20/20
Consider ophthalmology - the field of medicine that focuses on the health of the eye. Practitioners of this medicine are Ophthalmologists. Their concern is on the health of your eye and often making sure that you can see well. When my daughter’s school flagged her vision at a standard eye test it was an Ophthalmologist who recommended that she get glasses to correct her vision so that she could see the board in the front of the classroom. Up to that point, though my five year old daughter couldn’t describe it, she wasn’t able to see things clearly that were far away.
Scholar Pete Enns describes the Bible as a text that God allows God’s children to write about Him. I’ve always appreciated this description because it allows for the obvious growth in God’s peoples understanding of God as they write about Him over the course of the Old Testament. When we look at the Old Testament we also find varying places where writers understanding of God seems to disagree with one another. Consider the question of who killed Goliath. Consider whether the massacre of Jezreel was God ordained or not. Consider whether some non-canonical writings are scriptural or not as they’re quoted in canonized scripture but not canonized by the church. But, when we consider the Bible as a text written by God’s children we can allow for a bit more elasticity in the text because a child’s understanding of their parent changes as they grow.
Here is where ophthalmology enters the equation: what if this is the reason why God sends Christ? Remember that the field’s main concern is with the health of the eye, right? Also remember that the bread and butter of the field is correcting vision. Christ’s sermon on the mount spend’s considerable time correcting Old Testament teaching: murder isn’t just physical murder but is also hatred, adultery isn’t just physical adultery but also lust…oaths, eye for an eye, enemy love, divorce, giving, prayer, fasting, treasures, worry….do you see what I mean? Go back and read the sermon on the mount - Christ isn’t just teaching the crowds, He is providing correction to long held beliefs about all these areas. He is correcting their vision! Whether it was the prophets or the teachers of the law or the Judges that provided these things to Israel - the people had come to long held conclusions about who God was and what God expected that were wrong. They could not see the board in the front of the room correctly. But now they can.
When Christ corrects the vision the people of Israel start to have better eye health too. Because now they can start to treat one another better. With a better picture of God they can learn to love God better because they understand that God actually loves them. God loves them so much that He is fulfilling His long held promises to them by sending the long awaited Christ. Christ is clearly speaking these things : For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son…. But the job isn’t done. Promoting good eye health isn’t just going to happen with glasses, Christ is going to promote it by going to the cross for every single conviction that he has been teaching the people of Israel. He doesn’t just teach these things - He believes in them to the point that He will die for them. There is an atonement theory that spells this out called Moral Influence Theory. Christ’s life and death serve as a supreme example of self sacrificial love and inspires others to live in a similar way.
Does this spell out the entirety of the story? Of course not. Does it give us one more perspective on the story itself - absolutely. Personally, I subscribe to a kaleidoscopic view of atonement (finding truth in many theories) but I do think that a big reason for the incarnation was to correct our understanding of God. God’s children have a habit of getting off track in our understanding of who He is, what He cares about and how much He loves all His children. Periodically, this needs to be revisited and reconsidered. If Christ returned today how would our prescriptions be changed?