They knew Him (Jesus) not!!....

They knew Him (Jesus) not!!....

Prof. KALANEETHY CHRISTOPHER

Scripture passages from the gospel according to St. John, the disciple of Jesus Christ

John’s gospel was chronologically the last to be written in the group of the four gospels of the New Testament. It was around 95 A.D when the church started establishing itself  . Fundamental factors like church government and other issues had been settled by then. Hence there was less need to concentrate on the historical details once again. John dwells on the spirituality factors more than the other gospel writers. His gospel was known to be the ‘spiritual gospel’. A new Christian needs to study this gospel to know ‘who Jesus is’. 

It starts with the ‘in the beginning the Word….’ He firmly and clearly brings out the eternal existence and divinity of Jesus and writes in a scholarly style of the prevailing Greek writings of his time. The writings do not dwell on the incidents but on many long discourses, which bring out the profound truths taught by Jesus. The main objective is put forward by Ch.20:31, to make the readers believe Jesus is the Son of God and receive eternal life by believing in His name. The antagonism of the Jewish religious leaders is made crystal clear. There are fewer miracles recorded than the other gospels. Miracles like feeding the multitude with loaves of bread and fish which were multiplied and blessed by Jesus, transforming the water into wine emphasize the Eucharist celebrated in the Christian church of the first century.

The seven ‘great I Am’ declarations by Lord Jesus are presented in John’s gospel only. These bring out the fact that Christ is the Son of God; the Godhead made ‘flesh’, the very image of YHWH the God of the Old Testament. The two important main themes are God’s LOVE and TRUTH. Anyone who believes in Jesus is designated as the child of God and becomes the recipient of eternal life as a gift he/she receives from God the Father. Such are born of the Spirit of God. God is Spirit and Truth and they that worship Him need to do so in spirit and in truth.

One interesting presentation style is the antitheses John puts forward. e.g., light / darkness, knowing / not knowing , believing / unbelieving, life/death etc., In the following presentation, some of the passages in John’s gospel are traced , where there are instances to show that the people with whom Jesus moved, themselves did ‘not know who He was’.

1. Jn.1: 10 …the world knew Him not….

The first chapter introduces the coming of the Son of God from above to dwell among humanity as one with flesh and blood. The world that was made by Him and yet did not know Him, the creator God, when He arrived. Even today is it not true? One ought not to be surprised by the fact that people do not recognize Jesus as Saviour.

How will people come to know Jesus? The responsibility of proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Saviour of the world from all its bondage now rests with the Church of Christ. In fact the first command of the risen, enthroned Christ is this. We need to declare the saving power of Christ by our words and deeds. The world is looking up to the followers of Christ today. Do we know Jesus as the Christ, first of all? Let us ask ourselves first.

Empty religion can never project Christ as He really is! A living relationship with Christ only can accomplish this. Or else the religious spirit will make our eyes blind to His presence among us. We all agree that Jesus did not come to establish ‘another’ religion. He came as ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’ to anyone who believes in Him as a Personal Lord and Saviour.

2. Jn1:26 …. There stands among you one whom you know not….

John the Baptist came as a forerunner of Jesus to clear the way for His mission. He preached in the deserts of Judea, ‘repent for the kingdom of Heaven is near’ (Mat 3:2). That was his first declaration. Our Lord Jesus has also started His Galilean ministry with the same declaration. (Mat4:17)

The Baptist was baptizing those who came to him for repentance in the river Jordan. The Jewish religious leaders sent a group of temple priests and Levites from Jerusalem to clarify whether he was the coming Messiah or prophet. The Baptist was telling them that he is neither the Christ nor a prophet, but the ‘voice in the wilderness’ whom Isaiah foretold. (Jn.1:23). At that moment he said unto them, ‘there is one who is standing among you, whom you know not’. He was referring to Jesus who also came to John to be baptized. Jesus did this in order to fulfill all the right acts their Law demanded. (Mat.3:15). 

The Baptist’s statement proved true as the Jewish leaders never tried to relate their prophet’s writings to identify Jesus as the Messiah foretold. They wanted to do away with Him all the time! Jesus has said that the Jews must ‘search the scriptures….these testify about Him’. We understand that knowledge of the Word of God is essential to open our spiritual eyes.

We believers in Jesus Christ, many a times do not recognize His presence moving through our lives’ situations. It is true in St.John’s words that ‘they knew Him not’. We should be strengthened to know that Jesus is always with us even at times when we do not seem to be aware of His all-pervading presence. His first promise to the disciples, after He was enthroned as Risen Christ is that, ‘I will be with you until the end of times’. (Mat.28:20). It is more than sufficient to guide us in the challenges we face daily. 

3.Jn 1: 31- 34…. And I knew Him not….

The Baptist is making the statement himself that he knew him not, even though he was expected to prepare the way for Jesus. He was called upon for declaring Christ to the Jewish world even when he was in his mother’s womb. Only after the Holy Spirit of God instructed him, did he recognize Jesus as the ‘Son of God’, the ‘baptizer with the Holy Spirit’ and declared it.

Unless we listen to God’s voice we will never know Christ as He really is. That was the instruction of Jesus when He taught the disciples, the ‘Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will teach us everything and remind us of all Jesus said to us’. (Jn 14:26). In I Jn.2:27, we are told that ‘the anointing which we received from Christ, will teach us everything and we do not need another one to teach us’. We the church of Christ have become His partners in the redemptive work and we need to hold on to what we have been entrusted with till the end. If we hear the voice of God through His Spirit and His Word, ‘let us not harden our hearts’. (Heb.3:14, 15). 

4. Jn 14:5 … Thomas said…. Lord we know not….

Jesus was telling the disciples about what would happen to Him in Jerusalem. He was preparing the hearts of the disciples for His crucifixion. He was giving them the hope of His coming again to receive the believers to Himself. Jesus was indicating that they know the place to where He will be going and the way to it. Thomas replied saying that they do not know where He is going and the way to His destination.

The answer Jesus gave was a supremely sublime one that the Church of Christ had been relying on. ‘I am the way, the truth and the life’. Peter made it emphatic when he addressed the people in Jerusalem, soon after the mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit, that ‘there is no other Name given to humanity by which it can be saved’. (Acts 4:12)

No man can come to God the Father except through Jesus. We cannot have access to the Holy God unless we claim the sacrifice of our Lord on the cross and appropriate it to ourselves. He is our righteousness. Jesus is the only bridge which bridges the eternal gap between God and humanity. One needs to remember the fact that the close circle of the disciples themselves had problems in grasping the eternal truths. They were with Jesus but He was not ‘in’ them. Now that the Spirit of Christ is ‘within’ us, as the ‘resident teacher’, we should not have difficulty in grasping the Truth.

5.  Jn 14:9 …. Jesus said to Philip…. ‘You have not known  Me, Philip’...

About the same time when Thomas reacted to the Lord’s final discourse with the disciples, Philip one of the first disciples of Jesus who brought Nathanael to Jesus (Jn.1:45) asks Him, to ‘show the Father to them’. Surprisingly Jesus asks him why he did not realize that Jesus is the very image of the Father God, even after eating and living with Jesus for about three years’ time. What did Philip find in Jesus then?

Jesus says ‘He and the Father are one. One who has seen Him has seen the Father also’. John the gospel writer must have been listening to this conversation I hope! May be it led him to write in Ch.1:14, 18 that ‘… in Jesus, the only Son, the Father’s glory was seen….. Only Jesus revealed the Father to them’. John starts his gospel book with the same note to trace the existence of Jesus even before the world was formed in the prologue to his gospel, Jn.1:1-5. St. Paul brings out the wonderful supremacy of Christ in Col1:15-20…..’Christ the very image of the invisible God…..’ as he writes to the gentile church.

It will suffice for the body of Christ to know from these and other similar passages in the Bible that we belong to Jesus Christ who reflects God’s glory and He is the One in whom the ‘fullness of Godhead rests’. We do not need a rider to support Christ’s deity in any other form. At times Jesus becomes so familiar to us, that we are tempted to treat Him the Lamb of God, on a par with ourselves!! Let the church of Christ be careful and watchful not to entertain heretical teachings in this regard. In the ‘last days even the elect of God will be deceived’.

6. Jn 20:14… Mary saw the risen Lord standing in the tomb garden, but ‘did not know it was Jesus’.

Mary Magdalene was the first person to have a vision of the Risen Christ on the first Easter morning. She went to the tomb early in the morning, when it was still dark and did not find His body there. She ran back to the disciples and later Peter and John came to see for themselves. They went away. She was persistent in finding an answer, and stood weeping. She bent down and saw ‘two angels in white raiment, one sitting at the head and the other at the feet’. As Mary attempted to ask them the whereabouts of the body of Jesus, she turned back and saw Jesus standing behind, but could not recognize the ‘Risen Christ’. Jesus called her by name and she cried,’Teacher’.

Mary came to the tomb garden as a ‘mourner’ but went back as a ‘good news bearer/ evangelist’ to the Disciples of Christ!! What caused the transformation? It was the personal encounter with the Risen Christ and revelation she had following that. Her persistent faith took her to the level of enlightening the male disciples of Jesus. The Bible states that ‘they did not know that Jesus should rise from the dead’. Jn.20:9.

A personal encounter with Jesus Christ is the bottom line for a Christian in the life of faith. Without it one will stumble so easily. The Word of God is good enough to talk to us in times of need and to reveal Christ as the resurrected Savior whom the evil forces can never overcome. We are ‘more than conquerors’ through Him. He is ‘The Enough …. El Shaddai’ for a Christian. Mary did not ‘see Him’ but ‘His voice’ quickened her heart, sunk in the mire of grief and sorrow. If one needs such an awakening, he or she must listen to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit will bring the Word to life in the lives of believers in Christ. Are we ready to ‘listen’ like child Samuel, which makes us eligible to be God’s mouthpiece in a sorrow- stricken world? The 'dead' will be brought to life by Him, who conquered death in His own body on the tree of Calvary.

7. Jn 21:4 Jesus stood on the shore and the disciples did not know it was Jesus.

     The third appearance of the Risen Christ to His disciples at the
      shores of the sea of Tiberius points to us the ‘not knowing ‘of
    Christ by His closest friends and followers. 

Jesus had been telling them repeatedly while on His earthly life that He will be put to a cruel death and on the third day will rise from the dead. Seven of the disciples led by Simon Peter went fishing after Christ showed up to them twice earlier and blessed them. He breathed on them and said that ‘He is sending them as the Father has sent Himself’, to continue His mission in the world. After all this, may be they were distraught, disappointed or still not out of their sorrow. The leader of the team, Peter, the oldest of them all, plans to go fishing for a change or withdraw slowly from his calling!! Scholars give different views, but the fact remains that Peter influenced six others to join him in this ‘fishing'.

The Risen Lord came seeking for them. They were meant to be ‘fishers of people’! Lo and behold, they are out on the sea looking for fishes. As usual their story ends in ‘catching nothing’. Jesus called them out and their reply was ‘nothing’. No one recognized to start with. Jn21:4 tell us ‘that they knew not Jesus’. The same scenario at the same sea shore, the Savior on the shore, called them for the first time to follow Him. (Lk.5:1-11). It is the second time, calling again to remind them of their commitment to follow Him.

Jesus told them to cast their nets on the ‘right side’ of the boat, (Does it imply to us they are on the wrong side?!). They obeyed without questioning and caught 153 big fishes. The number 153 denotes the Church of Christ according to some Bible scholars. In spite of such a big haul, the net did not break. The Church will be taking many believers in the future and yet remain alive!

John now gets the connection and declares ‘He is the Lord’. Then the narrative goes on to say that the Lord had already prepared a breakfast for them on the shore with fish and bread and invited them to ‘come and dine’. No one questions Christ since they know that ‘He is their Lord Jesus’. After strengthening them physically Christ commissions Peter to ‘feed His lamb/sheep’.

When we come to life’s situations when no one else can support us spiritually and emotionally, the Risen Christ is there, living forever to meet us at the times when we need Him the most. This applies to His body of believers collectively and individually. He is much present in the ‘ordinary making it extraordinary’. He is an ever present help and Counselor. His dealing with us does not rest on our merit, but upon His Love and Grace. We win if we shall listen to His voice, recognize Him standing amidst us and obey instantly. This requires we are in the habit of reading, meditating and listening to the Word of God that is with us all the time.

When the Master admonishes saying ‘you have fallen from the first love’ , (Rev.2:4, 5) may the Spirit of Him who died and rose again for us, help us to remember, repent and be restored to the height from which we fell spiritually!!!

        Amen!