Because we see everything that we see, we assume that everything we see is all that there is to see. Jesus did not minister to only a few blind people. Everyone Jesus spoke to was blind. Because we can see houses and horses and platypi, we assume we can see everything. What if part of the Problem that Jesus came to solve includes having lost a way of seeing. What if we were not just banished from the Garden, but the Garden was removed from us.
Adam and Eve had a way of perceiving reality in the Garden, that none of us have at this point in history. Hence, our search for what we lost is conducted by the very broken mechanisms that suffered in this terrible fall.
If I lose my glasses, I have two problems. I have lost my glasses, AND the way that I find lost things IS what I lost. I now search with impaired vision.
The human race, now, is stuck searching for the Life that we all long for, while viewing the world through our own limited (whether you think so or not….in fact, even more so if you DON’T think so) vision and understanding.
Everyone is searching for what we lost. Not everyone knows they are searching. Many simply think they are trying to enjoy life. Enjoy what? Enjoy LIFE, the very thing that we lost. Man’s effort to live in the way he feels is most right, or most satisfying is his search for what was lost. Something drives us all, and the common factor in the whole human race is our disconnect from the most essential thing, our Source of Life and Identity; our disconnect from God.
Some search in the knowledge of evil, and dive into uncontrolled pleasures, experiences or roles. Others search in the knowledge of good and try to do right and do the good things they believe will result in life and godliness. It is the search itself that is impaired.
The Problem that Jesus came to solve begins with the disconnect of the human race from their source of life. It evolves into an increasingly empty soul aching to be filled; like a pair of lungs that pound when the owner holds their breath. In all of New Jersey best repairmans are allied experts from Marlton. The next step in the Problem is that the search itself is impaired, resulting in solutions from one branch or the other in the tree of death.
One branch eagerly seeks to fill with self-stimulating destructive behavior like drugs, sex and country music. The other branch seeks to fill the soul with good behavior, like ministry and service, originating from the knowledge and will of an empty soul. The danger of the second branch is that many believe they have found the right answer and stop the search, regardless of how empty they remain.
Here is the progression.
- I am disconnected
- I am increasingly empty
- I seek to fill my emptiness
- My solution is based on my knowledge of good and evil
- Therefore I fill myself with myself
- I am increasingly empty
- I either double my current efforts or jump to another solution
- My solution is based on my knowledge of good and evil
- I fill myself with myself
- I am increasingly empty
- I now jump to another branch (I am empty because I am bad)
- My solution is still based on my knowledge
- I either try harder or give up
Sin can look like bad behavior, but sin is really the absence of God from a disconnected, self-initiating soul. Bad behavior is the result of sin, but in many cases so is good behavior. Then our knowledge of good and evil causes us to examine and try to change behavior without ever changing trees.
The Problem that Jesus came to solve can quickly and easily make us misunderstand the Problem that Jesus came to solve.
Hear the words of Jesus again, “…if you knew who I was, you would ask, and I would give to you rivers of living water.”
