Intelligent Mysticism
Mention the need for prayer in church, and everyone in the room feels guilty and bored at the same time. Mention the need for prayer in an unbelieving friend’s home, and a trip to India for a three month meditation retreat might come up, or the practice of transcendental meditation. Flannery O’ Conner, a famous Southern writer, once wrote in a journal entry, “Can’t anyone teach me how to pray?” Millions of people around the world are asking this question. Welcome to John 17, known in churched circles as “The High Priestly Prayer.”
In John 17 we get to do something incredibly rare. We get to listen in on intra-Trinitarian communication as God the Son prays to God the Father. Many scholars believe Jesus’ intra-Trinitarian prayer is a condensed and concentrated form of the Gospel of John released on the reader.
What is the thrust of Jesus’ prayer? What is Jesus’ historical and inscripturated prayer seeking to do to the reader? The answer is in verse 3: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Jesus’ prayer is seeking to give God to you in such a way that we actually know Him, and this Jesus says is the highest potency of life: it’s ultra-life. Therefore, how do we engage in this life-giving journey of knowing God?
We need to become “Intelligent Mystics”(a phrase coined by Scottish theologian John Murray). Most folks today and throughout church history fall into one of two camps. Camp 1 is the Doctrinalists or truth experts. Knowing God in this camp is about objective truth, theology, propositions, getting it right, and the life of the mind. Camp 2 is the Mystics or experience experts. Knowing God in this camp is about spiritual experience, contemplative spirituality, spiritual disciplines, communion with God, encountering God, getting it felt, and the life of the heart. These two camps embody church traditions, denominations, and movements throughout history. These two camps are highly suspicious of each other and interestingly tend to divide along similar personality types.
Look at the word “know” again in verse 3. According to the original language, both camps are correct. To “know” means both clarityin the mind and realnessin the heart, both light in one’s understanding and heat in one’s heart, both truth in thought and life in emotion. Knowing God is experiencing truth. Knowing God is both intelligent and mystical. Therefore, choosing between doctrine and experience is a false choice: it is always both. To know God you must become an intelligent mystic, and Jesus is praying you become one.
Join Jeff Hatton at noon on Thursdays in the private dining room of El Conquistador Hillsboro for Bible study and fellowship. Today’s article will be the topic for discussion on January 29. For Jeff’s sermons on video or audio visit
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