(Stock Photo – Canva)
By Dan Sherven
Matthieu Pageau recently spoke about his upcoming book, which has the working title: The Language of Renewal. He is the author of the bestselling book The Language of Creation: Cosmic Symbolism in Genesis: A Commentary. His brother is Jonathan Pageau, a popular Orthodox Christian thinker, who has a podcast with 245,000 subscribers: The Symbolic World.
Much of his first book deals with the Old Testament. When asked why he doesn’t seem interested in addressing questions specific to Christianity in general, Matthieu presents an interesting metaphor saying, “Jesus is the incarnation or the embodiment of the highest truth that we can grasp.” Matthieu speaks of Jesus as the key, saying that “it’s like we have a lock and a key. So a puzzle, or an enigma; a riddle.”
“I think that Christ is the key to the lock of the universe,” Matthieu says. It is a lock that represents “the entire mystery of the universe.” However, Matthieu notes that there is a problem. Once we have the key, perhaps we forget about the lock. “We use the key to unlock many locks, then at one point we kind of focused more on other locks in the history of Christianity. For example, we became interested in science.” But in that process, we lost the original lock.
Matthieu continues, “Why don’t you talk about the key that we have? Because the key that we have is infinitely more full of light, or full of meaning, or full of authority—it’s this: It solves every problem. So this key without the lock, gets taken for granted.” If Christ is the solution to all problems: including suffering, death, and hell—but we do not understand exactly what lock that key was originally designed for, because we see the Suffering Servant as the solution, regardless of the lock, then perhaps we somewhat no longer even understand what the key is.
Matthieu explains with a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “We’re looking for the answer to the ultimate question of (life), the universe, and everything. Then it’s like, we calculate that for millions of years, and the answer is just 42. Okay, 42. That’s the answer to everything.” If we have the solution in Christ but don’t fully understand the problem, then we lack clarity about the solution. Even though in another sense, we already have the solution in Christ.
To illustrate the riddle and the solution, Matthieu notes how “the stone rejected by the builder is the riddle. There’s a riddle—keep rejecting it because you don’t know how to answer it. So what do you do? You hide it. You put it under the rug, or you throw it away. You reject it. You don’t know what to do with this thing, this stone.” When a person encounters new information that does not fit into their theory of the world, that new information is often rejected—rather than the person using that new information as a key to unlock an improved theory of the world.
Christ uses the rejected stone as the cornerstone metaphor for himself, “The stone rejected by the builder becomes the pinnacle stone.” (Matthew 21:42).
“Or the keystone,” Matthieu says, “Now when it’s the keystone, it represents the solution.” So the stumbling stone is always ambiguous. The new information can either make one stumble; it can be rejected—or it can also become the thing most needed; the solution to the problem one is facing. Whether the riddle stays rejected or is recognized as the keystone depends on whether the person can incorporate the new information into their theory of reality—which is what Christ is. Christ is new information about reality, which people can either reject or see as the key to everything.
People can also place stumbling stones in another person’s way; to destroy that other person’s theory. Eve places riddles before Adam, to help Adam incorporate more information into his theory. Information which he cannot see, but which she does see. Eve understands the snake; while Adam ‘names’ the animals. Adam imposes meaning on reality; naming. While Eve mediates on behalf of reality. She sees where there are holes in Adam’s system. Maybe the snake didn’t like its ‘name.’ So Eve presents the claims of ‘nature’ to Adam, which appear as riddles; a stumbling stone for his naming.
However, if Eve wanted to destroy Adam, she could place stumbling stones in his path, which are essentially unsolvable. Information which cannot be incorporated into a proper theory of the world. The riddles, then, are designed to destroy Adam’s theory of reality rather than improve his theory’s weak spots.
“I have no doubt that the key that we have, which is Jesus Christ, is the solution to an ancient riddle,” Matthieu says. Adding that he is “looking for the lock, and the lock was written in the language of Judaism. It (the Old Testament) was written in that language. The Bible is the lock. The Bible is the riddle, that was supposed to be solved by the Messiah. And like I said, I think Jesus did solve the riddle, but the lock has been lost. So we don’t know the value of this key.”
Watch the full interview with Matthieu Pageau on Dan Sherven Interviews.
Dan Sherven is the author of four books, including the number one bestseller Classified: Off the Beat ‘N Path and Uncreated Light. Sherven is also an award-winning journalist, writing for several publications. Find Sherven’s work.
