Foolishness

“From within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person" (Mark 7:20-23).

The last vice in Jesus’ inventory, "foolishness," is the New Testament Greek equivalent of an Old Testament Hebrew word, "peti,"—the ingenuous fool, the naïf that never thinks about the meaning of life. (Picture here jug-eared Alfred E Newman, tripping through life with a goofy grin on his face and asking "What, me worry?") 

It's odd that Jesus would include naiveté in a list of “evil things” that most of us would decry. His characterization started me thinking about those who think deepy about the meaning of life. And those who don't. 

I asked Alexa the meaning of life and she told me, "The meaning of life is to live it!" Alexa is a thorough-going existentialist, and I can't subscribe to her philosophy of life, but at least she's thought about the issue. 

I asked Siri (my circle of friends is quite small these days) and she said "The meaning of life is 42,” quoting Douglas Adams and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the point of which is that the meaning of life is a meaningless cipher. I can't go along with Adams either.

I didn’t ask Google. 

John, one of Jesus' apostles, gave us the inspired answer: Life is “knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent" (1John 17:3). Another apostle put it this way, “Christ is my life!" (Philippians 1:21).

If that's true—and we must decide—it will make no difference in the end what we accomplish in this life, physically, intellectually, socially, or monetarily. “If we have not chosen God, we will have missed the purpose for which we were formed and will have forsaken the only thing that satisfies” (Richard Law).

David Roper

1.3.19