6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Everybody loves a good mystery. Except when they don’t. Vicki loves Agatha Christie. I am a Sherlockian. We love solving mysteries around the house like the Case of the Ink Stain on my Linen Shirt, still unsolved. A part of us needs to know the answer. Paul wrote these words to explain God’s plan and that there is a lot that only God knows. That is not very satisfying to our own need to know but this is not the only place Paul mentions mystery. The word for mystery is found 27 times in the New Testament and means something God will reveal. Because of this mystery, the Ephesians should rejoice in God’s mercy that Gentiles are grafted into the body.
Today, we live in a world of scientism, which means all answers are to be found in science. Any mystery, they think, will be solved by science someday. Science is a good thing and a vaccine for Covid-19 would be nice. But there are just some things science will never know and Jesus Christ is the prime example of the limits of science. Jesus being fully God and fully man is a mystery. Jesus being one of the Persons of the Trinity is another. Evil and suffering in the world yet another. If you despair or doubt, or are even tempted to walk away from the faith because we can’t fully understand these mysteries, instead rejoice. There are many mysteries in the Bible that will be solved when we see Whodunnit, our Lord, Savior and King, Jesus Christ. We will no longer wonder about the Trinity, election, or ink stains. We will simply gaze in wide-eyed wonder.
Partake of that promise today.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church
Cape May Court House NJ