parresia

miracle, mystery, and authorityI read

miracle, mystery, and authority

I read what is acclaimed as one of the greatest chapters ever written by human pen, and this of course from a book that is to my mind among the best the human mind has put to paper-- Brothers Karamazov. The chapter is titled "The Grand Inquisitor," and many of you know that it is often published on its own in bookstores--usually under the Philosophy/Theology section.
Dostoyevsky tells a tale through the voice of brother Ivan-- "a Poema" Ivan calls it-- that recounts an appearance of Christ during the pinnacle of The Inquisition. And who do we find "in charge" of this Inquisition but that of one of Satan's demons in the form of a Roman Catholic Cardinal known to the community as the Grand Inquisitor, for he is responsible for sending hundreds to firery deaths at the stake on account of him finding them to be "heretics." Upon the inquisitor's immediate recognition of who Christ was, he had Christ arrested and thrown into prison. That night as Christ waited in the cell, the Inquisitor comes to speak with Jesus. It is the Inquisitor's monologue (for Christ did not utter one word the entire time) that comprises the bulk of the chapter.
One can imagine such a scene, and it made my arms crawl. Among the Inquisitor's first words to Christ are, "Why have you come to get in our way?" I admonish anyone reading my words make as a goal before death to read the brothers, for the grave will not be earned in full if one has not beheld nor cherished such blessing and curse.

The Inquisitor goes into great depth describing to Christ why humans rejected Him, and why it was Christ's mistake-- this mistake taking place with His answer to just three questions in the wilderness. According to The Evil Cardinal all of human history can be summed up in Christ's rejection of Satan's temptations: "why, by those very questions alone, by the sheer miralce of their emergence it is possible to gain the realization that one is dealing not with a fleeting human intelligence, but with one that is eternal and ablsolute. For it is as if in those three questions there is conjoined into a single whole and prophesied the entire subsequent history of mankind, there are manifested the three images in which all the unresolved historical contradictions of human nature throughout all the earth will coincide." I thought I would summarize these points for you.

1. (miracle) In the first temptation Satan asked Christ to make the stones into bread, and Christ's eternally-sublime response was "man shall not live by bread alone." The Inquisitor reasons that here Christ, in order to protect Justice, did not give humans what they want (their felt need), namely food. Christ offers spiritual bread instead, and this, according to the Inquisitor, is not immediate enough for humans-- humans want to be comforted, now, in their despair, and they want that comfort to come in material form-- not spiritual bread that comes by faith. So the human says, "enslave us if you will, but feed us..." The Inquisitor says that that is exactly what they (Satan's realm) has given mankind; he says they have fed mankind and in return mankind has willingly given themselves over to slavery. Slavery to Satan. "You promised them the bread of heaven, but, again I repeat, can it compare in the eyes of the weak?" how often does this describe my own life? How often do I, instead of looking to Christ's offer of spiritual support, look to immediate desires that I want filled? It seems Dostoyevsky was pressing very firmly on the pulse of mankind's sin and depravity when he penned these thoughts...for certainly he too knew how base and askew we have treated the promises of God as found in the blessings of salvation.

2. (mystery) In the second temptation Satan asked, "If you woud know whether you are the Son of God, then cast yourself down from hence, for it is written that the angels will take charge of him and bear him up, and he will not fall and dash him to pieces-- then you will know if you are the Son of God, and will prove how much faith you have in your Father." Christ replied, "It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test." In this Christ, according to the Inquisitor, failed to perform that miracle: he failed to show mankind that miracle. Since man did then reject the miracle (for having not seen it) they also rejected God for "man does not seek God so much as miracles. And since man is not strong enough to get by without the miracle, he creates new miracles for himself, his own now, and bows down before the miracle of the quack and the witchcraft of the peasant woman..." In this Christ demonstrated that He wishes a faith that is of love, not miraculous-- a man who follows God out of gratitude, not for signs and wonders. This, according to the Cardinal, shows us Christ's love, but the Cardinal finds slavery, not love, to be desired more by man. It is most interesting that here Dostoyevsky points to the mystery of faith, and that out of that mystery comes the beauty of salvation. Just as Jesus said Himself, "blessed are those who have not seen, yet still believe." Christ could have, and still could present us with amazing miracles daily, but according to The Author this would amount to a slavery to the miraculous. God does not desire slaves but rather those freely to worship Him.

3. (authority) Lastly, Satan after showing Jesus all the nations of the world spoke, "All this I will give you, if you will bow down and worship me." Christ replied, "For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only." The Demonized Cardinal says of Christ's reply to Satan that if he would have just accepted Satan's offer, and bowed down to Satan then all the world would have what it seeks: that is someone to bow down before, someone to entrust one's conscience to, and a way of at last uniting everyone into an undisputed, general and consensual ant-heap. For so says the Inquisitor man much more would rather that ALL are "in agreement", not some, so that their "trust" in whom they bow down will be undisputed: they want to be enslaved, but not enslaved alone, they want all of mankind to come along too. "For the preoccupation of these miserable creatrures consists not only in finding that before which I or another may bow down, but in finding something that everyone can come to believe in and bow down before, and that it should indeed be everyone, and that they should do it all together. It is this need for a community of bowing-down that has been the principal torment of each individual person and of mankind as a whole since the earliest ages." This touches so much of the Christian life it's hard to know what to focus on, but two key points stick out in my mind. First, is that sinful nature desires to be apart of the "group" (pack mentality) and in so trying to fulfill this base desire we take steps that destroy the Gospel. We water down the message of Scripture in order to appeal to all. We make allowances that for those persons who the Bible clearly makes no such allowances. We try to "dress up" Christianity: making it look and feel fresh and hip (almost easy), under the mantle of "evangelism" but too often its true motive is to rationalize on account of making it more appealing to the masses. Second, we allow our emotions to sinfully block certain portions of scripture-- God really did wipe out whole nations, including women and children. God really did die a bloody death, to the point that His corpse was unrecognizable, god really does promise to send those who have rejected Him into everlasting torment. These truths are not easy to accept, and many members of the human race will be shocked and offended by it, but that does not give us license to omit/color/modify/temper these truths under the banner of "Christian outreach" nor to make our religion appear more "friendly."

I hope one can see at least a glimpse of the tremendous insight nestled in The Author's words (I assure you there is much more to this chapter and book that have remained unmentioned). I'll be thinking now of Christ's temptation in light of my own daily rejection of His grace and blessing, doing this I find a man who needs to fall prostrate in repentance.