Lateral thinking tells us to not ‘raise the bridge’ but instead ‘lower the river’.’. There are times when an answer to a problem is found by turning it on its head. When we had too many Ibis (dump birds) stalking close to the CBD of Redland City, the governing council solved the problem by removing freshly laid eggs from the birds’ nests.
Jesus of Nazareth was a lateral thinker. With religious critics listening to his every word, he said to a paralyzed man: “Your sins are forgiven.” What then followed upset their narrow religious legalism.
“Blasphemy!” they protested — “Only God can forgive sins!” But Jesus then replied, “Just so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins…” (he turned back to the man and ordered) “…rise up and walk — and take your bed home with you.” So, the man did.
Jesus asked his critics a question. “Which is easier: to forgive the man’s sins or to heal him?” The Lord forgave the man to establish his God-given authority on earth. “We’ve seen strange things today,” witnesses remarked, as they left the scene.
Jesus said nothing more, but the thought might well have crossed his mind that they hadn’t seen anything yet!” (John 1:50-51) His resurrection would be not an example of lateral thinking but one of asymmetric thinking — one that we would today describe as “Out of this world!”