May 3, 2010

Magical thinking seems to be a basic characteristic of fallen Man.  Human beings have such a capacity to take things, even spiritual things, and turn them into idols!  The story of Micah is one such example, and his creation of an idol and the hiring of a priest to serve it for him, shows how one man's idolatry can spread to a whole clan, as his did to the tribe of Dan.

The passage in John has interesting (although perhaps not obvious) connections to this story of Micah and his idol.  Jesus, in His conversation with Nicodemus, says, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3: 14-15

If you'll remember, back in Numbers, the Israelites complained against the Lord, and were struck by a plague of "fiery serpents" [this Hebrew word saraph can, interestingly enough, be translated poisonous serpent, winged dragon, or seraphim].  When Moses prayed for the people, God told him, "Make a saraph, and set it on a pole; and it shall be that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, shall live." Numbers 21:8  God provided the antidote.

But the Israelites seemed to have the same darkened understanding as Nicodemus, who replied to Jesus statement about being born-again with, “How can these things be?”   Instead of remembering and trusting in God's greatness and goodness, they fell into idolatry once again, and a godly king had to make corrections:

[Hezekiah] removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan." 2 Kings 18:4

Magical thinking is a developmental issue.  Young children attribute unrealistic powers to themselves and things when they wrongly interpret events and make assumptions about cause and effect that are not based on truth.  I made a wish and blew out my birthday cake candles, and I got what I wished for.  When people don't develop properly, and continue to make wrong assumptions about things they really don't understand, magical thinking progresses into superstitions and idolatry.  These things can get entrenched into families and cultures, forming belief systems that strongly resist logic and truth.

In His conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus was dealing with a strongly entrenched religious system that was as much based in tradition and magical thinking as it was on the Jewish heritage of Mosaic law and the prophets.  His answer to how can these things be? was “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven." John 3:10-13

I never saw, until now, that Jesus was speaking of His being "seated in heavenly places" before His death and resurrection.  You can take His statement as prophetic, or as a statement of His condition at the time He was speaking.  I see it as both.  He was saying to Nicodemus that if you are born-again of the Spirit, you live in the heavenly realm as well as the natural.  Until you are born-again, you interpret everything naturally, even spiritual things-- even God's actions.  That is why most of the Pharisees saw what Jesus did, such a healing people, as a physical action only.

Seeing Christ on the cross, when interpreted spiritually and understood with the born-again mind enlightened by the Spirit of Truth, is the antidote for everything that afflicts mankind.  As the "type and shadow" bronze serpent on the pole was the antidote for the venomous bite of a serpent, so is what Christ accomplished on the cross the antidote for the effects of believing the lies of Satan, ("So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world" Revelation 12:9).

It doesn't do any good to make a religious icon out of a spiritual picture, and worshipping such becomes idolatry.  A crucifix doesn't heal anything, although some faith in God's power to heal might bring some healing to someone looking at a crucifix, even if the faith was misplaced onto the crucifix.  Eventually, though, the faith will be extinguished and the crucifix will become an idol, when seen through the eyes of flesh.

Faith based in the reality of who Jesus Christ is and what He did is not magical thinking.  "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21  The more we exercise our faith in Him, the more we will be delivered from the power of deception and sin, the more everlasting life we will experience.  Whatever we need to be saved from, Christ is the antidote, received by faith.

Bonus study:  the commonly used symbol for the medical profession is possibly related to the image of the serpent Moses used; but there are other ancient symbols that it is related to, of idolatrous meaning.  If a person can receive healing from God through a doctor, then God used the doctor as an instrument; but if a person looks to the medical profession as its savior, how much healing are they going to get?  The pagan symbolism is much more fitting for the magical thinking and idolatry that has become so prevalent in today's society.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caduceus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_of_Asclepius