Notions about God

A friend of mine, before becoming a vicar, was a geography teacher. He would take students on field trips down to the Jurassic Coast. He tells of how part of their exploring covered an area of scrubland. Here, there was a hut where a hermit lived. He says, ‘I had a well rehearsed patter about who this person might be, where he was from and why he was here’. Then, on one particular visit and following his well rehearsed routine, he took his youngsters near to the hut; the door opened and there was the occupant. ‘Now I was going to see how those speculations of mine would stand up against the reality as we met him face-to-face.’

Similarly, many of us have our own ideas of what the unseen God might be like but will they stack up when it matters? One of the first Christian missionaries, Paul of Tarsus, turned up in the Greek capital. He found a multiplicity of idols and shrines to various gods. Like today, there was no shortage of religious and philosophical theories about life, purpose and the divine. Paul even found a shrine marked ‘to an unknown God’.

It was in this setting that Paul told them about Jesus. He assured them that God was mindful of their ignorance but now they needed to listen up because human history had taken a new turn. No longer did they need to speculate about who the God of all ‘gods’ was.

The Jesus that Paul told them about was the long-promised Jewish Messiah. He was more than the Jews had bargained for. Jesus’ own claims, backed up by his miracles and teachings, strongly indicated that he was the exact likeness of God himself; God in the form of man. Could this really be so?

God raised Jesus from the dead and he was seen by hundreds, most of whom were still alive when Paul was addressing the people. This resurrection was God’s vindication of Jesus; there was no longer room for speculation: know Jesus and you know God.

Having heard this, the people of Athens could not claim ignorance nor have an excuse for idle notions. Likewise for us. At this point, the command went out; they were to turn from trusting idols and instead trust and hope in Jesus. Will we?