
But the stories of God's involvement in the world that the Old Jewish Christian told the platonist Justin, in Justin's own words, quote "set his soul ablaze" unquote. And, in the middle of the pressures that came with his own pluralistic environment, these stories culminating with Jesus led Justin to make a decisive choice. In history Justin has become known as Justin Martyr, because he would eventually go so far as give his own life for this choice.
So in the conversation that follows, Julius and I talk about why? Just what was it about Jesus' connection to these old stories of God's involvement with the world that might have set Justin's heart and mind ablaze and empowered his will to choose with such conviction?
DISCUSSION
Julius: Welcome back to “All Things” after a three-week break, we're excited to pick up on this New season and this New series. And this is once again, Julius, and we'll
Wilson: Hello,
Julius: there he is.
Wilson: has got to be right around. Maybe we surpass, but we'd ride around total, see episode 100, which I guess is the thing, right? That's uh, that's some kind of landmark.
Julius: That is a landmark. Um, speaking of landmarks. No, that's, that's not a transition, but talking about, we'll cut that today. We're picking up on a story about Justin martyr and how Justin martyr a huge part of how he comes to the faith is through, um, old Testament stories and the ways that he he's compelled by them.
And in the story, we said that these stories, quote, unquote, “Set his soul ablaze.” And I think one of the things that appealed to Justin martyr about the Christian faith is how it has continuity with this Jewish faith that is so oriented by story is and tells of a God that interacts with concrete events in history.
Talks about a God that engages the senses in that way. And how so much of the Jewish and Christian tradition— right? That word ‘tradition’ means that the knowledge of God is something that is passed on from, from generation to generation, through stories, through people. And so this theme of continuity seems to be a big and like important thing for Justin martyr's, um, conversion and his love for the faith.
So as we explore a bit more of that today, let's look at the New Testament and ask the question of… How, how does the New Testament, um, emphasize the continuity of the Christian faith with, um, the story is in the tradition of like the law and the prophets, the Jewish scriptures?
Wilson: All right. So we're going to go to the, the very opening of the very first book of the New Testament. And before I get into talking about the specifics of the first, I mean the first verse, but then that, that theme continues through the whole book, but we'll talk some specifics, especially like the first like seven chapters of the first book of the New Testament which is called Matthew.
I want to point out something. I think that's easy to miss. Um, and that to, just to just unpack a bit of what it. Could say to us that this is how the church structured the scriptures.
Julius : Hmm.
Wilson: Um. Oh, what's the best way to help us see this… Um, okay. So in, in this room over here, there's a lamp that none of you can see this one happens to be a very old and honestly a pretty ugly, pretty ugly art nouveau lamp, but it's a lamp and you, and you all know what a lamp is. So even though you can't see this one, you can picture right.
And, uh, so much of how we've been trained to think about— conditioned is a good word too— conditioned to think about uh, the scriptures leads us to like take the scriptures apart piece by piece and just analyze the bit.
Julius : Right.
Wilson: And, and there's a lot that can be helpful. There's a lot that can be good too, that, you know, and, and we can see why that's, how science works.
Right. Break it down to its parts, dissect the animal. Look at, look at the, uh, the stuff that's inside, all that kind of stuff. And so when we think about like understanding a lamp, if, especially when we talk about that, Because this is our culture. This is how we've seen it, so. You know, this is how it's so often preached.
All right. “Let's, let's break it down into tiny little parts and just look at this, this phrase and this word,” which again, there's, there's something to that. The problem is not doing that. Um, I'm not saying there shouldn't be a place for that in our study of the scripture, but what I am saying is that's not complete, it's not enough.
So just like, if you talk about a lamp, if, if the person that made the lamp, wants other people to understand the lamp, they don't just want them to take their lamp apart and look at the wires and how do the connections made and how, how does this, uh, you know, base fit into, um, this other piece and this, the screws and the bolts, right?
Not just take it apart, but also really. I think part of the lamp maker would go, but I made a lamp. So turn it on
Julius: Yeah.
Wilson: and, and enjoy when it's together, what happens, right? Because if you pull it all apart and you put the wire over here and the bulb over here and the base over here and the shade over here, right.
You can learn about all those different parts, but you can't have a lamp.
Julius: Yeah.
Wilson: And so there's something to, uh, we need to think the. The scriptures were formed, were put together. It was part of the conversation, not just what parts are going to be included, but also how do we order them? How do we arrange them? And so that's when, when you put it together and it has, when all the parts have a holistic form that allows the light to come on and for you to experience something. And so I think it's incredibly important. I think we even look for part of the inspiration and the presence of the holy spirit in the formation of the scriptures when we look at the form of the scriptures.
And so, because of that for like, you know, I actually kind of, now I like that you put the pieces of the lamp together and turn it. Right. Look at the form. What happens when you put the form together, the scriptures and notice the very opening of the, of the book that we chose to be the first book of the New Testament emphasizes the continuity
Julius : Yeah.
Wilson: between what has happened in light of Jesus with that person and what has been happening for a good while with God's people as they engage with God.
So it's all over the place. Part of the book of Matthew. I mean, the, the opening line we talked about in one of the more recent episodes is the genealogy of Jesus. And so in that you see it, right. Hey, Matthew is going to start telling us about Jesus and the beginning of a story, just like the opening scenes of a movie set up so much for what follows.
Julius : It's the opening crawl.
Wilson: There it is. Right. And, and, uh, right. So if you, like, how different would Star Wars be if you didn't have the scrolling text, giving you a little bit. And so for Matthew that the scrolling text, the, Hey, what sets this up is, look, God came to Abe. And made a promise and Abraham had this son and traces the whole story of God's people through these are the whole story of God's engagement through these actual people.
But then also we pointed out that the word, the Greek word there for genealogy is Genesis and there's an intentional play there. This is also tied to what the creator has intended for all of creation from the very, very big Guinea. And so, I mean, it just. If the beginning of your movie, doesn't say something super important about everything else that follows you need to change the beginning of your movie. And that the church said, “No, no, no, no. This is the piece that fits here so that when the form comes together, the light comes on. “It just lets us know the scriptures want us to know that this continuity really, really matters. That this continuity does have something to do with. With what's happening on a holistic and a deep integrated primordial level. So that when it clicks, it's like what happened to Justin? Like it has the potential to set your mind in your heart on fire.
Julius : Yeah. I mean, I think that's a great reminder that the way that the scriptures are arranged and like the order really matters. And like the decision, like end, it's a prayerful decision, right. Within these councils that it's like it, which is both a creative thing, but it's also like a. An act of kind of like communal spiritual discernment to open up the New Testament with kind of like this statement.
Like it's like, like I said earlier, the opening crawl as if to say like, oh, remember that movie that you saw 20 years ago, we're picking up from that. Like, we're trying, this is part of the same story. That it's a very intentional claim to say that this is not like a war we're not leaving. Behind and like trying to establish a completely New thing.
Wilson: Yeah, it's it's, it's letting you know, Hey, this is empire strikes back.
Julius : Yeah.
Wilson: All right. So you need, you need to have known what's going on with the New hope to get what's happening here. It is not right now. According to us in August of 2021, this is not the Suicide Squad that is currently in theater. Right?
Cause that, Hey, we made one a couple of years ago, we're going to act like that one doesn't exist and we're just going to make another one. Right? There's there. They, they to understand the Suicide Squad in theaters. Now you need to know. Don't try to put these things together, right? We're we're going to act like that didn't happen.
And in contrast to, you know, the Star Wars trilogies, what, what the New Testament is saying right off the bat is it's more like that you need right. To understand this story, its fullness, and what's about to happen. You need, you need that background stuff.
Julius : right. It's a funny how Star Wars fans understand the concept of cannon,
Wilson: It's
Julius : in such a, in a, in a deep way that like biblical scholars
Wilson: So maybe better than a lot.
Julius : Yeah,
Wilson: contemporary
Julius : so I, I think one of the, I mean, beyond just what that makes me think of, right. I think you've mentioned this before is on a logical kind of philosophical level that, um, a religion or like an ideology, at least I'm assuming, and Justin martyr's day like that. It's ethos is established. Its credibility is established by not just being like a New thing. That's disconnected from tradition, but that it, that people logically and philosophically would, um, understand an ideology or like treat it with more credibility. The more that it's backed by kind of like research, right with science.
Like it's got to have kind of like source material behind it. And the longer that thread is, and the longer that this thread of thinking or belief has endured, it says something about, oh, this is legit. We're not just like making it up and pretending that this came out of thin air. And so on a logical level, I think that.
I wonder if that's a part of what, um, appealed to Justin martyr, but it seems like from the story there's also beyond that, just like on a heart level, it, the, the there's, um, there's something about these stories that Justin martyr found compelling, and the fact that the New Testament kind of like picks up on those stories. And because these stories are weaved in with concrete events in history, um, that there's like a, there's a beauty to that I think draws him like beyond just the logical piece, that there's a beauty that captivates Justin martyr.
So how does the New Testament, um, pick up on… kind of back to the Star Wars or whatever, like… reboots analogy, like, what are kind of some of the key stories and themes that the New Testament writers pick up on and that they recognize as beautiful and that they kind of continue this thread along in a really faithful and, um, even like creative way?
Wilson: Right. So we said— and there are lots of places we can… I think we'll allude kind of quickly to places all over the New Testament where this happens, but to give it some focus a little bit easier to grasp onto we'll stick with what we said. Let's, let's just keep with the first seven chapters of the book of Matthew, because with that.
If, you know those stories, if you've come to hear what, you know, what Justin martyr heard in the testimony of the prophets, the word of the Lord, as it came through Hosea and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Moses, and the stories that are involved with Israel, right? Israel means…the name, Israel, the word means ‘wrestles with God.’
And so it starts and that whole, the whole, like the, the origin of that name is a person who shifts his name to, in the middle of his life changes his name to Israel because as the story goes, he wrestles with the angel of the Lord, uh, by a river. And, and that story becomes the, the, the beginning for the whole identity of the people.
And so as, as Justin hears these stories, right. Um, and then here's the stories that are told about Jesus. You know, like we would, and like Matthew would tell it if you know those old stories, you start to, to recognize certain things. Right. And so here's this, here's this unprecedented event with Jesus of Nazareth. Right. And, and I mean, you want to talk about, I mean, it's, I guess it's true in a pretty vacuous kind of way for all of us, that every moment of our life is unprecedented in some way. Right? Because no one, no one has, you know, sat in your chair in your garage like you are right now with your hair color— you know, all, all the particulars are, you know?
Um, but if you want to talk about a whole life of unprecedented events, Jesus has got to be pretty high in the running for top of that list, right? Walking on water, feeding 5,000, water to wine, and all that kind of stuff.
But you, you, you hear all the stories. Yeah. Justin would in the middle of, you know, whatever cultural environment with all these different options, if you hear the stories of Jesus and, and as amazing and as seemingly unprecedented, as they are, what the New Testament wants us to also do, especially because it lets us know, “Hey, but you've got to know these other ones,” is to hear resonances and echoes and harmonies where it's like, “Hey, I've never heard it like that before, but I feel like I've heard that before."
Julius : Right.
Wilson: Like there's there, there's something there. Right? And, and this is, this is the way the book of Matthew is structured at the beginning. So it goes from the genealogies and the names, and now he's God with us. And then as he gets about living his life, there's so much about Jesus, that parallels. You know, and again, it's not exactly the same.
It's not just like some time loop where let's go, oh, just redo it. It, it's not a, it's not like the movie Groundhog day or someone's stuck in the same day over and over and over again. Right. It's not just like a timeline going back, but Jesus relives events, but in a way that brings them to a greater fullness. Right.
And so if you know, the story of, uh…Israel’s time enslaved in Egypt and their freedom from that. Well, then you hear that with, with the stories of Jesus too, because as soon as the ruler of the day—you know, think Pharaoh, the tyrant, the, the, the figures, we are like so many other human figures who are obsessed with their status, their influence, and their power and their wealth. When Herod hears about that. Tries to kill all the young children, which sounds an awful lot like Pharaoh, trying to keep, uh, Israel enslaved by throwing their babies into the river. But Moses escaped in that story.
And so in Jesus's time, Herod like a New Pharaoh tries to kill all the infants, but where do Mary and Joseph go to escape this? Wink, wink: Egypt. Like are you, do you get… *nudge, nudge* when they're done and they come back up out of Egypt. Jesus is baptized where in the Jordan river, which when the people came up out of slavery and came into the promised land, there's a miraculous story about them crossing through the Jordan river, wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
How long did they wander in the wilderness? Uh, before they crossed into the promised land? 40 years. Oh, and then Matthew just lets us know, wink, wink. I'll stop doing that. That's old, right. But, um, Matthew lets us know, “h, Jesus went into the wilderness to fast and pray for how long? 40 days.”
Julius : Forty. Yeah.
Wilson: Right. Um, and then after all of this, this is where it kicks up in Matthew chapter five, Jesus ascends, a mountain and he says what? He says, “a new law I give to you.” Okay. And this is the part where it's the sermon on the Mount, where he says, you've heard it said, right, but now he says clearly in chapter five, verse 17, a linchpin verse. Hey look, I'm, I'm about to tell you some things that are going to blow your mind. Totally New.
Right? I'm going to, I'm going to take this. Steps further, but I also want you to know, I did not come to abolish the law. I didn't come to abolish or a race or do away with old. Right? Remember this is Star Wars.
Julius : Yeah.
Wilson: two, uh, or, you know, this is not the Suicide Squad.
Julius : Right.
Wilson: have not come to a race or to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. And so now you hear those echoes, well, this is like Moses going up on the mountain and giving us the law, but here's Jesus going up on the mountain, giving us a New law and taking that to a whole ‘nother level. Right. So you've heard that it was said. But I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
You've heard an eye for an eye and a tooth of the tooth, but I tell you this and that.
Julius : Hmm.
Wilson: whole sermon on the Mount is his New, Hey, now, right? Because what's happened in me previously, the law gave you some, it gave you some form of life that would allow you to know what's good, to live what's good, to be a model and example of that.
And to, in that wrestle with God continually to be my people, but now. Matthew says that this is “Emmanuel”: God with us. And now that I'm with you, let's take this to a place where it's not just the law, but let's, let's move this towards perfection. Let's, let's move this as a promise because I'm with you— look, and just before you, he goes up there, he heals all people. Now, “Hey, let's, let's see what could happen now that I'm here. If we're really working in this time.”
Julius : Right.
Wilson: So you look at all of these stories, right? And, and if you, if you trust them, then Jesus is unprecedented.
Julius : Sure.
Wilson: But what gives more of the fullness is if you can also pick up the precedents before that, they're showing us that like, this is… this is who God has been.
And you see it concretely in the way, right, through, through the story, the things that that are hit that or experienced that hit us in the senses that touched Justin's heart so much, knowing those precedents unlock… Uh, it's like, I don't know. I think if I were writing it out, I would use something kind of, I would use maybe like subscript or superscripts.
Right. You'd have unprecedented1. That's just like, wow, that's amazing. But if you see like, oh, this is unprecedented and amazing. And look. Look at the harmonies and look at what that, that background and the continuity with that, that like it's, it's New and Old. That's like unprecedented2—that the continuity unlocks a whole ‘nother level of, of the transcendent presence of God in the ordinary person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Julius : I think that's, I think that interplay between like continuity with the old and like the way that a story, um, incorporates that whilst while also moving things forward of like a story that is dynamic. I think why we find that. Why we consider that good storytelling is because there's some, it's how we make sense of the world as humans of like, why people study history of like, I think we are fascinated with finding patterns and humanity of things that are kind of like across time and space seemed like universal human things and patterns.
And, um, and we like to. Arrange them to make sense of like our past to S to, to make connections with where we are right now. And, and sometimes to kind of like, try to imagine what the future will be. Right. So that like the humans are oriented towards story, I think, and making sense of who they are. And then the, the way that we interpret those stories that we tell to one another also shapes, like what kind of. We are. And I think that's one of the things that like, beyond this, just being a good thing of storytelling that Justin martyr is drawn to the faith because this story is something that shapes like a people that it's carried on by the way that people live, um, their, a life. Um, so I guess let's pick up now in looking at the places in the New Testament that lie.
A well-crafted story. Um, that's not just a reboot that attempts to erase the past, but that acknowledges the tradition before it, and then moves it and introduces elements that are also New. What are some places in the New Testament, if that kind of, um, do that, that introduce New concepts that aren't just.
Breaks from kind of like what Jesus was saying, that, that don't abolish what came before, but that perfected that, move it forward. That moved the tradition along.
Wilson: we could just circle back around and say all of those, you know, in a way that we've already kind of started to talk about every instance, every little episode that we just talked about from the gospel of man. Would be ones that also show, show something New, um, because it was done in a way that had never been done before and taken to a wider, greater fullness than what had been there before.
You know, it, it, it is the move from lotta gospel when you understand it. Well that the. We, we tend to set up the law and the gospel and sort of as opposites that are in conflict, uh, it's the law. And that was only there to discourage us and to show us how bad we are. And then the gospel comes in to swoop in and rescue us by saying, oh, you don't have to pay attention to the law. Which, uh, I mean, not to put too fine, a point on it is just not Christian, because that's exactly what Jesus says. It's not.
Julius : Yeah,
Wilson: So instead it's. It's taking the law to a greater fullness in the gospel. And so now it's not just the rules and the regulation, but it's the divine presence that opens up, not just rule following, but genuinely being and loving.
What's good. And doing that from a. And a place that's authentic on all levels, not just on the behavioral level, but heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is who you are, and this is what you love. And so this is why Jesus says, you know, and you've got to hear this line in that when he's on the mountain, giving his New law, the sermon on the Mount, when he says be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.
It's not a harsh. Totally unrealistic demand that he's unfairly placing on our shoulders. It's a, it's an invitation and a promise to journey into that in him. And so it, because, because all of this, while there is continuity, while there is a sense of repetition, it's also not just some wrote identical repetition, it's New. And so what you see in the gospel is it, it allows us to shape it. What is a pretty distinctly Christian kind of imagination, is that all, you know, especially in a pluralistic world, when there are all these. Options. And so many of them are opposites of each other that we tend to only imagine opposites as being in conflict, but this is letting us see that opposites don't necessarily have to be in conflict.
Opposites can work together in, in a, in a harmony and a kind of contrast. Right. And so what, what Jesus invites and lets us see is start to imagine. Uh, uh, a perfect harmonizing of opposites because they're caught up in a greater unity and wholeness in Christ and that's that's him. And so when, when we look at the relationship between the New and the old, uh, in this and what God has done in history and, and what, where God is taking us for the future, right?
Cause you don't want this just to be a backward looking. This is part of why for Justin his heart, not just his mind is set on fire, right? Cause looking back at history and learning some things unlocking, some of those puzzles can set your mind on fire, but what sets your whole being on fire is when there's a connection between, Hey, looking back and seeing this, this is also taking us somewhere.
This is allows us to not, and, and not in a controlling, right? Because it's always New. in a, nobody expected Jesus wonder and awe where the reactions of Jesus. It's not like, oh yeah, we knew this was coming right. We had profits. It's not a way to lay it out and to control our lives, to control our, manipulate our destinies. But it gives us an orientation of like hope and goodness that we're headed somewhere. We're headed somewhere good with this thing. It gives us a future. So where that takes me, like for the biblical principle, the New Testament witness to this is in the book of revelation. When you do look ahead at the last things. And again, like, I mean over and over and over again. That's that's a pretty stark, uh, example of what it is to look to the future as a Christian, that, and by stark, I mean, it should starkly challenge our desires to totally know, predict and control everything.
Because if you think we're in control, when you think we can understand it, just read that book and, and let it confuse you and let that be glorious and beauty.
Julius : Hm.
Wilson: in there, but there are also things that, that pull us forward and hope and goodness with confidence. Like there's, there's a place in there where, where God says explicitly behold, I'm making all things New
Julius : Yeah.
Wilson: they're here's here's yes, this is in continuity with the old you need.
And here's the form. Ooh, I like that. I didn't intend this. I didn't, but it started with a lamp. Right? So we, we started off this conversation, emphasizing the form of the New. That it, it matters that the way it's put together begins here. And this is part of like the metaphor, allowing it to be a lamp that you can actually turn on and see by.
It also matters that at the end, in the book of revelation, God explicitly talks about the New, yeah. And what brings this home is, is, uh, is knowing that in the Greek, there are two terms for the word New, uh, and there's, there's one term that would be like the Suicide Squad in 2021 knew, Hey, we're just going to, we're going to act like the old didn't happen.
This one's better. Right? Forget that one. Here's the New one. It means like it's like its newness is totally comprehended chronologically. It was not before it did not exist before now. It's New, um, nails and then there's another. Kindness.
Julius : Hm.
Wilson: is a much richer, much more nuanced and complex newness because it's not just a chronological.
Hey, here's something that never existed before. Um, it's more, uh, we, I think we talked about this in episode on revenue. Right, but it's, it's more, um, nots, not Suicide Squad, 2021. It's more like, uh, if we're, if we're looking for storytelling, um, I go to restoration shows. I've been getting into like, uh, shows on Netflix where people take old rusty.
Cars and restore them. That's kindness. When someone takes something that is broken down, busted is, I mean, you obviously look at it and you think of like what this thing could be, what the creator imagined for it and what it was at its best. That is not that now.
Julius : Yeah.
Wilson: Important parts are missing. It doesn't run.
Its frame is bent. It's rusted out. It's deteriorating from the inside, but then someone takes it and restores the car. When that car is now like remade runs painted and it drives out of the garage. That's that complex questioning that comes when you're, when you're there watching it dry going. Is that an old car or is that a New car, right?
That that's kinda, that's kind of us. Yeah, that's what God says. I am doing what the world is. I am making all things New. It's like a
Julius : Hmm. Yeah.
Wilson: and so this is, this is why it matters that we have these old stories. Right. But they're all each moment, right. It's being caught up. It's not forgotten. It's not lost. It's, it's, it's valued, but it's being caught up and renewed and made New. And I think that's the sort of like, you can feel it. You can touch that.
You see that happen. You can hear people talk about it, but, but what sets Justin's and hopefully our hearts and minds of flame is that that's not just something that happened in the past. That's who God is, and God can do that now through us. And that's why he enters into the faith is the invitation to be brought into it and to have that happen for him and his world and to now shape the way he thinks about his future and the future of everyone and all things.
Julius : Yeah.
MEDITATION
There is no way - especially in only one podcast episode - to cover all the ways the Jewish origins matter for the Christian faith. So, we'll just state as a principle that you cannot understand Jesus without putting him in his Jewish context.
And situating Jesus firmly within the stories of creation and God's promise to Abraham and the Jewish kings and prophets is maybe like putting all the different parts together to form a lamp and then turning it on, or fitting a diamond in a masterfully shaped ring and setting. It lets light and beauty itself stand out in a greater fullness.
Situated this way, Justin Martyr found Jesus and the long story of God's work in the world stunning and compelling, because it convinced Justin the knowledge of God makes its way to humans not by argument and the human mind's escape from the world, but as God engages humanity. It convinced him God could be known by events in history.
What the fullness of the Jewish origins did for Justin Martyr was shift his posture toward God, from seeking ways for for his mind to escape the difficulties of his time and grow wings to ascend to God, to seeking to open himself to receive God's presence and revelation here and now.
The unprecedented life of Jesus is the precedent and ground for how we, at any time, in any place, may find God. Working in our midst. Engaging our broken and confusing world.
But this doesn't just tell Justin and us something about how God can work in physical things entangled in history. It tells us also about how God does characteristically work. And this work, because it is characteristic, told him, and tells us, something about who God is.
So about a century later, another Christian who was greatly influenced by Plato, named Origen of Alexandria, engaged the Platonic criticism that asserted it was scandalous and unfitting to think of God soiling God's divinity by taking human flesh. Origen's strategy was to turn the argument from abstract ideas of divinity and make it an issue of God's character. He asked, of the two pictures: the Platonic image of God unbothered by, and uninvolved with, this world's brokenness and confusion, and the Jewish and Christian picture of a God who unites with us and meets us where were are, which presents God as more compassionate?
The harmonies between the old and new stories, tell us God cares, so God is engaged.
And if this is true, God is faithful and involved not just in Jesus' day, and not just in Justin's pluralistic context, but in ours.
So, looking for God in our difficult and challenging times, name some of the biggest questions you face. And express the pressures you feel because you face these questions in our pluralistic context.
And now think, how have you toured the various options available for developing a philosophy of life and engaging those deep questions stirring in your soul?
What have you found there that is of genuine value?
Where have you found contemporary thought and ways of life misguided or twisted? Where are you left wanting more?
And if you can trust Christ's faithfulness and presence even now in the Scriptures and worship and communion and Christlike action that continue to tell the stories, what choice or commitment would it empower you to make?