My youngest son, Symphorian, is a gifted child. My wife patiently helps him manage his emotions. Actually, Symphorian is a good boy. He wanted to watch TV. Yet, he obeyed his mother's instruction to do revision and played table tennis with me first. I needed to work out a bit earlier so that I might have time to write this blog. So, I wanted to play table tennis immediately at eight instead of the usual eight-thirty. Consequently, Symphorian would miss the Star War cartoon. In the end, he still obeyed and went down reluctantly to play table tennis for an hour with me. He did not assert his autonomy. This would be unimaginable for the bigger kids.
Since Enlightenment, Western philosophers have advocated rationality, which, Kant claimed, is the basis of human dignity. To act morally, we should treat man as an ends itself, not as a means, a tool, an instrument to achieve my ends, my happiness, my satisfaction. Man deserves respect and dignity all because of his rationality. These philosophers wanted to shake God off. They tried to remove God from their equations and discussions of existential questions. From human dignity, these philosophers developed the concepts of human rights and autonomy etc.
So, nowadays, the Western society tends to be very individualist. People care more about personal freedom than common good. Assertive people earn people's respect. Submissive people are losers in the society. Obedience, which was taken for granted in ancient times, has become an alien concept. Only slaves would obey their masters. But we are not slaves. We are our own masters. "You can take away my life, but you cannot take away my freedom, my dignity", runs a popular song. On Friday when the popular voting system was hacked, 200 thousand citizens came out to cast their votes, to exercise a right denied them. Though in the end, their voting would not change the outcome of the actual CE election this morning, these citizens demanded to be heard. They exercised their rights and did the right thing. Therefore, asserting autonomy is a good thing. Symphorian is still young. He has to depend financially on me. One day, he will claim his autonomy. I should respect him and should not force him to play table tennis with me.
With the demand for high level of autonomy so loudly voiced, the bible readings today gave a strange ring in our ears.
Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered;
and being made perfect he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him (Hebrews 5:8-9).
Why did Jesus give up his autonomy?
Why should Christians obey Christ?
One possible answer came from Genesis. God created everything but among them, only man was made in the image of God so as to enable man to engage in the dialogue with God, to share His eternal life. God gives man blessings and commands him to rule the known universe in His stead. Specifically, God commanded Adam, the first man, not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Unable to resist temptation, Adam exercised his autonomy and disobeyed God and ate the Forbidden Fruit. Sin entered the world and polluted it. God does not give up His Creation, namely, man and the universe. He sent the new Adam to restore and sublime the world into a higher level of consciousness. Obedience was the failure of the first Adam. Obedience becomes the success of the new Adam. He attained perfection because of his obedience. Christians who want to obtain eternal salvation need to obey Christ.
Such an explanation still fails to convince people of the importance of obedience.
Since modern men treasure rationality. Perhaps we can argue that God's intelligence is infinitely higher than ours. Therefore, His instructions are perfect. Just follow.
Still, how do you know God is such and such? Omnipotent, omniscient, eternal and unchanging etc. are inventions of theologians. At the end of the day, their God might not be like what they have been discussing.
Such questions are difficult. How do we know God is such and such? In fact, we don't. The only thing we know is that God loves the world so much so that He sent Jesus to come to die for us. Jesus chose freely to die for us. So, Jesus was autonomous when he chose to obey God's will, when he decided not to run away from his crucifixion. Moreover, when Christ is hoisted on the cross, he will attract people to believe in him (John 12:32). What more proof do we still want from God?
Dear Lord Jesus, help us see the bigger picture so that we can obey You more readily. Amen.
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