Jonathan’s homily on Sunday focused on James 1.16-21, in which James exhorts us not to be deceived, but to hear the word faithfully, having “put away all filthiness” from our ears (the Greek word used here for filthiness has to do with earwax). I want in the short space below to offer the following reflections on deception and hearing from the Biblical framework:
Adam and Eve are deceived in Gen 3. This deception begins with uncritically accepting the question of the Serpent: “Did God really say…” and culminates with doubting God’s goodness and rebelling against Him. Deception here is a forfeiture of the truth. In the fall we forfeited the truth, filled our ears with deception, and questioned the goodness of God.
LESSON 1: I prepare myself for deception when I doubt God’s goodness. A love of Truth should make me suspicious of those who would have me doubt God’s faithfulness.God calls us from deception into truth, he speaks his word to us. “In the beginning was the Word , and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Christ is the Word, eternally spoken by the Father.
LESSON 2: In a world of deception, Christ is the true Word; whose goodness I can trust.In the consecration rite for the priests of the Tabernacle, their ear-lobe would be marked with blood (). This signified the cleansing of their ears from the voices of other masters (“Baals”) and other gods, reserving their listening for the Word of God. This was similar to the way in which life-long household servants would have their ear pierced at the door post of the house by the master (—). The meaning is virtually the same: the ear has been cleansed to hear and obey. Jesus opens the deaf man’s ears by spitting and sticking his fingers to them —a recapitulation of the priestly rite, and the ear-piercing of the house-servant. James then calls us to get rid of the filth in our ears and bids us hear and obey the Word of the Father.
LESSON 3: You have been called to be a priest and house-servant of the Lord; you have been healed and marked; your ears have been opened to the truth. Hear and obey.There are confusing moments, though, in Scripture where it seems that the God of Truth calls for deception: Jacob deceives his father Isaac in order to receive the covenant with God, the covenant that Isaac and Esau treated with contempt (Gen 27; cf. Gen 25.23, 29-34), Jacob is blessed for this; Rahab deceives the Jericho Police who search for the spies (Jos. 2); Jael deceives Sisera and thereby saves Israel (Judges 4.17-24); God sends a lysing spirit to deceive wicked rulers (1 Kings 22.19-23); Jesus speaks in parables to confuse the wisdom of the scribes and Pharisees (e.g. Matt. 11.25), he constantly slips through their traps (cf. Luke 4.30), says he won’t go up to Jerusalem but does anyways (John 7.8-10), “shushes” people for a time with regard to proclaiming the truth about who he is (Matt. 16.20), and then, finally “deceives” the powers of evil by dying only to rise again. What is this madness? Haven’t we proven that deception is wrong? While seemingly complex, I think the teaching is plain: do not be deceived. Do not listen to the deceivers who turn people away from the Love of God. But, also, standing against deceivers sometimes requires a with-holding of the truth from those who would abuse it to harm the vulnerable. Jacob refuses to see the covenant despised and weaponized to build an Esau-empire. Rahab refuses to divulge the truth of the spies’ whereabouts to the enemies of God’s people. Jael refuses to be honest with a Sisera who has surrendered his right to the truth. Ahab’s whole reign is one of lies, he loves lies, he desires lies; so God “gives him over to the desires of his heart” (Rom. 1.24).
Now, Christ is not a liar. There is no deceit in him. And yet, for those who would stand against him and steal his sheep, he refuses to allow his truth to be press-ganged by deceivers. Most notably in the Crucifixion, the enemies and deceivers and whisperers of lies trip on their own maneuvers and accomplish the purposes of Truth. Like wrestler who leverages his opponent’s weight in a counter-move, Christ doesn’t have to be a deceiver in order to turn the purposes of deception upon itself.
LESSON 4: As lovers of the truth, let us be wise. Let us “buy the truth and sell it not” (Prov. 23.23); refusing to forfeit the truth to those who would miss use and abuse it — e.g. lying to Nazi Gestapo to protect Jews in hiding, turning-on your house-lights when you are out of town, or smuggling Bibles into North Korea in the guise of comic books— these are not the actions of liars but of those who love the truth.