He Knows - by Greg Steggerda
This year I've been working my way through the life of Jesus in all four gospels, and I've come finally to the closing chapters. A couple weeks out from Easter, Jesus' travels bend back toward Jerusalem for what we know will be a climactic confrontation. And this little vignette from Matthew 26:2-5 sets it all up:
“When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’
“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or there may be a riot among the people.’”
It's fascinating to me that even before his enemies began to plot, Jesus knew. He told his disciples and then the religious leaders assembled. They worked through how to do it and when was the best time, assuming all the while that their secrets were their own, but Jesus knew.
Jesus knows. He knows our schemes, the things we try to counter those ideas in the church we disagree with and the stories we spread about our rivals and the ways we try to manipulate things to our advantage at work. He knows the lies we tell and the things we do when we’re alone and the thoughts we have even about our loved ones. He knows every bit of it.
Jesus knows. He knows what keeps us up at night and the things that we’re afraid of during the day. He knows about the bills we can’t pay and what the doctor told our moms and the struggles we have trying to school our kids from home. He knows about our toxic bosses and our failing relationships and that person we shouldn’t have anything to do with who seems so sympathetic and attractive.
Jesus knows. That may seem threatening at first, but it’s one of the great comforts of the Christian faith. All the times when it seems like we’re on our own, or no one understands us, Jesus knows us so intimately that there’s nothing he doesn’t know. And he loves us through it all, completely and unconditionally and with an intensity we’ll never understand because we’re not God and only God can do that.
That means when temptation and sin seem too much for us, and even when we give in, we can take it to Jesus because he already knows. It also means when it seems like us against the world, it really isn’t and we have a God who already understands and is there for us. And it means when we don’t understand what’s going on and can’t comprehend what’s happening to us and the ones we care about, much less what to do about it, Jesus is way ahead of us on that too.
Jesus knows, and he cares. We never have to do any of this by ourselves.
“When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ‘As you know, the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.’
“Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, and they schemed to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. ‘But not during the festival,’ they said, ‘or there may be a riot among the people.’”
It's fascinating to me that even before his enemies began to plot, Jesus knew. He told his disciples and then the religious leaders assembled. They worked through how to do it and when was the best time, assuming all the while that their secrets were their own, but Jesus knew.
Jesus knows. He knows our schemes, the things we try to counter those ideas in the church we disagree with and the stories we spread about our rivals and the ways we try to manipulate things to our advantage at work. He knows the lies we tell and the things we do when we’re alone and the thoughts we have even about our loved ones. He knows every bit of it.
Jesus knows. He knows what keeps us up at night and the things that we’re afraid of during the day. He knows about the bills we can’t pay and what the doctor told our moms and the struggles we have trying to school our kids from home. He knows about our toxic bosses and our failing relationships and that person we shouldn’t have anything to do with who seems so sympathetic and attractive.
Jesus knows. That may seem threatening at first, but it’s one of the great comforts of the Christian faith. All the times when it seems like we’re on our own, or no one understands us, Jesus knows us so intimately that there’s nothing he doesn’t know. And he loves us through it all, completely and unconditionally and with an intensity we’ll never understand because we’re not God and only God can do that.
That means when temptation and sin seem too much for us, and even when we give in, we can take it to Jesus because he already knows. It also means when it seems like us against the world, it really isn’t and we have a God who already understands and is there for us. And it means when we don’t understand what’s going on and can’t comprehend what’s happening to us and the ones we care about, much less what to do about it, Jesus is way ahead of us on that too.
Jesus knows, and he cares. We never have to do any of this by ourselves.