The Cult of Saints

So I went to the Getty today for the first time ever with my fearless leader, Randy Lundy. I know, I know, I've lived in SoCal my whole life and I've never been to the Getty before. I got the feeling that it would have been a whole lot nicer if it was less crowded and less hot. Anyway, there was this fascinating exhibit called "The Cult of Saints", in which medieval church art from the period spanning the fall of Rome to the Reformation (roughly 500 AD- 1500 AD). It contained all sorts of paintings, sculptures, tapestries, and other forms of artwork depicting the saints that people would pray to. Being a Church History major, I wanted to make sure that the people at the Getty got things right. Rest assured, their display passed my stringent test of accuracy. (I'm only kidding-- I know barely anything about Church History, that's why I'm studying it.)

Anyway, walking through "The Cult of Saints" kinda reminded me of the college I go to. So often at my school, you hear "oh, so-and-so's awesome, you should so hang out with them," or "that dude is so godly, you should talk to him sometime." Here's the thing, though. No one lives up to the praise that precedes them. No one. We all are sinful human beings, wretches mercifully saved and changed by the unmerited grace of God. There is nothing inherent in any of us that makes us stellar by nature. But you wouldn't know it listening to some of the conversations on campus. You'd think that certain people have a halo surgically attached to their craniums.

Am I saying that we shouldn't praise people who exemplify godliness in their lives? Absolutely not. Upon listing the Old Testament saints found in "The Hall of Faith" of Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews (for brevity and accuracy's sake, I'll just call him "Paul") refers to them as men "of whom the world was not worthy" (Heb. 11:38) and then in chapter 12 calls them "so great a cloud of witnesses" (vs. 1) as a sort of encouragement to press on.

But here's the thing... he doesn't then say, "let's look to how awesome these guys were for our encouragement." No! What Paul does tell us to do is to look "to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God" (vs.2).

The thing is this: in the past two years, I'd have to say that the ratio of comments I've heard about how awesome so-and-so or such-and-such is compared to the amount of comments I've hear about how awesome Christ is would probably be about 5:1. I'm not kidding. It's almost like we're so focused on praising each other that we shove the Savior aside.

So am I advocating never saying nice things about people who are pursuing godliness? No. Several of the New Testament writers do so at the end of their epistles (Col. 4:10-13; Eph. 6:21-22; 1 Peter 5:12; 3 John 12). In his book, Humility: True Greatness (which is excellent, by the way), CJ Mahaney states that identifying "evidences of grace" in others is an excellent way to increase one's humility. Recognizing the godliness shining in others is a good thing, but it becomes a bad thing done at the expense of focusing on Christ... and I am afraid this is done way to often.

You see, people will mess up. They're fallable. They won't live up to their reputation, no matter how "awesome" they've been trumped up to be. It's all part and parcel of the whole sinful-nature thing. But Christ never fails. Never once. He is "our great High Priest, who has passed through the heavens... who in every respect has been tempted as we are, but is without sin," (Heb. 4:14-15) and "is the same yesterday, today, and forever," (Heb. 13:8). He, above all, is worthy of our praise. The 24 elders in the book of Revelation got it right. The book tells us that they're saying over and over for all eternity, "Worthy are You, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they existed and were created," (Rev. 4:11). I think if we understood this, I mean really understood this, we'd put less stock in the "awesomeness" of those around us and more wonder in the amazingness of Christ... and in doing so, we might just be less disappointed with each other and rejoice more in the Savior.