Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

Matthew 5:17-18

For too long, our theology has been laid out by theologians, and not by children.  Ask any eight-year old what it means that the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven hidden in dough means, and they’ll tell you that it means, more or less, that the Kingdom of Heaven is like leaven!  It takes a real grown-up to tell you, after reading the words of Jesus, that the Kingdom of Heaven is anything other than what He just said it was.

What does the Kingdom resemble?  A little bit of yeast!  (Matthew 13:33).  What must we do to have life within ourselves?  Eat and drink His blood (John 6:53).  Simple, eh?

Yes, it was offensive for the Jews to receive that the Kingdom could be like leaven, in that for many feasts, leaven stood as a symbol for sin and corruption within a “loaf”, or community.  But, it was much more offensive for Him to say they had to eat human flesh and drink blood, a forbidden thing even of animals.  Jesus obviously was more interested in truth than He was about offending a religious mind.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:1-4

A child trusts and relies.  It owns nothing of its own, but needs all the time!  It’s whiny!  But, most of all, especially at a young age, it has no duplicity.  If there is one under-utilized key in the entire of the Gospels, it is this.

The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.  Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.  If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark,  the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light.

Luke 11:34-36 KJV (emphasis mine)

When your eye is single, without complicity, without complication, without anything other than just seeing it as it is, like a child sees, your whole body is full of light.  John 1:4 says that the light that was in Jesus was the life of men.  This was what He wanted: a simple heart, a single eye, a heart that isn’t defending itself.  He asks for a soul that isn’t hiding, isn’t protecting or scheming or putting any agenda or interpretation on anything.  Like a napkin unfolded, with only one layer, that is how pure God wants us to see everything.

And, the stuff that gets in the way of that is what most of what Jesus came to address.  And, when that darkness of duplicity turns into a religious order that exercises its authority over others, and presupposes it own correctness simply because of position or a doctrinal creed, often using terms of duty, honor, and religious decency and order, we have such corruption that God had to turn His own nation away.

And He was giving orders to them, saying, Watch out! Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.

Mark 8:15

Beware of teachings hypocrisy and iniquity.  They will always corrupt.

There is only one thing that answers the cry of the human heart, and that is meeting with its Father, and receiving His approval.  It is not the doctrine of these things, but actually meeting Him.

There is only One Thing in all creation that will ever satisfy the human heart, and that is to be Okay in the Father’s house, with Him in His Easy Chair (Exodus 25:22).

Right understanding of the scriptures is always the right context for any encounter with the Father, but right understanding of scriptures outside of an experiential encounter is never right understanding!  Jesus came to restore right relationship with the Father (John 14:6), and there is no life outside of this (John 17:3).

The most bizarre thing in the world is grown up theology that does not touch the heart of God nor experience Him.  We can know all the knowable facts about our King straight from the Word (so we think), and yet, none of them have any meaning whatsoever.  Like, pretending we know how to ride horses because we’ve read a thousand Western novels.  Like saying we are pilots because we watch the airplanes at the air show.  Like saying we are dating a movie-star because we read their bio on the internet.

I met my God because I cried in desperation until He came.  I know that He knows me, because I begged Him until He came.  Ya, I probably should have had more faith, and I don’t really care how it came about for you, I know that He came because He heard my cry for mercy.  I know that He loves me, because He does.

Right theology would have helped me, and would have steered me clear of many errors that I have made along the way, but right theology for someone in my condition was found in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

If I had just tried to put a band-aid on my wound, and claim I was merely righteous by the blood, which I am, and left it at, I would be dead.  If I had had theology, but not pursuit and possession, I would not be standing today.

Is it my effort or His?  It’s always His, and His strength working mightily through me, but at the end of the day, my body feels the pain of sore muscles, and my brain feels the tax of the tears, until I reach the place of desperation, until I reach the place of brokenness and of desperation that Jesus called Poverty of Spirit, and then, by His Kingdom, His strength takes over, for His strength is made perfect in my lack.  It is in those moments that mine is the Kingdom.

Theology told me the truth, and I have accepted it with thankfulness, but it was God that gave me life.  Period.

Every Word of God is pure, refined in the Fire.  It would do well for us not to neglect His words, simply when they don’t make sense.  To the mind of a child Jesus spoke, to the humble, poor in Spirit, and often broken.  If you got yours, good, keep it.  I’ll get mine, thank-you very much.  But, the least in the Kingdom is the one who breaks the smallest commandment and teaches others to do so as well, and the greatest is the one like the child.

And, though we do not know the way to go, we are simply told to seek, and we will find, knock and it will be opened, ask and it will be given.  And, in that place, where theology meets theophany, I am made glad.