Musterion- 4:11-12

Musterion (that would be with a line over the e)- Not a mystery in our sense of the word- well we don't know how that quite works- or here's a baffling situation, but more something hidden now revealed- to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. And for those on the outside it is to remain hidden- and things will not be made too easy for them. Its hard to understand- and I'm not sure I do- but I think it fits. Jesus comes to the world as a baby- immanuel 'God is with us' – But who could have expected that to look quite like it did. His miracles were amazing- but they were only done in the small area of Palestine and Tyre and Sidon- mostly around Galilee. There was no sprint over to Rome in a day and then uplift the Colosseum with a hand gesture, then put all the soldiers in it as it floated above the crowds and the senators and caesar, then telling them there was a better way- not of the sword, but of peace and love and grace- then showing Caesar the error of his ways- him repenting, while Jesus tore off on a few thunderclouds to China and South America and India, for similar demonstrations and epoch ending and beginning changes. And then he doesn't come back each generation like Aslan, so that everyone knows this is a divinely visited planet, and Jesus is the divinity and this is what he is on about. (In one sense all this does happen- but the time frames and the mechanisms for the changes are different- Rome does fall, and there is a Caesar who repents and sets a different course for the empire, Jesus does visit different continents-but not in a boat to America (do blue people feature in that story?) - through his followers who carry this hidden reality of the kingdom within them. And he meets each generation in all sorts of ways- most of them veiled in some form or other.