"All things have been delivered to me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him." (Matthew 11:27)
This is quite definitive, "....no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son...." Nothing could be any more clear. It silences the make-everybody-happy theologians, the "now-we-can't-offend-anyone" nice people, or those of the "we-all-worship-the-same-god" camp. Much of modern Christendom could be defined as "crossover" religion. Crossover music is described as, "The dilution of a music's distinctive qualities to accommodate to mass tastes." To me, nothing "tastes" better than our text. It is comforting; it is Family.
Please forgive the personal illustrations. An older gentleman in one of our parishes once said to me that I mentioned Jesus more than any speaker he had ever heard. He had been a member of that church and others over his life time and a board member of a local Full Gospel Businessmen Association; so I guess he had heard a lot. It was not necessarily a compliment or praise as much as he just seemed to state a fact. Another friend of mine in another location who was not a member of our congregation at that time told me that when he asked an older gentleman in that congregation what he thought of the new pastor, the reply was, "All we hear is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus." I repeat another incident. In 1962 I was a part of a Fellowship of Christian Athletes' convention; Jesus Owens was one of the speakers. A prominent baseball player said to me in a seminar, "We need to be careful not to make this a Jesus religion." I said, "What else is it?"
I know I have shared the aforementioned at times, but our text brought all of this to mind. Jesus said that only the Father knows Jesus, and only Jesus knows the Father. Since Jesus is, "the Truth," this principle should guide our entire life, not just the "church life." Can I say, To talk of "God" without Jesus is not to talk of God, the Father. Likewise, to talk of Jesus without Father is not to talk of Father. I have referred to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Definite Article of God. Without Jesus, one can only talk of a god. With Jesus, one is talking of The Only God. The early Creeds of the Church all centered on the Person of Jesus. To the hostile world, Jesus makes God too personal. The attitude is that of Felix, "Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you."
People don't come to Jesus Christ because I am nice, because I am sensitive to people's "issues." That just brings them to me. (It should be without saying that of course, we should be "nice" and "sensitive.") When I hold Jesus Christ before the world, the world meets Father. When I hold Father before the world, they meet Son Jesus. They should not and cannot be separated. What people do with that encounter is up to them. O, but what glorious encounter.
Father, in Jesus' Name, I choose Your Words over "mass tastes." Amen.
******************
Our Son-in-Law's Mom died today. Please mention him and the family in prayer.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
"Looking unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
