Secrets and Mysteries

“For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed;
nor is anything secret except to come to light” (Mark 4:21-25)

I must confess that this text has some times filled me with alarm! What if it were true that all my secrets would one day come to light? I guess that would also fill some of you with a modicum of trepidation. But I am not about to spill my own or anybody else’s secrets right now, and take comfort from the fact that this is not what these words of Jesus actually mean. Our secrets might some day come out into the open to our embarrassment or shame, but Jesus is not talking here about our secrets; he is talking about the mysteries of God’s kingdom. This much is clear from earlier in Mark’s gospel where he speaks about the “secrets of the kingdom of God” which are revealed to his disciples and can be grasped by those who really hear what he is saying in his parables.

I have started writing a book about mystery. What I will say in it is still largely a mystery, especially to me, but now that I have told you it is no longer a secret. Yes, there is a difference, strictly speaking, between secrets and mysteries though at times they are confused. Mysteries can be explored and understood. Scientists speak about unlocking the mysteries of the universe. But secrets are meant to be kept hidden. Some time ago I happened to watch a TV programme on the origins of the Internet. The Internet is a mystery I will never understand, but it is not a mystery for computer scientists or for my grandchildren. They can explain it; they can also control it, but it remains a mystery for me. On the same TV programme I heard about a meeting between executives that took place behind closed doors to discuss a major deal between Google and another IT company. There was no positive outcome. “What happened inside,” the commentator said, “will always remain a mystery.” That is, of course, unless someone goes public and tells the story. But is that really a mystery? Is it not a secret? If someone shares a secret with you he or she normally does not want you to pass it on to others, though that often happens. Secrets between friends, spouses and lovers are meant to remain secrets; they are confidential like confessions made to a priest. But the mysteries of the universe or of the kingdom of God are different; they are waiting to come to light and be known. This is the meaning of Jesus’ words about God’s way: “For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret except to come to light.”

This is the fundamental difference between Christianity and the ancient mystery religions and Gnostic cults whose initiates, like members of the Freemasons, were part of an inner circle pledged to keep their secrets. Likewise governments insist on keeping state secrets, secret. In the delightful Old Testament apocryphal story of Tobit, the angel Raphael informs Tobit and his son Tobias that the king’s secrets should not be revealed, but the works of God should be spoken about. (12:1-20) The confidants of the King, his counselors and chamberlains, are meant to keep his secrets to themselves. But this is not the case for the King of the universe whose works, mysterious as they may be, are waiting to be known.

The fact that Jesus speaks about the mysteries of the kingdom of God in parables indicates that God’s way in the world and in our own lives is not always obvious. That is why the prophet Isaiah once declared: “Truly, you are a God who hides himself.” (45:15) Or, as the old hymn has it: “God moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.” And at the heart of the Christian faith is the fact that God hides himself in the baby born in Bethlehem?” As Charles Wesley put it in his great Christmas hymn “Hark the herald angels sing”: “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; hail the incarnate deity.” St. Paul is referring to this when he writes to the Romans and says that “the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages” is now disclosed. (16:25) All of which brings us back to our reading today from Mark’s gospel. Mark, as I have said, is not suggesting that all our private secrets will become known at some point in the future, but that God’s secrets have become known in Jesus! The reason why Jesus came into the world was to reveal the mysteries of God through his life, words and actions. That is the lamp that is brought into the house not to be hidden under the bed, but to be placed where it can be seen, a place where it can drive away the darkness. This is the light that came into the world which the darkness could not comprehend or snuff out.

God remains the ultimate mystery of the universe, but having given us brains and inquisitiveness God welcomes the efforts of scientists to explore its horizons and unlock its mysteries, even though the more we do so, the more the mystery of God and the universe deepen. But the mystery that has been made known in Jesus is of a different kind; it is the mystery of God’s character and purpose that has been revealed, and therefore the way in which God relates to us and the way in which we should respond. It was this mystery that the Wisemen from the East began to explore as they followed the star, and it was this mystery that they found disclosed in the stall in Bethlehem. Again, in the words of Charles Wesley: “God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man.” It is no secret what God has done; it is a mystery that has become known. Simply put: in Jesus we discern the character of God in relation to ourselves. The mystery revealed is not that of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, those attributes usually attributed to God which awaken awe and maybe fear, but grace, love and compassion that evoke trust and prompt us to love others and seek justice and peace in the world. This is the lamp that cannot be hidden, the secret unlike others that wants to be known.

(John W. de Gruchy is Emeritus Professor of Christian Studies, University of Cape Town and Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch. This is a weekly meditation given at the Eucharist service at Volmoed Christian Community Centre, Hermanus.)