On Line Bible Study - For the Week May 14-20, 2012

Lesson 536

John 7:14-36

Before you read the text, you might want to review John 5:1-15.  We assume the healing of the man at the pool is the basis for the criticism Jesus is facing here.

For our purposes we are going to home in on four verses in particular ...

John 7:  ¹⁵ The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?”  ¹⁶ Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me.  ¹⁷ Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.  ¹⁸ Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.

How does Jesus come by such learning?  That's what the people want to know.  In other words, they know he is not the product of one of their "seminaries" - no prominent rabbi of the day takes any responsibility for having taught Jesus. 

Jesus responds to their question in a way that might seem rather cryptic - he essentially says that his teaching comes from God.  If we put it another way, Jesus is saying: "I know because I know."  Still another way to put it - a more philosophical way - would be for Jesus to say: "I know what I know because it has been revealed to me."

Since the "Enlightenment" that began in earnest in the 18th Century, we "moderns" have assumed that what can be known can be proven.  "Knowledge" carries with it the notion of certainty.  When a plane barrels down the runway, we don't have a bunch of people praying that the thing will fly.  Based on what we know, there is certainty that, given a specific speed, a certain design of wing and the like, the plane will not only take off - it will stay up.

The question is: Are there other ways of knowing things?  The Christian Testament acknowledges that there is an innate "hidden" quality to the divine.  Paul writes, however, that some of God's "hidden qualities" are made known through the natural world.  (Romans 1:20.)  Paul also says the "invisible God" is made known through the Son - "The Son is the image of the invisible God ..." (Colossians 1:15.)  Several verses later Paul writes: "The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations but is now disclosed to the Lord's people ..." (Colossians 1:26.)

Along with proof of a scientific nature, are there others ways to "know" something?  Can we be "certain" of the truth of what we believe in the same way we are "certain" the plane will fly?

There is an irony in this passage we are considering, for at one point the people doubt the validity of Jesus' message precisely because they know where he is from.  This doubt may be the result of a train of thought that had grown around the idea that the Messiah would have unknown origins - his appearance would be mysterious in ways that Jesus' origins were not.  They are unwilling to apply the same criteria to Jesus' teaching authority.

Have you ever wondered how it is that you have come to "know" something?  Is it enough for you to read the testimony of the first Christians with regard to Jesus?  Do you think it is possible that the Spirit of Christ might whisper some truth in your ear, meant just for you - something as true as any law of physics might be?

The question of "truth" will emerge again later in this gospel.