At Bible study last night, one verse that got quoted was Luke 10:21:
"In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so,
Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight" (KJV).
I
think that this verse can be taken in unfortunate anti-intellectual
directions: you don't have to listen to scholars, since God reveals
wisdom to the simple; you don't have to understand why someone believes
what she believes and respond to that, since reasoning is irrelevant, as
knowledge of "the" truth comes by revelation.
This verse was
quoted on the DVD that we watched within the context of the typical
narrative that the marginalized, humble people came to the truth (i.e.,
accepting Jesus as the Messiah), whereas the scholars and religious
leaders missed out. There are many conservative evangelicals who would
draw from this narrative the lesson that we don't need to listen to
scholarly "worldly wisdom" because the scholars of Jesus' day missed out
on the truth. Can we also take from this narrative the lesson that
maybe we shouldn't trust today's religious establishment because the
religious leaders of Jesus' day missed out on the truth? I doubt that a
number of conservative evangelicals would want to go there, as such an
idea would conflict with their belief in church "authority"!
I'm
not sure if my problem is merely with the misuse of Luke 10:21, or with
Luke 10:21 itself. I'll have to admit that I can't think of ways to
interpret Luke 10:21 in a way that makes me completely comfortable. I
will say this, though: there is perhaps a valuable lesson in Luke 10:21,
namely, that God can work in ways that we don't quite expect. We all
(or many of us) have our biases and blinders, our egos and insecurities,
our desires for power and acknowledgement of how the world "really"
works. I should take heed that these marks of "sophistication" not
blind me to the good things that God does in the world.
In a similar vein to some of my concerns, check out Pete Enns' excellent post here.