Refusing to be Distracted by Good Things

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” John 5:39-40

Years before I sat in his classes myself, one of my favorite college professors had gotten into fair amount of trouble with the college because of an article he wrote, saying that he didn’t believe in the Bible. Granted, he was trying to be provocative with his wording. He shouldn’t have been surprised by the scrutiny he received, and he should have been more gracious toward those challenging him. When he recounted this ordeal to our class years later, he hoped we could understand his primary claim: The Bible wasn’t crucified for our sins; The Bible didn’t rise again on the third day; The Bible didn’t walk the streets of Capernaum 2,000 years ago and live a perfect life on our behalf. The basis of Dr. Webber’s faith wasn’t rooted in words but in a person – the living and active Jesus.

My professor both ruffled feathers and made a critical point we all needed to hear – and still do. In the Bible, we find the words of Life, but we need the Speaker of these words more than the words themselves. The Bible reveals who God is, who we are, what it looks like to live faithfully in a broken world, and the beauty of the gospel; it shows so very much. It may be that through the Bible a person encounters Jesus and comes to saving faith; yet that person still needs Jesus. Without question, Christians need the Bible. But more than that, we need the One who the Bible is fundamentally about.

This is the foundational truth driving Jesus’s interaction with his audience in John 5:39-40. Most Jews (and certainly their leaders) had become a people who clung to the Scriptures as though they would provide eternal life. The Scriptures became the basis of their faith, and that’s the root of Jesus's critique: they had missed the point of the Scriptures all together. God never revealed Himself to Israel just so they could have a revelation. He revealed Himself to them so they might look forward to the coming of the Messiah. There was a greater goal to the revelation than establishing a people to be recipients of a revelation. To many Christians, that seems obvious. But, it’s clear from countless places in the Bible that many Jews were stumbling over the distinction between being “Israel” but not “Israel” in the way that Paul makes a distinction in Romans 9-11.

In Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis suggests that good things become bad things when we have made them ultimate things, and this seems to be very much at the heart of Jesus’s critique in John 5. They had taken the Scriptures (Good) and so deeply focussed on them above all else (Ultimate) that they ignored the One that the entirety of the Scriptures were about (Bad). Of course we could debate that they would have celebrated Jesus as the true Messiah if they really loved the Scriptures, and that’s certainly true. But Jesus’s point here is that the Jews were trying to make the Scriptures do something they never were intended to do. In Romans 8:2-3 Paul says, “For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do …” Like Jesus, the Apostle Paul isn’t saying that the Law or the Scriptures are bad; they just can’t save us. That’s much of Paul’s criticism of the Jews in Romans – they were trusting in being God’s covenant people and being the recipients of the Scriptures rather than in trusting in and depending upon God. It’s also much of Jesus’s accusation against the Jews in His day: they were trusting to find salvation in something that was never intended to save them. If the Scriptures alone were enough to save God’s people, then the Messiah wouldn’t have need to come.

Let’s be clear, neither Jesus nor Paul would suggest that the Scriptures are anything less than true, beautiful, and good. Similarly, searching the Scriptures is a good thing. Jesus never says it’s not. In fact, it’s wonderful; they’re the very words of God. But, His people misused a very good thing by putting their hopes in that good thing that could never support their hopes.

There’s a strong lesson here for those of us in Christian education. Christian education is good. Dare I even say, necessary. Beyond the notion of Christian education itself, many of the things we focus on in our schools are also good. I don’t presume to think we’re doing everything wonderfully; we do believe in the Fall, after all. But generally speaking, we engage good things in our schools: helping students learn important information and skills, challenging them to be thoughtful and to ask good questions, modeling for them a love for learning, setting them up for collegiate and career success, and nurturing a concern for others and for the importance of the local Body of Christ. All good things.

If our graduates go to college, that’s good. If they earn millions of dollars in scholarships, that’s good. If their average ACT scores fall above the national norms, that’s good. What about successful careers in various fields … even in the trades? Good. State Championships? Of course. What about hundreds of service hours and mission trips? Yep, those too. Bible Verses for the year. Spiritual emphasis weeks. Professional Development courses on biblical worldview. Alumni enrolling their own children back in their alma-maters. So many good things coming out of our schools.

But, what if we are so focussed on the good things of education that we forget the primary thing. “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.” High ACT scores, elite colleges, service projects, and successful careers won’t save our students. Only Jesus will. Of course we know this. We all know it. But, we need to be reminded of the absolute necessity of “keeping the main thing the main thing.”

Looking back, I can’t say that I prioritized my students seeing how good Jesus is. I imagine they can remember that I’m a huge fan of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis, intellectual rigor, writing well, asking thoughtful questions, football, track & field, and my wife and kids. It’s likely true, because I know I talked about all of these a lot; each of these had captivated my heart and mind. Would my students say that I was more captivated by these good things than Jesus? I’m not arguing that geography teachers should talk about Jesus more than geography or that biology teachers should talk about Jesus more than biology. But, Christian school students should know that their Christian teachers are more enamored by Jesus than they are by their subject, lesson, or sport. It should never even be a question. But, it won’t happen without severe intentionality.

This should be true throughout the “feel” of our schools. It should never be mistaken that the we prioritize anything (even good things) above God. I don’t think any of us can question that the Jews in Jesus’s day valued the Scriptures, but it’s quite clear that Jesus believed they valued the Scriptures more than the God of the Scriptures. Is it possible that we are more interested in successes, curriculum, policies and procedures, public perception, balanced budgets, and full enrollments than the God who made any of these things possible? I know that no Christian school would say they have prioritize any of these things above God, but functionally we might not be too far from the Jews of Jesus’s day. Good things become bad things when they become ultimate things.

Let’s commit to being the sorts of Christian educators that don’t merely study or pursue good things but that we do so because we are seeking Jesus in them - vigorously. That might mean we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to so work in us that we can’t help but seek to know more of God in all of our educational pursuits and keep this in front of our students every day. Maybe we need to get in the habit of reminding our students that the reason we’re studying or pursuing the things we are is because we’re seeking to see how God reveals Himself in them. That’s even why we read the Bible - not so we can find salvation in the Bible, but so we can know more of God who has accomplished our salvation.