KNOW HIM – KNOW HIM NOT

John 7:28,29 – Then Jesus cried out, as He taught in the temple, saying, “You both know Me, and you know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. But I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

This is what Jesus was dealing with when talking to the Pharisees. They knew where Jesus was from, they knew His parents, and they even knew the synagogue that He had grown up in. The problem was their eyes were closed and they had no revelation of who Jesus was. I suppose all of us judge other people’s spiritual lives by their own experience. I know that is the reason many miss important spiritual moments because they had never seen it like that and never thought the Lord would move in this new fashion. When the Messiah appeared in the form of a common man from Nazareth it was just too strange for the religious leaders. When Jesus taught the word and began to move in the power of signs and wonders the Pharisees couldn’t accept it. The only way to move beyond knowing about Him and actually knowing Him is by the Spirit of God. Here is how Augustine describes this.

“Our Lord replies that they both knew Him and knew Him not, as if to say, you both know where I come from and do not know where I am from. You know where I am from, that I am Jesus of Nazareth, whose parents you know. The birth from the Virgin was the only part of the matter unknown to them: … with this exception, they knew all that pertained to Jesus as man.… So He says rightly, “You both know Me and know where I am from,” that is, according to the flesh and the likeness of man. But in respect of His divinity, He says, “I have not come of My own accord; He who sent Me is true.”

Today people may think they know Jesus because they were raised in church, knew something of the Bible narrative, practiced the teachings of the church or repeated a prayer. That is very similar to the population that Jesus was dealing with. They thought they were spiritually pretty good, not realizing that Jesus had come to carry their sin to the cross. Knowing about Him or even doing spiritual disciplines is not good enough, we must know Him for ourselves.