Acts 3:12-19; Luke 24:36b-48 One of the highest values in our culture is an open mind. Someone who is open minded accepts new things, receptive to new and different ideas or the opinions of others, respect views and beliefs that differ from one's own. As opposed to a narrow-minded or closed-minded person, who is intolerant of the beliefs and opinions of others; stubbornly unreceptive to new ideas.
We hold open-mindedness in such high regard in our culture that it has taken on a life of its own. It’s not longer being open minded in order to seek better ideas, or improve life, but for its own sake. Ideas that are stupid are on equal footing with ideas that are genius.
The cultural value of open-mindedness has become an excuse to do whatever we want and say whatever we want without being held accountable for it. In a conversation, a guy said that everyone is really an atheist, because no one believes in the Greek god Zeus. When I disagreed, I was accused of being closed minded. The reality was that his point was stupid; but for the sake of open-mindedness that reality couldn’t come to light. Open-mindedness as a value is not for individuals to believe whatever they want without critique. When open-mindedness becomes a value with a life of its own, when it’s separated from accountability and evaluation, it becomes a narrow-minded excuse to be stupid.
I know something about this because we in the church are sometimes accused by an open-minded society of being narrow-minded. And there are some fringe elements of the church that deserve that criticism (unfortunately, much of that fringe is very loud and very visible). But for the most part, being a follower of Jesus requires a very open mind.
Look at this text. The resurrected Jesus comes and is among the disciples. They are startled and terrified – thinking they were seeing a spirit. But this is the fourth report on this same day of his resurrection. You’d think if they were open minded they’d begin to consider the possibility. But they don’t: they are startled and terrified – narrow minded.
Jesus says, “why do you doubt? Touch me. Let me eat something.” The text says they were disbelieving (anti-believing), and still wondering. Narrow minded.
Jesus continues, “don’t you remember me talking about this? About how this is all in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms?”
And then, he opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day.” The narrow minded perspective was that Jesus died. That’s the end. But the resurrected Jesus comes and opens their minds to a new perspective. Resurrection is real; new life is real.
It would seem to me that believing in resurrection requires an open mind. The members of the very culture that claim to value open-mindedness (to the point of stupidity) have difficulty placing themselves in a position to have their minds opened. And yet they do so in the name of open-mindedness! And then claim that the church is closed minded because we dare disagree with them.
But why does it matter? So Christians believe in the resurrected Son of God and the broader culture doesn’t. So what?
Jesus said to them, “Repentance [for] forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in [the name of this risen Messiah] to all nations. . . You are witnesses of these things.”
For the sake of the world, for the sake of forgiveness, for the sake of being able to start over and live in wholeness with God, the church needs to be open to Jesus. And opened by Jesus. The church is the witness to the rest of the world of this openness.
As our minds are opened to the reality of resurrection by the living Jesus, our hearts and our lives become opened by him also. We are opened to receive forgiveness, grace, mercy, compassion, service, love from God. And at the same time, we are opened to giving those same things to the rest of the world. We are witnesses of these things.
Being a Christian requires that one have an open mind. But not an open mind for its own sake, but for the sake of the world. It requires that the living Jesus come and open our minds to understand the scriptures, so that we are open to the amazing generosity and grace of God. And being opened to receive it, we are opened to show it. For the sake of the world. This is not narrow-mindedness. It is not stupid open-mindedness for its own sake in order to justify our position without critique. But it is an action of God amongst us – our minds have been opened by the living Jesus, so that we are open to receive and to share God’s great deeds of forgiveness and mercy. With an open mind and an open heart, we are witnesses of these things.