"Now we know that You know all
things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we
believe that You came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do
you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for
you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and
yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I
have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world
you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
(John 16:30-33)
Now we know that you know...
The pharisees and experts of the law have questioned You and
challenged Your teachings. But now we know You are really smart and
have all the right answers. Because You have all the right answers we
now really believe You came from God. Is that what You have been
waiting to hear from us?
Given the conviction that has been
growing in me for some time, I see a mindset here in the disciples
that is one of the most difficult to overcome among religious people.
And I believe this mindset is connected to an addiction that can be
traced all the way back to its origin in The Tree of Knowledge....
It seems that as fallen humans we are
obsessed with getting the right factual knowledge. And sadly, for
those who are fond of researching the Word of God to find advanced
truths for this time, this subtle trap can become all to easy to slip
into without ever realizing we are even close to it.
The disciples of Jesus, just like His
disciples today, were naturally focused on trying to figure Jesus out
in their own heads. They lived among people very familiar with
religion, even if many of them had given up trying to fulfill all the
expectations demanded by religious leaders. The intense aspirations
and hopes of all the Jewish nation were focused intently on a coming
Messiah who would extricate their nation out from under the galling
occupational forces of pagan Roman. They hated the Romans with a
passion and were puzzled as to why God had allowed them to fall under
that power since they had centuries ago firmly renounced idol
worship, the cause of their Babylonian captivity.
Yet now they found themselves chafing
under the most despotic rulers who exploited them at every
opportunity, rankled their religious sensibilities, corrupted their
leadership and worst of all were blatant idol worshipers themselves.
How could God be fair or righteous and allow such a depraved power
have absolute control over the lives of God's chosen people who had
worked so hard to obey His warnings about the dire consequences of
worshiping false gods? They had meticulously avoided anything to do
with the kind of worship that had gotten their ancestors into deep
trouble with God. So what could possibly be God's problem with them
now?
The Jewish leaders had spent years
developing guidelines, regulations and meticulous detailed
instructions to prevent their people from ever gravitating back
toward the false gods their ancestors seemed so addicted to. Yet even
with a preponderance of religious activities, carefully worked out
theology and doctrinal purity systemitized by generations of biblical
experts, the Jews still lived in bondage as if God were ignoring them
completely or was punishing them for not living up to His high
standards.
This was the mindset of people that the
disciples grew up around. This was the context into which Jesus was
born and the expectations for the Messiah. Every claim of that role
on the part of Jesus would be compared to these beliefs. Most people
had a pretty clear idea of what the Messiah's job was supposed to
look like based on the meticulous study of the Scriptures worked out
by top theologians. Education was as highly valued in their day as it
is in ours, so the experts of education were respected as having the
best knowledge available to instruct the people as to what God
expected of them to escape their oppressive circumstances. (Never
mind that many of the religious leaders themselves were exploiting
the occupation situation to take advantage of the masses for their
own benefit as well)
Now the disciples found themselves in
the upper room listening to things that had sounded strange for a
long time. Every time Jesus mentioned the idea that He was going to
die, they had brushed it off or at times had even openly tried to
discredit it – though that backfired rather painfully for Peter.
The problem was that it seemed many things Jesus wanted to talk to
them about contradicted everything they already knew about what the
Messiah was supposed to do for them. In addition, patriotism then was
even more intense than patriotism is now in America and many other
nations. If religion did not agree with the patriotic aspirations of
God's chosen people, then it was likely that religion was
misunderstood, for the bottom line was that God had to be on the side
of His favored ones and against all of their enemies.
Throughout His ministry Jesus used
language that seemed at times oblique or confusing to the disciples
and pretty much everyone. Unfortunately many things Jesus said still
confuse people yet today, and for the same reasons that it confused
His disciples. Because of firmly entrenched preconceptions about what
God thinks about His chosen people, and even beliefs influenced by
our own patriotism, our preconceptions act as powerful filters
through which everything is screened before we even try to analyze
what it might mean. So if something does not fit our predetermined
views of reality or God's overall plan based on the consensus of our
biblical experts, then it is generally brushed aside as unimportant
while we over-emphasize things we find in Scripture appearing to
support our theories.
This is precisely what got Jesus into
deep trouble when He preached His first sermon back in His hometown
of Nazareth. One of His first gaffes was to quit reading just before
He got to what was considered the meat of the matter in Isaiah.
Because He failed to read the passage commonly presumed to support
the nationalistic prejudices of the Jews who considered themselves
superior to all others on earth, He ended up starting a riot in
church that nearly cost Him His life.
The reason Jesus used words that for
many people seemed confusing was, I believe, because Jesus thought
from the perspective of heaven instead of from the context of how
humans view reality. Jesus sometimes used words whose meaning was
very different than the commonly accepted use of those terms. Thus at
times His disciples and others were baffled and thrown off balance by
what they thought He was saying when in fact He was often referring
to something very different.
So after a few years of trying to
figure out what Jesus was talking about, repeatedly questioning Him,
discussing Him behind His back rather often as well as hearing less
than complementary insinuations from the educated elite, the
disciples were keen to finally get to the place where they might
actually be able to understand His terminology the first time around.
To intensify this desire, they had an acute sense that something huge
was about to transpire, that very likely Jesus might be about to
break out of His shell, step into the limelight and finally assert
His 'rights' as king of Israel to fulfill what everyone clearly
expected the Messiah to do. Thus the disciples were keen to decipher
Jesus' words in the upper room so that they might finally prove that
they were not as naive as they seemed to have been for so long.
Our disadvantage in appreciating the
feelings and mindset of the disciples is that we have too much
information about how the story turns out ahead of where they were.
But in reality this too may become our own Achilles heel leading us
to think we now understand Jesus when in reality we are in just as
much danger of misinterpreting His words as they were because of our
own preconceived beliefs. We may not share the exact same
presumptions about prophecy that they did, but human nature has not
changed at all in the intervening years and we are just as eager to
believe God is on our side against those 'out there' as the Jews and
the disciples were.
I see the disciples intently focusing
on Jesus' words like never before here, hoping that at last they
finally might be able to figure out the first time around what Jesus
might actually mean with His words. For years they had heard Jesus
talk about their need to believe. This word had come up over
and over, connected with people desiring to be healed or with souls
longing for assurance of eternal life. And each time they had heard
Jesus emphasize the necessity of believing in Him.
They also were beginning to latch onto
the idea that Jesus was more than just a miracle-worker, a prophet
like Elisha who could do things most humans were unable to do. Jesus
had spoken enough about His relationship to His Father, particularly
in this plain discussion with them, that they felt safe in repeating
back what they thought He wanted them to believe. Now we believe
that You came from God! If they could just convince Him that they
believed the right things about Him, then maybe He might consider
them loyal enough to assure them of key positions in His kingdom He
was likely about to inaugurate any time now. They felt they were
getting the pieces of the puzzle together enough now that He should
entrust them with more responsibility and privileges.
Jesus clearly knew what they were
thinking. But He also knew they were still fixated on a salvation
based on knowledge in the same way as what had been mentored
to them by their religious leaders. They believed that Jesus must
have the inside scoop on the truth beyond what the Jewish leaders had
figured out; so they thought if they could just crack the secret code
or whatever it was that Jesus used in His speech, then they could
join Him in establishing His kingdom and everyone would be happy.
Jesus did not rebuke them for being
clueless about the nature of His kingdom at this time or even after
His resurrection when it was evident that His disciples were still
fixated on Jesus fulfilling the nationalistic aspirations everyone
was waiting to see realized. Rather, Jesus simply gave them a reality
check, revealing that they were still far from having the kind of
knowledge necessary to synchronize with heaven's way of thinking. His
words popped their bubble of self-confidence and anticipation of some
glorious announcement they assumed He might be about to make by
stating categorically that they would all see things dramatically
different in a very short time.
Now we know that You know all things
You will all leave Me alone; and yet
I am not alone, because the Father is with Me
In Me you may have peace
Do you see the
shift of focus here?
The disciples were
fixated on getting the right answers, believing the right facts,
getting affirmation for knowing the right things.
Jesus says that
this kind of thinking will do nothing to prevent them from all
turning tail and running away – abandoning Him – in just a few
hours from then. Their confidence was based on knowledge, but a kind
of head knowledge that was valued and encouraged by the religion they
depended on, not the kind of personal, experiential, heart knowledge
that Jesus longs for everyone to enjoy with Him. He knew that because
they did not yet have their hearts tuned to know Him more than
knowing the right answers, they could not possibly stay loyal to Him
when the enemy would exploit their vulnerabilities and confront them
with intimidation. Their loyalty was too dependent on head instead of
heart knowledge.
Jesus moves the
focus here from head knowledge – an addiction too many of us have –
to relationships. He says that because of their dependency on
knowledge He would be left alone with no one who really understood
what He was going through. But He quickly affirmed in this revelation
that the most important relationship could still be counted on in any
lurch. God never leaves anyone or forsakes them like the disciples
were about to do to Him. God would be faithful and can be relied on
no matter what anyone else might do. Only God can be fully trusted to
stand by during the good times and the bad times. This knowledge of
God – the kind of intimate knowledge that Jesus had with His
Father, was the sort of knowledge that the disciples desperately
needed to have with Jesus who was God Himself, and He longed for them
to experience this core truth in their lives.
I wanted to explore
what I thought were significant insights I found when I looked up the
word translated here as home. It actually refers to one's
self, their own things, their own way. But what I now feel is more
important is to finish by looking more at that knowledge like Jesus
had, a knowledge that will give us His peace even if we fall very
short on other kinds of knowledge.
These things I
have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world
you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
Jesus had been
speaking profound truths to His disciples for possibly several hours
at this point. He had demonstrated dramatically the kind of spirit He
longed for them to exhibit towards each other by washing their dirty
feet in the humility of a servant. He had shared some of His deepest
emotions and desires with them, speaking of a joy with which they
were yet unfamiliar but that was vitally necessary in order to have
the kind of endurance and courage needed to face what was ahead of
them.
Now, fully aware
that they are still largely unprepared to face what was about to
crash into their lives, He reminds them that it is peace that they
really need, not more knowledge. God knew from the very beginning the
subtle trap of accepting Satan's offer of advanced knowledge that
would only lead to dishonor, disappointment and finally death. Yet we
still suffer under the very same obsessions that the disciples had
even while we can talk about it analytically. It is amazing to me how
easily we can dissect, expostulate, categorize, psychoanalyze,
theologize and any other term you might use, the teachings of Jesus
and the facts about truth while failing to actually enter into the
experience of them. I say this because of my own frustration of
feeling caught in that same trap many times myself.
What Jesus longs
for each of His followers to experience more than anything else is to
know the kind of peace and rest and joy that He came to restore to us
– a relationship with Him that we were originally designed for and
which we must have to really thrive. God is not fixated on getting
more information into our heads so that we can know all the right
answers better than anyone else. What we need more than anything is
to have the gut-level assurance of God as our Daddy, a settled peace
from which the true character of God can emanate no matter how
violent people around us may become.
Knowledge and
spiritual insight will never give us what we need most that can only
be found in a personal entering into the kind of rest that is still
waiting for the people of God. (see Hebrews 4, Exodus 33:14 and
Matthew 11:28) I keep being reminded of my own need to enter and to
remain in that kind of rest, a rest from striving for knowledge and
perfection, that brings a peace that is beyond reason or explanation.
This is a rest that has little to do with head knowledge of all the
right answers.
If I have the
gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge;
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have
love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2)
The disciples found
out the reality of this truth very shortly after Jesus spoke His
words to them.
We will find out in
similar embarrassing, painful ways how fickle knowledge can be if we
also fail to enter into the kind of rest found only in the love and
humility of the mind of Jesus.
I know that I need
this rest. I also can testify that when I have tasted this kind of
intimate knowledge of God, a knowledge not found in knowing the right
answers but in catching a glimpse of what God is like, getting an
inkling of the incredible beauty of His face – it is then that I
feel an overwhelming desire to remain in that kind of reassuring
rest, a rest in the knowledge that the One who holds me tight will
never leave me and who is also the One who can transform me and
restore me into the joy of living close to Him for eternity.
Am I content with
having the right answers about the nature of Christ, the character of
God, correct doctrines hammered out by religious experts or any other
facet of correct information? Not any more. I have seen all too often
that depending on the right answers more often than not leads to
arguments and disputations and division rather than love and peace
and joy in the Holy Ghost. I am not saying it is healthy to believe
false doctrines; but the disciple's problem was not so much that they
held false beliefs about doctrines but that they were still depending
on facts and head knowledge instead of entering into the joy and
passion of their Lord.
Of course the good
news is that a few weeks later they at last did enter into the
intense kind of knowledge about God that literally set them on fire,
the holy fire of God's passionate love for sinners. As a result of
entering into God's passion they also found perfect unity, peace,
humility and all the other things Jesus had demonstrated in His own
life, and they became an irresistible force for the gospel, the good
news about how God feels towards His enemies.
I long for that
kind of pentecostal experience in my own heart. No, I am not looking
for a charismatic church to fire up my emotions. I am looking for a
heart encounter with a heavenly Father who is so much better than
anything my earthly father ever dreamed of being. I want to become so
supercharged with the passion of Jesus to rectify God's damaged
reputation by a living example of the real truth about Him, that no
one will be able to miss the fact that I have come to know
Jesus personally, not just know facts about Him. God grant me this
desire.
In his life on
earth, Christ could have made disclosures which would have eclipsed
and assigned to oblivion all human discoveries. He could have opened
door after door to mysterious things, and many revelations of eternal
realities would have been the sure result. He could have uttered
words which would have been as a key to unlock mysteries that would
have captivated the minds of generations to the close of time. But
Christ does not open the numerous doors at which human curiosity has
been striving to obtain entrance. He does not spread for men a feast
that would prove deleterious to their highest interests. He came to
plant for men, not the tree of knowledge, but the tree of
life. {GCB, April 23, 1901}
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