True Wisdom"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding" (Proverbs 9:10).By Rev. Mark MummeZion Evangelical Lutheran Church, HardwickWhether intellectuals or not, we all in our own way want answers about this world. What happens to those who have climbed on the merry-go-round of casual sex and found it not so merry? How about those who have climbed on the bandwagon of success and achievement, believing its promise of a life of luxury and personal fulfillment? They want to know why their work has become all-consuming, a vacuum sucking the life out of them. What about those with broken relationships, memories of past sins, and lives aching with guilt? They want to know what to do with the broken pieces of their lives.We need answers for our own pain as well. We’d like to know what to do when our hearts cry out for the love of God but we feel nothing but emptiness inside. We’d like to know what to do when the burden of life seems heavy and the yoke of our faith seems hard to bear. Each of us asks, "Where is God when I need Him? How can I be sure He is real? How can I know I’m forgiven, that I’m loved, and that I’m His?" We’d really like to know. Then there are the times we pray and seem to get no answer — when no matter how hard we beat on heaven’s door, there seems to be no one home. We’d like to know, "Where in the world is God?"In the midst of all this overwhelming need comes this simple word from God, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." To fear the Lord is to believe in Him. The great search of human beings for knowledge begins and ends in Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom of God. He came to suffer and to die. But in His death He released us from all the pain and misery of this world of ours. It was our death He died, and it is His life we live. When you know Him by faith, you know God. "The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."There’s really nothing more important in this world than to know Christ — the fellowship of His suffering and the power of His resurrection. That’s what makes sense of this world, its pain and agony. Jesus invites us to take up our cross and follow Him. Whatever cross we bear in life, we follow the great cross-bearer. He carried His cross to Calvary, and then hung on that cross in our place. As we carry our crosses, He comes to us as He always has — in the words of the Gospel, in the washing of water by the Spirit, and in the bread and wine. He continues coming to us again and again with precisely what we need — the message of His unconditional and unlimited love. His message is direct and powerful, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name; you are Mine" (Isaiah 43:1). And that’s all we will ever really need to know in this life, or the next!
