Mirrored Audacity

We look and sound the most silly when we least understand.

Consider some of the things you’ve said or done over your life that can still make you cringe and/or blush today.  At some point we’ve all stuck the proverbial foot in our mouths.  Our words clearly expressing the fact that we don’t know what we were talking about, and now everybody knows it.

These experiences can cause us to develop a filter through which every word must pass before it receives permission to be spoken.  We turn our attention inward in an attempt to retain our dignity in the eyes of others.  This can be a good thing.

But if we spend too much time self-evaluating we may miss the reality of the universe-cracking truths that are all around us.  Sometimes it takes being offended or alarmed at what someone else says to make us aware of those truths.  We gain a new understanding of the fine line between the two sides of audacity.

audacity:

1.  boldness or daring: daring or willingness to challenge assumptions or conventions or tackle something difficult or dangerous

2.  impudence: lack of respect in somebody's behavior toward another person

OMG!

In Matthew 8/9, there are actions and statements that could cause some eyebrows to raise or palms to sweat.  Statements or demands made to/about Jesus that, when observed through the lens of what we view as “proper”, seem inappropriate and bordering on hubris.

They are made by people both foreign and common to Jesus.  They are made by friends, strangers, and enemies of Jesus.  They are all made in the context of approaching Jesus.  And they all provide keys to understanding.

First, a leper approaches Jesus.  This probably set some people on edge as it unfolded and is the most alarming aspect of the scene.  The audacity of a leper to make contact with someone else is alarming, “wrong”, even scandalous.  There were rules in place to govern what and where a leper could do or go.  This action is clearly not in line with convention.  Then comes the statement, “…you can make me clean.”  As clearly confident as his footsteps forward.

Next, a soldier, a foreign soldier, comes to Jesus.  Not as unlikely an approach, but a “marvelous” scene of boldness when we get to the conversation.  The soldier simply states that his servant is paralyzed at his house.  Jesus says he will come.  But the soldier redirects the course of events.  He basically says, “No, not that way.”  He tells Jesus how to heal his servant.  And in telling Jesus what to do exhibits a right-minded boldness based on a right-minded understanding.

Subsequently, the disciples find themselves in a boat on the sea in the middle of a great storm.  And they find Jesus…asleep.  They approach him with apparent faithlessness due to a lack of understanding.  “We are perishing!”, they say.  Jesus remedies their perspective by displaying a marvel of his own.  He talks to the wind.  He commands the waves.  And they obey.  Their jaws drop in order to facilitate that proverbial foot we mentioned earlier.

There are others.  Demons, speaking through men, seemingly dictate to Jesus what to do with them.  Religious leaders miss the point of the healing of one and a calling of another, so Jesus spells it out.  Wrong-headed questions from wrong-headed understanding.

 Stepping Towards The Mirror

All these people approached Jesus with an understanding.  Their understanding guided what they boldly did or said to Jesus.  And Jesus’s responses show us which ones understood rightly.  He serves as a mirror to which all come and discover the truth.

Those who approached Jesus with a right understanding are affirmed in their boldness by him.  The leper was healed.  The soldier was elevated as the epitome of understanding.

Those who approached with a wrong understanding were shown the faultiness of their misguided boldness.  The disciples witnessed how the voice of Jesus was the same voice heard at the creation of the universe.  They understood him to be less than He is, and He corrected their too-little premises.

So I ask you, which of the two do you relate with?  Which appeared more reasonable to you before Jesus lifted the cover and revealed what/who was truly right?

Our actions and words show upon what understanding they are based.  And in an attempt to fit in we often act and speak in line with the majority because its easier to be accepted than to be audacious.  However, if we stand before the mirror long enough we’re going to discover that God is not acting in a conventional way.  And the more we understand what God has done, we will find ourselves moving and speaking in ways that will seem silly to many.

The (Seemingly) Impossible Truth

It’s easier to believe with the unbelieving because what they believe is less grand than the truth.  And here is the truth.

It is impossible to approach God more boldly than He has approached us.

The leper’s approach and the soldier’s approach are not as out of line as might be thought on initial perception.  But they are completely in line with the language God is speaking.  They understood who Jesus was and what God was doing in approaching them (a rejected outcast and a resented enemy), and they mirrored Him.

God’s entrance into our lives is not a polite whisper dripping with syrupy politeness.  There is no etiquette or form that God abides by in His approach.  He is blunt.  He is direct.  He is audacious.

And if He, as great as He truly is, will blaze so bold a path to me, as ungreat as I truly am, then should I not reciprocate with as bold a belief?  Should I not lay aside my proud misunderstandings and be wholly grasped by true understanding?  Yes.  Even if it makes me look silly to most.

Because an understanding of the truth should lead to exhibitions of audacity.  Wondered at by some leading to their encouragement.  Ruffling the feathers of others highlighting their hubris.  Illustrating for all the marvelous approach of God to man.