Getting to know God

During the time of Jesus, there were many teachers to whom the people went in order to listen to their doctrine. It was on such occasion that he taught them about the true knowledge of God: “No one knows the father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Mt 11:27). This phrase was so disturbing to the ears and hearts of his listeners when they heard it for the first time, especially for those who thought that they knew God. They continued to ask among themselves what Jesus meant by such words. The way Jesus used the verb ‘to know’ and in the way it is used in the Bible, to know a person does not mean to have just some kind of encounter or a few meetings with somebody, after which you may feel that you know so and so. It rather means to have a deep experience of that person. That is why Jesus insisted that this kind of knowledge of the Father can only be possible for the Son. Jesus pointed out further, that the Son can share this knowledge with anybody he likes. And who are the lucky ones who receive this knowledge from him? According to Jesus, the God of the learned, the scribes and the Pharisees, is far from mankind. He seems to spend his time spying on people and punishing sinners. This was not the God of Jesus Christ. The Father of Jesus loves the lowly, the little ones, the poor, and all those suffering from different evils of their society. It is most likely that the people understood well what Jesus meant, because the scribes and Pharisees had set up a complicated religion, full of detailed rules impossible to observe. As a consequence the poor found themselves unlucky in this world, since they could not observe the law, and they were excluded from the next world because they were considered to be impure. In this regard, the message of Jesus was and still is clear to us all: “Break the bonds of the oppressive religion! Accept my commandment, love one another! My religion is a religion of joy!” How can one do this? Jesus tells us how: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart.” It is interesting to note how Jesus distanced himself from the Jewish rabbis by such a speech. The latter often spoke with lots of exaggeration of the “yoke of the Torah” – a yoke due to the traditional fear of the law of Moses Mk 7:6-8. The “yoke” of Jesus on the other hand, was based on a different law of love. It was a simple demand of love of God and neighbour. But why did some Jews fail to understand what Jesus meant then? Can we have the same problem which might hinder us in our modern time from understanding such a beautiful and very appealing message? Before judging the Jews, it would be good to try and understand both the situation and context in which they were listening to Jesus’ message. They had become a disappointed people because so many prophets had come before inviting them to rejoice both heart and soul, to shout with gladness because they had come to the end of their suffering. For so many times, they had had many prophets who turned out to be false ones! That is why some Israelites did not find it easy to have much faith in the saviour who had not come at the head of a powerful army, with the horses and chariots. As many Jews had their doubts when listening to Jesus, it is possible that we too in our modern time, we may have our doubts as we listen to his word today. We might misunderstand his prayer for all that had happened, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and clever and revealing them to mere children”. God does not surely exclude the learned or the important people of any society. He was simply acknowledging a fact. The needy, the poor, the humble, the lowly are the first to accept him and this is right, he says, because they are those who need his love most. Is it possible that those who have knowledge and possessions do not feel the need for God? This is quite a thought for meditation for any living soul. Contact: casimir1958@yahoo.com