on 7 February 2024
Dear all at IPC,
We have been going through John’s gospel for six months. John as a writer is both beautifully simple and deeply profound.
One of the weaknesses in the way I have preached it, going consecutively through the passages, is that we can miss some of the great overarching themes that John is showing us. The gospel of John is like a beautiful piece of music with a melody and bass lines, different harmonies and textures. There are all sorts of things going on that one misses at first hearing.
One of the themes I fear I’ve missed is the profound mystery of Jesus’ knowledge. He is, as we confess, ‘very God of very God and very man of very man’. His beautiful humanity contains a great mystery that we cannot fully fathom, but must bow our knee to and worship him. In John’s gospel we are confronted by the mystery of these two natures (that he is both God and man) in one person, and because of this, one of the remarkable things and difficult truths to comprehend in John’s gospel is what Jesus knows:
John 1 – he sees Nathaniel and says that he is a man without guile. Nathaniel responds by asking, ‘How do you know me?’ Jesus answers by telling him he had seen him under the fig tree. Nathaniel immediately exclaims, ‘Teacher, you are the Son of God’. (John 1:47-50)
John 2 – Jesus is aware that the temple of his body will be destroyed in three days and raised up again. He shows us that he has knowledge of the future, of what it will involve for him. Then in concluding chapter 2 we’re told, ‘But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.’ (John 2:19-21)
John 4 – in the account of the woman at the well, he shocks her by revealing to her that he knows about her past, ‘for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ (John 4:18)
John 6 – there are two references to Jesus knowing (v61), ‘But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offence at this?”’. Then (v64), ‘’But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.).’
There is a way of reading these incidents and drawing the conclusion that Jesus in his humanity knew all things at all times. God is all knowing and Jesus is God so he must have all knowledge when he was on earth. But that wouldn’t take into account the true humanity of the Lord Jesus.
It is true there were incidents like that above where he displays divine knowledge, but that isn’t in every interaction. We mustn’t imagine that Jesus knew the answer to every question before he asked it. Luke 2 tells us that when Jesus was growing up as a boy, ‘he grew in wisdom, and in stature and favour with man’. You have there the extraordinary ordinary development of the God man.
The gospels also portray Jesus as having limited knowledge. This runs parallel in John to the accounts where he shows extraordinary knowledge. So in John 4:1 we are told that, ‘Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptising more disciples than John.’ He didn’t instantly know it, it was unknown to him and he learnt it. In fact Jesus’ very first words in the gospel are a question, ‘What are you seeking?’ In Hebrews 5 we are told that Jesus learnt obedience.
Jesus humanity was not some kind of charade where he pretended he didn’t know things but in reality did. We must maintain the reality and integrity of the divinity and humanity of Jesus. His coming to earth involved human development and a taking on of the limitations of humanity. As we flesh out the picture from the other gospels, there is the remarkable verse Mark 13:32 which tells us that Jesus did not know the timing of his return. He did know of his impending death and his resurrection, and his return in glory, but he did not know exactly when he would return.
As we piece this together we can be greatly encouraged. The Lord Jesus in his authentic humanity had to live by faith in his Father like we do, he was not an automaton, not some kind of robot who knew exactly the programme laid out for him. He lived trusting his father moment by moment, relying on the Spirit as we must.
He has fully entered into our human experience, he knows what it is to be tired and weary, to submit himself to his parents. He knows the frustrations of living in a fallen world. He knows what it is to be misunderstood and falsely accused. He knows the limitations of our humanity.
As we meditate on the knowledge of Jesus Christ we are forced back again to the fundamental bedrock of our faith. Louis Berkhof states, ‘Two natures in one person is a mystery which we cannot grasp, and which for that very reason is often denied’ but we must bow before the God man Jesus Christ. Our minds cannot fully comprehend it and yet we gladly accept. As Philip Melanchthon wrote ‘we do better to adore the mysteries of deity than to investigate them’.
For us as a church we must revel in the Person of Jesus Christ.
I often find it most difficult to meditate and talk about him. I can think and talk endlessly about myself, even my sin. l can wax lyrical on church life and the problems facing it. But to be taken up with Jesus Christ in his person and work is a great challenge to me. I would ask you as a congregation to pray for us as elders and those of us who preach that we would present Christ to you, that we would truly be a church that loves and cherishes Jesus Christ.
Rabbi Duncan’s words are so helpful to us, ‘the dust of the earth now sits on the throne of the universe’.
Yours Minister and Friend
Paul