In
John 3:12 we read these intriguing lines: “I have told you of earthly things
and you have not believed; how much more so would you not believe were I to
tell you of heavenly things?” This sentence teaches us much about the Master’s
mission on earth. His mission can be summed up into three key revelations.
First, was his revelation of the Father: he showed us what God is like when he
portrayed the God of boundless love, limitless mercy, and endless devotion –
declaring that ‘you that have seen me have seen God.’ Second, he taught us that
we are the children of the God he came to reveal. And thirdly, he taught us how
the children of God live and conduct their lives: “Love one another as I have
loved you.”
It is
hard to imagine what must have been going through the mind of Jesus when he was
deciding on the portrayal of the Father he would make. We do know, however,
that he went with the conservative option. We know this because at key points
in his life - when faced with unbearably difficult decisions, when he was torn
utterly between his longing to help his fellow man and his aspiration to abide
in all things by his Father’s Will but couldn’t decided either way yea or nay,
he retreated into the Father’s Will and in pretty much every single case the
Father decided YEA! Jesus chose to portray the Father as solemn and devoted.
I’m sure he knew his audience well and figured that this portrayal would work
best, even if it wasn’t 100% replete. Over and over again in the life of Jesus
the exuberant nature of the Father would spill out over the image Jesus was
crafting in his life and teachings and make considerable trouble for him.
He
was, no doubt, bursting to reveal so much more but couldn’t. He knew the limits
of his people and therefore wisely restrained himself in his life and
teachings. In restricting his revelations he even admonished his followers and
the teachers of his gospel to let their light ‘so shine’ Matt. 5:16 such that
their lives would effectively illuminate and not blind their fellows…but even at
that, he told his closest friends: “I have yet many things to teach you, but
you could not bear them now.” John 16:12. Jesus craved to teach his followers so much more but they simply could
not bear it. It would have been utterly pointless to offer teachings that would
have been beyond their ability to understand. So, he must have decided to leave
those revelations for another day; a day when the gospel would have spread over
all the earth and such teachings might have great chance of being accepted.
And so
we return to the first line of this article: “I have told you of earthly things
and you have not believed; how much more so would you not believe were I to
tell you of heavenly things?” John 3:12
The
life and teachings of Jesus served one great purpose: To make a revelation of
God to man. In doing this another revelation was effected, the revelation of
the ideal Man to the Father. He offered very little teaching on Heavenly things. There was much that was
implied or suggested but almost no clear cut and distinct revelations with
regard to Heavenly things. No doubt
there was wisdom in this decision, people would barely believe him on simple
and straight forward matters – even going so far as to murder him for his
teachings. Over-revelation would have alienated him entirely from even his
audience and he would have vanished from the history books as just another
quack.
Would
it be beyond the realms of possibility that even as the Son of Man came to
reveal the nature and character of the Father that another revelation would
eventually follow which might do two things: clarify the life and teachings of
the Master and provide a revelation of Heavenly things? I’m sure many today would
recognise that the gospel has been subject to a chain of Chinese Whispers two
thousand years long and could do with some authoritative correction of the
signal. I’m also fairly certain that a great many would be intrigued to learn
of Heavenly
things. I imagine that whereas in the past people refused his gospel message
they would be more inclined to receive it today. The trick today would be
getting passed their prejudice with regard to Heavenly things.
What
if I told you that this revelation has occurred and is freely available to
everyone in the world? Would you dare to check it out? Would you dare to
believe this revelation? Or would you, like the spiritually blind souls of old,
declare such teachings to be ‘madness’?
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