as i travel thru ThisPilgrimLand

The Mystery is Solved

…make the word of God fully known, 26 the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. 27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Colossians 1:25-27

Has there ever been a better cartoon than that old classic Scooby Doo?  Watching the young group of crime fighters and their cowardly dog travel from place to place in their Mystery Machine to solve ghostly mysteries week after week was a highlight of my childhood.  Personally, I always really enjoyed the episodes in which the Harlem Globetrotters made cameo appearances.  The Scooby Doo crew fought witches, sea creatures, ghosts, and mummies in each episode and there was always one thing in common at the end of each episode.  The unveiling always took place.  It was the time when Daphne, Fred, but normally Velma would stitch all the evidence together to explain the mystery and then, the monster would have it’s face torn off only to reveal a sinister man or woman who had something to gain, monetary gain seemed to be the most common.  The unveiling was the time when the villain would utter the now famous words, “…and I would have gotten away with it too if it hadn’t been for you {insert adjective} kids.”  Everything was then peaceful and calm and the crew could move on to their next mystery, show over.

As we look around the Christian landscape today, what we see is a large population of Christians who are looking to solve mysteries.  Emergent and post-modern thought consists of this never ending search for answers to questions that we want answered.  Are people born gay and if so how could a loving God punish them?  Why does a loving God allow bad things to happen to small children?  What happens to the spirit after we die?  If I am raped and get pregnant, is it a sin to have an abortion?  The list goes on and on and there are no definite answers to be found in scripture that give us answers that everyone will believe in.  Therefore, the post-modern  idea  that there is no real truth has been allowed to breed in the minds of not only our universities and science labs, but in our churches as well.  We want to solve the mysteries and we all want to be the ones who get to rip off the veil at the end of the next episode of Scooby Doo.  It’s almost as if we have taken God and turned him into a villain who is going to utter that he would have gotten away with something if it hadn’t been for the many pesky theologians.

I have bad news for all of these supposed sleuths though.  The mystery has already been solved.  All of the answers to the questions we have and want answered have been answered and God Himself withdrew the veil.  Through Christ, all of the questions we have are answered.  Through the good news that God once haunted his children with a rigorous demand of perfection and annual sacrifice but made that demand void through His Son’s death, the greatest mystery, “Who is God,” has been solved.  God is our Father, God is our Keeper, God is the Loving One who understands that our minds cannot fathom even an ounce of understanding about who and what He is and who made the ultimate sacrifice so that we can see who He is.  God is love and Christ’s blood lying at the foot of the cross on Calvary is confirmation and evidence of this fact.

All of our questions that we want answered and that are not specifically and wholly answered in scripture are not even worth asking and at the end of our lives, will not matter in the least.  All of the evidence has been gathered and presented and and the veil of the mystery is lifted, but we want to go back and have someone explain why in a haunted medieval castle there was a kitchen full of hamburgers that Scooby and Shaggy feasted on.  It doesn’t matter.  Does it make sense, not at all, but at the end of the day, where the hamburgers came from, why they were there, and who put them there are all inconsequential to the mystery being solved.  The mystery for all of mankind is over and all the evidence points to Jesus Christ.  These questions that we allow to flood our minds are all answered in scripture where God unveils that Christ and our faith in Him is the answer.

As discerning Christians, let us look closely at the evidence that men are presenting to us.  Should what is being taught not match the gospel of Christ, lift the veil yourself.  What will be found is that just as in the old Scooby Doo shows, there will be man, not God, but man.  Twisting words, coming up with great pyrotechnics and optical illusions, setting moods with music, and using scare tactics, man will be beneath the mask when lifted.  Just as the villain on the old cartoon, many of those who look to gain financially or in status by abusing God’s word and people, they play on the fears or learned preconceived notions of people in order to invoke a response that will work favorably in their quest.  I challenge you as you read this to listen to what you are being taught and lift the mask off of it.  You will find one of two things; God as presented in the Holy text, or man.  If it is man, you will be sent off to the next mystery, always seeking but never arriving at truth (2 Tim. 3:7), or you will find the gospel of Jesus Christ as presented in the scripture.  If it is Christ, you will find Him inside of you, confirming what you have been taught and seeing the direct link back to the cross where He died. This is the promise given by God and as presented in Colossians 1.

The mask is in your hand if you own a Bible and to find the answers that we need to know, simply lift the cover.  The next time you open your Bible and begin reading scripture, don’t look for answers to great unsolved mysteries that are inconsequential to your salvation.  Look for Christ!  In each and every passage, link the evidence that is in the scripture back to Christ.  The mystery is solved.