The Odd Man In

Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually. (Acts 10:1-2 NASB)

One of the purposes of Scripture is achieved through irony, in that it denies the expected, and affirms the unexpected. This is one of the great lessons from the Master of the universe to us about Himself.  It's as if the point He's trying to make with us is that we can't reach Him, He must reach us.  By that I mean that He cannot be comprehended by our minds or imaginations, so He has to teach us about Himself.  If He didn't, we'd never know Him.

One of the truly laughable aspects to philosophy when it seeks to grapple with theology (of any sort), is how rules that cannot be assumed to be true are.  The fundamental assumption is way too often that anything or anyone responsible for our universe should somehow fit within the bounds of our ability to rationally understand it/him/her.  It puts the philosopher in charge, and the Maker of the universe in the "hot seat" to be interviewed and judged.  Could anything be more ridiculous?  With all we don't understand and all we know we don't know, why then would we expect that anyone responsible for all of it should be knowable?

Here's my basic premise:  I'm looking for the One revealing Himself to me, and Who's revelation is inexplicable.  So, for instance, God revealing Himself in a "Trinitarian Nature" is the sort of thing that matches this criteria.  God requiring that any relationship with Him be on His terms, that meets this criteria.  That any relationship with Him is always initiated by Him...oh wait.  Well, in a sense that's true, but only in an oblique manner with Cornelius.

Cornelius comes from a polytheistic background, "family of origin", and culture.  That background and culture has rewarded him with position and responsibility.  He controls 100 soldiers who are Roman citizens by birth, and birth in Italy, the Roman homeland.  Yet, he is in the land of Jews, who dislike the Romans in the same way bulls dislike bull riders.  And with all the unmistakable animosity toward him and his people, his presence and role in that land, he still seeks to leave his religious paradigm and adopt theirs.  And he's not alone, because many of his household and soldiers follow him in this choice.  This is an irony.  I have to assume that there are some very important details left out which explain how he came to this point in religious life, but the point here is that he has arrived at this point in his religious life.

God takes this guy, who has overcome a lot of barriers, and essentially introduces Himself to him.  The Ethiopian on the road home is somewhat like this.  He too had to overcome tremendous barriers.  He sought God anyway, and God essentially introduced Himself to him as well.  Here's my question, would I seek to overcome such barriers?

I have been given every advantage to find Jesus.  He surrounded me from my birth.  I was taught about Him from my earliest memories.  Regardless of how accurate that teaching was (some was spot, some not), I was equipped to carry on and learn from Him directly, from Scripture.  I haven't had barriers except the ones of my own deceitful heart.  I haven't had difficulties in seeing my Master, He has always been around me.  And so, in some way, I have become complacent with my faith.  It's been easy.

This one who had no advantage except by accident of military assignment, goes against everything he has been taught and brought up on to seek this strange god from a strange unfriendly land.  I have always had my Master dropped in my lap, and encouraged to seek Him.  In fact, to not seek Him would be to go against my upbringing and everything I have  been taught my whole life.

So what would I have done in his situation?  Would I have overcome the barrier of my resentments toward those who hated me?  Would I have sought to worship their god, their way, and honor them with help for their poor?  Seriously?  How easy is my journey to the Maker and Sustainer of the universe?  How easily do I take it lazily, stray from it on a whim, and treat it like a stroll through a park?  I am way too often a poor soldier for my King.

I have struggled with the possibility I believe what I do because that's what I was taught.  There may be still some truth to that, but I have wrestled with my faith, and still it remains.  I am now struggling with the thought that my Master brought me through the route to Him that He did because He knew I wasn't up to a more difficult challenge.  That should humble me, and yet it should also encourage me.  Consider the love of the Master of atoms and suns that He would arrange it so I would find Him.  The same love that sought out Cornelius and arranged for him to be in Palestine among a contentious people of God, also placed me where I would find Him.

How is a relationship with the Master of all matter not initiated by Him?  How am I, in my foolish weaknesses, not in the same line to see Jesus that Cornelius is in?  My barriers have always been of my own making, and yet my Master has always brought me through them, much like Cornelius.  They are different barriers, but the same love.  The Ethiopian eunuch, the Roman soldier, and me...not what you might expect.