Do the brightest know Jesus the best?

In our society we elevate those who possess a higher degree of cognitive intelligence. Why shouldn’t we? They put a man on the moon. They have expanded our knowledge of our planet and the entire cosmos. They have given us greater understanding of how own bodies function, cured diseases and increased the span of our lives. They have enriched our daily lives through labor saving, information gathering, communication-enhancing inventions we only dreamed about years ago.

These things are great achievements that certainly need to be recognized and celebrated. However, then there are the rest of us.

Recently, someone pointed this out to me: in the Bible, the Scribes and Pharisees were among the brightest minds in Jesus’ day. Yet, the vast majority of them did not see Jesus in a favorable light.

Jesus didn’t surround himself with “the best” the world had to offer. On the contrary, he hung out with the least, the last and the lost.

When the New Testament canon was formed, the prevalent thinking at the time was to place Matthew as the first Gospel. They reasoned that it was “superior” to the others, in part, because it was so eloquently written. Those same people believed that Mark was “a lesser” Gospel – perhaps an abridged knock-off of Matthew. It certainly was not as high of quality. This is why it was placed second.

More modern day scholarship has disagreed. I include myself among those that believe that Mark was actually the first Gospel written. It is very likely that Matthew and Luke used it as a resource in writing their own versions. It has also been theorized that John, the fourth Gospel, may have been written for a second-generation audience.

If this is true, then the very first Gospel was not written by the brightest mind of the day. The original Greek is rather poorly constructed. Matthew and Luke had to clean it up quite a bit.

I prefer it this way. This is a more of a representation of those who were in Jesus’ original core group of followers. They weren’t the leading minds of their day. It reminds us that human wisdom isn’t always aligned with God’s ways.

Jesus came and turned the world upside down. We, often unaware when we are doing so, want to put it back.

Walter is pastor of Immanuel Lutheran Church and has served as parish pastor for more than 25 years.