The minds of the disciples were bent like cafeteria sporks when Jesus was transfigured on the mountaintop, and his “face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” (Matthew 17:2). They couldn’t understand how someone so obviously powerful and glorious would willingly go to Jerusalem, to be killed by his enemies.
They were tempted to just give up trying to understand, as when Peter tried to persuade Jesus to stay on the mountain and forget about the whole death thing. Eric McKiddie explains how we often try to avoid hard truths in a similar way:
We often use the “we will never fully know” excuse to marginalize the practical value of certain theological topics. This trump card brings to a screeching halt conversations about eschatology or the relationship between divine sovereignty and human freedom.
But just because we can’t fully know something, does that mean we shouldn’t learn as much as we can about it?
Speaking of how the divine Son was able to be incarnated into fallen flesh, T.F. Torrence says, “Here we are faced with something we can never fully understand, but it is something that we must seek to understand as far as we can” (Incarnation, 62).
We must seek to understand it as far as we can. Even though some theological topics contain more mystery than others, there is always more that we can understand about them.