Mystic Wonder

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” -Luke 18:15-17

This can probably be misunderstood. For some folks out there, this can be considered something of a justification that you don't really have to "study" the Bible, since it's simple enough for a child to understand. After all, Jesus said that anyone who is not "childlike" cannot enter the kingdom of God. This verse can even be used as a non-so-subtle criticism against the Jewish tradition to study Torah and to honor such study.

Of course, there's more than one way to look at the Master's teaching:

If you want to understand something to its depths, first approach it with the mind of a five-year-old. Ask the innocent and obvious questions and make things clear and simple. Through that clarity, you will perceive the depths.
-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
"Start Simple"
Chabad.org

That's certainly one way to interpret this teaching of the Jewish Messiah and it fits with the theme of studying the Word and approaching it as a small child would. You start at the surface or in the shallow end of the pool, like a child first learning how to swim. Eventually, depending on the amount of time and effort you put into your swimming though, you could end up in the Olympics or as an oceanographer exploring the ocean's depths.

However, there's yet another perspective to consider:

Amazement never ceases for the enlightened mind. At every moment it views with amazement the wonder of an entire world renewed out of the void, and asks, "Why is there anything at all and not just nothing?"
-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
"Wonder"
Chabad.org

This is how I tend to understand the words of Jesus (Yeshua). He wasn't necessarily saying that only the young and unsophisticated mind can approach the wisdom of God, but rather, that we should continually strive to see the world around us with fresh eyes, as if experiencing all of Creation for the first time.

The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. -Derek K. Miller (1969-2011)

Derek Miller died after a long struggle with cancer, just a few days ago at the age of 41.He leaves behind a wife and two young daughters. He didn't have faith in God and expected, when he died, that would be the end of all things for him. Blackness. Emptiness. Non-existence. No meeting with God.

Yet, in the face of suffering and anguish, he was able to write those incredible words and to see his environment with the eyes of wonder; the eyes of a child. These are the eyes and the heart that Jesus speaks of when he asked that the children be brought to him. If Derek Miller can see the world this way and yet seemingly not know God, how much more should we experience God's Creation as a child, seeing it every day through the lens of faith?

You cannot separate the mystical from the practical. Each thing has both a body and a soul, and they act as one. Neither can contradict the other, and in each the other can be found.
-Rabbi Tzvi Freeman
"Mystical and Practical"
Chabad.org

Very young children unreservedly believe in the mystical, the magical, the impossible, in just the same way as they believe in the existence of their parents, their favorite breakfast, and the bed in which they sleep. They accept God and His mercy in exactly the same manner as they accept their father's and mother's love.

That kind of experience gets lost somewhere along the way, but it doesn't have to stay lost. The mystery of the universe is the fabric by which God weaves our very existence. What we experience with our senses and what we experience as a matter of faith are the same thing. There is no difference, nor should there be a difference.

We can enter a mystical perception of the Creation of God at any time. All we have to do is open our eyes and our hearts the same way a two-year old opens his arms for a hug.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.

Rejoice and Tremble on the Bridge to Heaven

In the deepest recesses of our hearts fear and love dwell together; they reveal themselves in joy. We rejoice in the consciousness of God's love and nearness but tremble at the same time because of the awfulness of His presence.
-Paul Philip Levertoff
Love and the Messianic Age

Therefore, you kings, be wise;
be warned, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear
and celebrate his rule with trembling.
-Psalm 2:10-11

According to Levertoff, the Chasidic interpretation of Psalm 2:11 (Be glad with trembling) is symbolized by Abraham and his son Isaac. Abraham expresses the love of God while Isaac represents the fear. We tend to think of "fearing" God in terms of awe, but for Isaac after the Akedah, God indeed became "the fear of Isaac".

Depending on who we are, we obey God out of one of those two motivations; fear or love. Most people who have newly come to faith tend to obey God out of the awareness of their own previous lives of sin. We fear God's punishment for the things we've done wrong in our lives and, if we continue to struggle with sin as believers, we continue to experience that fear.

As we develop spiritually, our fear turns to wonder, awe, and love of our Creator and we serve Him, not because we are afraid, but because we love Him.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” -Mark 12:28-33

Jesus encapsulated the whole of Torah as well as the point Levertoff is making, in Christ's declaration of the two greatest commandments as recorded in the Gospel of Mark (quoting Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18).

We can "rejoice with trembling" that God chooses to allow His attribute of mercy to outweigh His attribute of justice, so that we, and the world, can endure the presence of the living God. The Vine of David commentary on Levertoff tells us how we respond to God's grace:

Every commandment of the Torah is an expression of God's will. When a person obeys one of God's commandments, he is literally living out God's will on earth - uniting Himself with HaShem and partnering with Him on earth.

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, part of what we call "the Lord's prayer" contains the same directive; "on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10), so again, we see that the teachings of the Jewish Messiah can be viewed in Levertoff's understanding of the Chasidic Jewish mystical tradition (specifically from the Tanya).

If you are looking at Jesus and the Gospels from a more traditionally Christian perspective, you probably are asking yourself what Chasidic Judaism and quotes from the Talmud and Tanya have to do with the saving grace of Jesus Christ. As I've previously written, Paul Philip Levertoff didn't understand how it was possible to comprehend the teachings of the Jewish Messiah without having a background in Talmud and Jewish mysticism. Levertoff read the Gospels and the teachings of the Master like other aggadic teachers from the Tannaim era, and they unfolded before him like a rose in bloom, revealing an interior many of us do not know exists. He recognized concepts from the Talmud and Mussar in the lessons and parables of the Messiah, and thus felt the Gospels were more Jewish in their nature than "Christian", as we understand modern Christianity.

Yet if the message of Jesus is so uniquely Jewish and can only be comprehended and acted upon from a Hebraic lived experience, how can non-Jewish Christians ever sufficiently access the Messiah and draw close to God? How can we, who are not part of Israel, His chosen ones, extend our relationship out of the realm of fear and into the vast expanse of awe and love?

Fear of God is necessary to inspire us to initially repent of our sins and make us aware of our need to turn or to return to God. For all the world, and particularly for non-Jewish believers, Christ becomes our bridge between fear and love, filling the gap that separates us from the understanding of our Jewish brothers and from the divine; a holiness that was previously only available to the Children of Israel. The Messiah came to allow the same kind of access to God for all human beings, regardless of who we are, where we're from, or any other attribute we may possess. Paul was very clear on this point in Galatians 3:28 ("neither Jew nor Greek").

When Jesus sent his Jewish disciples out to make disciples of all the nations (non-Jews) of the world (Matthew 28:19-20), he was extending the love of God to the entire human race, using himself as the intermediary to connect us all to the Father. When Jesus said "No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:16), he wasn't excluding Jews in favor of Christians. Rather, he was projecting God's love beyond Israel by offering himself as a "doorway", so to speak, to the Almighty, using his life, suffering, death, and resurrection as the means by which the rest of us can join the community of the redeemed.

When we join with the Messiah, we join God as junior partners in the work of Creation, acting as small "Messiahs", in a sense, living out the will of God on earth as one day, the Messiah will come and complete God's will with us.

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever. -Revelation 22:3-5

May the Messiah come soon and in our day. Amen.

The road is long and often, we travel in the dark.