The tiny Bavarian village of Reit im Winkl (Right in the Corner) is tucked away just inside Germany’s alpine border with Austria. The village is a popular destination because of its efficient ski lift and generous snowfalls. Life in the secluded setting is perfect for holidaymakers and those who like being ‘tucked away’ for a holiday in a small corner.
I suggest that every thinking Christian has a ‘Reit im Winkl’: a familiar group of Bible texts familiar to them but which they are unable to fully explain. These texts make up a small portion of what they know but tend to lessen their sense of absolute certainty. They tuck them away in the corner of their minds but now and then they reappear, and when they do, niggling questions then arise.
The known outweighs the unknown. The texts beckon but they choose not to respond because ‘Reit im Winkl’ thoughts are considered unorthodox, and flashing Don’t Go There! beware signs redirect them to better-known, safer texts.
In the case of some groups, the glory accorded the Son of God in heaven is tucked away in the corner of their minds when it would better occupy the centre of their hearts. The Baptism with (or in but never of) the Holy Spirit turns doctrine into experience, which is a bit much for those who feel safe in a Reit im Winkl dweller. The same can be said of those who attend churches which teach that Christening is one and the same as Baptism.
The Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus (before renaming himself as the apostle Paul) had worshipped the God of his forefathers and lived for his religion as zealously as any man, and probably more than most. But given the opportunity to live (and if necessary to die) for Jesus, Paul grasped it with a passion!
If Jesus had been no different from other men of his time except for his virgin birth, he would have been less than the wonderful person revealed to us in John’s Gospel and the book of Revelation. Why then did the Pharisee Saul forsake his strict religious and societal status to follow the humble Jesus from Nazareth?
Paul suffered “the loss of all things” for Jesus, and died willingly as a martyr to the Lord’s cause. Knowing the One True God doubtless would have been Paul’s greatest desire, but clearly, he was absolutely captivated with the person of Jesus, the Son of God.
The cold indifference of the Pharisee has its parallel in spiritless intellectualism. When the mind controls the heart, praise becomes dispassionate, and enjoyment is displaced by form and correctness. God is a Spirit that no one has seen nor can see. “A spirit has no flesh and bones,” said Jesus. God is visible in the face of Jesus Christ, and it is into his face that we look, as into a mirror. In beholding the face of Jesus, who is the image of the invisible God, we see the Father and are changed, “from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord”.
It would be nice if differing followers of the Lord Jesus refrained from viewing one another as deceived, and instead accepted one another as fellow truth seekers who find themselves unable to reconcile each other’s views on what they do not fully understand. We ought to be able and willing to share our beliefs and see how they match up with the Scriptures.
I refuse to be tagged with the name of any historic man or denomination because it would allow people to pigeonhole my beliefs and dismiss me, rather than address matters of difference. I visited Reit im Winkl in Bavaria, and found it to be a pretty little place, but I would not wish to live there – it’s much too tucked away.
Likewise, instead of ‘tucking away’ unsettling questions, why do we not address them? How can anyone be insecure after experiencing “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit”?
If we are to be honest in such discussions, we need to bring out the ‘small corner’ texts we’ve not understood and so have tucked away. This is a big ask, I know, but doing so might well end our “You in your small corner and I in mine” attitude, and allow for more open fellowship with one another in God our Father and in Jesus Christ our Lord — regardless of our differences. I’d like to see that — would you not also?