Understanding God, understanding Jesus (3)

A few blog postings ago I mentioned that God experiences a sensation that one could describe as "hope." How is that possible if God knows everything? If God knows everything that exists, and how everything will turn out, how can God "hope" for an outcome?

We have our most valuable clue in this regarding what Jesus said about the humble giving of charity (alms).

Matthew 6: 3-4

But when thou givest alms, do not let thy left hand know what thy right hand is doing, so that thy alms may be given in secret; and thy Father, who sees in secret, will reward thee.

Now this passage by Jesus is not intended to be about anything other than literally what he was preaching about at that moment, which is purity of intention. He was explaining to his listeners as he preached to the crowd that the giving of charitable donations should not be made in order to loudly make an example of your generosity and puff up your reputation and ego. So he described true humility in giving of alms as being as if your one hand give the alms but your other hand does not even know of it. This imagery would have had a great impact on the crowd.

But it also gives an insight into how God, who speaks through Jesus, describes the most generous way to perceive an action. Here is what I mean. When one hand does a work, but the other hand does not know about it, that is in a sense empowering the one hand to do a good work, independent of the actions of the other hand. You can think of it as if the hand you write with is the one that is used for public activities that promote your self or career. So if you are right handed, you can think of your right hand as being the one that picks up the phone, that writes with a pen, that points to yourself when you are speaking about yourself. But using this analogy you can think of the left hand as being the one that presses alms into the hand of the poor. The left hand is operating independently of the right hand in that giving alms to the poor is not benefiting the self glorifying activities for which the right hand is utilized. You are not standing on a stage waving a bag of gold with your right hand and saying, "Look how generous and good I am! I am giving this here poor man some alms." Instead you "in secret" (not on stage or for the benefit of your reputation or ego) use your left hand to give alms. But obviously in a literal physical body, it's not like your hands operate independently and the brain compartmentalizes knowledge of what they are doing. It is a strong way to describe to people who worked in the fields or pastures with their hands, or with scrolls if they were scholars (both hands are needed to roll a scroll) how to separate good deeds from self serving deeds.

God is the same way. God is one all-knowing and indivisible. It's not as if the left hand of God does not know what the right hand of God is doing. But God "assigns" a hand to giving the benefit of the doubt to humans. It is through that "hand" (to use this analogy) that God sends the Holy Spirit to appeal to the better side of humans even as they are in the midst of evil, in "hope" that they will convert. Of course the right hand of God, using this analogy, know whether they will convert or not, or whether they will do good instead of evil or not. But God in his love continues to give humans every chance to change through his outpouring to them of the Holy Spirit. This is God's "hope." So long as God continues to send the Holy Spirit to try to guide toward goodness and to convert each human's heart, then you can say God "hopes."

The Bible warns, though, that at some point God will "harden his heart" and stop sending the Holy Spirit to an individual. This means that God has given that person every chance to change and the price of waiting is too high, since others are harmed through the sinners actions. It is at that point that God "loses hope" with that person because God no longer sends the Holy Spirit to try to convert the heart of that person. It is usually at that point that natural events overtake the sinner, for example, a dictator is finally overthrown. When God no longer sends the Holy Spirit to try to convert a person, events tend to accelerate and the consequences of that person's actions overtake him or her.

God "hangs in there" "hoping" that the wicked will convert and repent for a long time, even though God "knows" what will happen. This is what is really meant by the expression that God gives humans "free will." God truly does "hope" that even the most wicked will repent and convert. However it is not a one-on-one situation because no man is really an island and the actions of the wicked impact many of God's children. God "allows" evil because God allows humans to live, and humans are vulnerable to committing evil to each other. The only way that God could decide not to "permit" evil will be when it is time for the end of the human race. So long as God loves humans and permits them to live, then evil is part of the composition of human nature. Satan is the tempter, but Satan is not the one who brings evil to humans. Satan brings a high level of temptation to the already indwelling capacity for evil and temptations that all humans have inside themselves. As Jesus reminded people "only God is good."

So the use of Jesus' words about alms giving is also an insight into how God perceives being generous to humans even though he knows the outcome of every thought and deed, as God is truly all knowing, down to the level of knowing the position of every atom and quark, where it was, where it will be, and what is its final disposition. But by having a "left" and a "right" hand God is able to share the reality of life and hope with humans by giving them free will to respond or not to the Holy Spirit. When God continues to send the Holy Spirit to a person that is how God expresses "hope." Hope means the desire for something to change for the better. God will continue to "hope" and send the Holy Spirit even when he knows that person will not change. But because God is all good he continues to give that "chance" not only for that person, but because as I said above, even a single conversion, or not, is a community phenomenon. During the time that God continues to "hope," even when God knows the person will continue evil and not convert, God is also continuing to extend "hope" to everyone else. Sometimes a great person must rise in the conditions when another person continues to refuse God and fall. God always has the entire body of humanity in mind even as he deals individually with each person. Continuing to "hope" in the conversion of a human who will not ultimately convert is still beneficial because the community around that person responds to the continual availability of mercy. For everyone who refuses the Holy Spirit there are others who observe this process and who do respond even more wholeheartedly with a "Yes" to the Holy Spirit.

I hope that you find this commentary useful.