Worship

Scripture

As I searched reliable commentaries for insight into today’s final chapters from Zechariah, I found that when the great Martin Luther, founder of the Protestant Reformation, sought to comment on chapter 14, he wrote, “I give up. For I am not sure what the prophet is talking about.”  

Gosh,  what intelligent remarks am I expected to offer about this passage after one of history’s greatest commentators shrugged his shoulders in wonder about the passage’s meaning?  

But I got over my initial wonder when I considered a principle that I’ve often encouraged students to consider when dealing with complex issues that don’t have simple answers, or maybe no answer at all.  I ask them to consider this possibility: “Sometimes, the question is greater than the answer.”  In other words, we are sometimes left to wonder, and that’s OK, because God approves of our wondering when wondering leads to the search for his truth.  The alternative to wonder in this instance is wander, and wandering easily ends up in our getting lost!

So I’m not disturbed that Luther left the interpretation of Zechariah 14 hanging.  No mortal is given to understand all things about God, about scripture, about eternal truth.  Anyone who could understand all things would be equal to God!  There is also the danger of dogmatism, when a thinker assumes to know and understand the meaning of an inconclusive scriptural matter and ends up expressing  personal opinions or beliefs as if those beliefs cannot be doubted.  We could make a good argument that dogmatic thinking has done more damage to the church’s witness across the ages than false prophets.

So the take-away from this devotion is the assurance that, for everything I am not, God is.  And it follows that not having the answer to every question is OK.  What we can do when confronted with a difficult question is to ask for the discernment requested in the familiar “Serenity Prayer”, which begins like this: “God grant me the serenity / To accept the things I cannot change.”   That unanswerable question is a thing that we cannot change!  May God’s grace and peace govern our minds when we face those questions that are greater than our understanding.  

Then may we wonder, not wander.

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