The Gospel According To The Video Recorder

Why didn’t God have the video recorder invented before the time of Christ so that we all could see the life of Christ and not just read about it? Before I attempt an answer, let me set the stage for the question.

As I preach through the gospel of Matthew, we have begun to watch Jesus in action. In chapter 4, Matthew presents Jesus as the King who steps onto the scene once John the Baptist (the forerunner of the King) finishes his job and moves off the scene. Matthew, by the inspiration of the Spirit, was presenting Jesus in a very purposeful way. Based on that, I spoke about the importance of knowing the triune God according to scripture. Scripture alone presents the glory of God in such a way that we have all we need to worship with zeal and knowledge, in spirit and in truth. God’s revelation of Himself is perfect. Nothing else is needed.

However, I did mention a challenge to that idea. The sufficiency of scripture is under attack these days; both directly and indirectly. One indirect attack comes through over-emphasizing the visual. Not only are movies made about the gospels, but more and more sermons are being cut short in order to show video clips or dramas. While the medium of video and skits is not evil, a church has begun to put the hangman’s rope around the sufficiency of scripture when they take more and more time away from the exposition of the Word of God.

Let us now come back to our question. Why didn’t God have the video recorder invented before the time of Christ so that we all could see the life of Christ and not just read about it? If a picture is worth a thousand words, wouldn’t a movie picture be worth a hundred thousand words? Wouldn’t Jesus be even easier to follow if we actually got to see where he walked and what he did with people?

Obviously, God’s providence answers that with a giant “NO!” In God’s wisdom a video camera was not better than the pen. The question is “why?” There are two big reasons that come to my mind.

1) In terms of spreading the message far and wide, there is hardly anything more transferable than a book. The difficulties of languages and translation are the same for book and video. But in terms of simplicity, nothing beats the printed page. In mechanics there is a priority on simplicity. You don’t want to over-engineer things. It is hard to get simpler than ink on paper. Sure, you have to have create ink and paper, and in God’s providence, that was worked out long ago. Everywhere that language can be written, the scripture is able to set up shop and go to work.

2) As practical as the above reason is, I think this next point is more important. God did not want all people of all time following a Galilean Jew. He wanted us following the eternal Son of God. Imagine with me what would happen if we actually had video of the life of Christ that was from God and thereby authoritative. Would we not watch it for every detail possible? Would we not seek to imitate every gesture, every idiosyncrasy, every motion of body language? Would we not all be drawn to talk like Him, not only in content but in inflection and cadence? I think the issue is that we all would begin to look and sound like a Galilean. This would be a severe blow to God’s desire that he receive worship from every nation, tribe, and tongue. God delights in a diversity of worship, not just because He is a creative God who is worthy of it, but primarily because the unifying grace of Christ is best seen in diversity. Therefore, God takes great pleasure in transforming people so that they embrace others whose culture is a world away from their own. All of this can’t happen if we all look and sound the same. Scripture serves this purpose perfectly. What we have in Scripture is truth that transcends time and culture. While it is embedded within a culture, what is recorded for us about Christ are the actions and words that are the mark of godliness in whatever culture you find yourself. The lack of detail can sometimes be frustrating, but in the wisdom of God, a lack of detail is actually a distilling of only what is needed.

I realize the question is a bit hypothetical, but I see a connection with the sufficiency of scripture and that is supremely important.

Are there other reasons you can see why God wanted words recorded and not video?