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Paradox*
Form of expression that seems to be either self-contradictory or absurd but at another level expresses fundamental truth. It is often employed to get hearers to think at a deeper and more critical level. It may often be closely related to hyperbole, an exaggerated statement, except that for the paradox there is an apparent element of contradiction, which arrests attention and demands consideration.
In the ministry of Jesus one finds it in such expressions as grown persons being born again. “Can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb,” Nicodemus asks, “and be born?” (Jn 3:4). Or again, in response to the attempts of rich men to enter the kingdom, Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (an impossibility) than for a rich man to enter the kingdom (Mk 10:25). The point is not to focus on the literal statement or take it word for word but to understand its essential purpose. In this instance, it is a form of “shock treatment” to force the wealthy to see how their attitudes toward wealth have excluded them from the kingdom.
Much of the use of paradox in Jesus’ ministry has to do with his attempts to show that the perspective, or value system, of the kingdom represents a complete reversal of the values by which people live. Whosoever will lose his life will find it (Mt 10:39). The last shall be first, and the first last (Lk 13:30). Whoever would be greatest of all must be servant of all (Mk 10:43; Lk 22:26). Indeed, the servant ministry of Jesus himself underscores this great reversal of the kingdom. After washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus says, “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet” (Jn 13:13-14, rsv).
Paradox also enters Christian expression when one attempts to speak of God in the language of men. Thus God is “before all time.” Even “God in flesh” is paradoxical yet profoundly true. People inevitably and of necessity speak of God in terms of their own experience, yet God cannot be limited by such experience or language, for he is infinitely greater. Hence, language is a limited instrument for speaking of him who is not limited.