“Tapping into the source”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, August 25, 2022

John 7:14-36 (Forward, p. 27) CEV p. 1110

Sadly, many people today, Christians among them, are confused or erroneous about the source of knowledge, at least in any Christian sense. They confuse ‘education’ with ‘revelation.’ The derivation of the Latin word for ‘education’ has the meaning of leading out or drawing out, the internal knowledge or hidden talent of a child or a person. That implies that it is already there, below the surface, usually unknown and unrecognized by the person in question. In other words, it is something that the person already has.

Revelation, on the other hand, is something totally different. It is something that comes from outside, from beyond the person, from another source altogether. It is something ‘more’, something ‘other’, than what that person already has.

So, when we speak of ‘Christian’ knowledge we are essentially speaking, not of education, but of revelation—and revelation specifically from God. And so, it is not something that we already have, something that we discover from within ourselves, but something that is given from beyond and outside ourselves. And, even when we are reading and studying the text of the Scriptures, what we learn therein is something that God reveals and applies to us.

All of this is quite pertinent to today’s passage from the Gospel of John. Jesus’ critics are questioning where He got His teaching. They asked each other: “How does this man know so much? He has never been taught! (verse 15). (Here they are thinking, of course, of an earthly education.)

In His answer to them, Jesus is most explicit and straightforward in disavowing that any of it came from Himself, from within, from something that He came up with. ‘I am not teaching something that I thought up. What I teach comes from the one who sent me (verse 16). So even Jesus, the one person that we might think already ‘knew everything’ and could thus bring it up at will, is freely admitting that His knowledge, His teaching, also comes from God, that is, a revelation.

All of this is quite applicable to us in the here and now. Whether it is in the study of the Scriptures, in ‘doing’ theology, or in writing or preaching, we should always be in an attitude of prayer. We should always be available and open to what God might want to say to us, to what God might want to reveal. That way, we are going right to the source, the only good and true reliable one, tapping into it. Amen.

Forward notes: “About the middle of the festival Jesus went up into the temple and began to teach. The Jew leaders were astonished at it, saying, ‘How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught?’” (verses 14-15)

“Book learning is very different from experience. Theories about teaching take flight when you’re faced with a class of rowdy students. Until your hands are covered with flour, you haven’t truly understood a recipe. In short, experience counts, no matter what.

“There is no question that Jesus has learned Mosaic law, but he also teaches with his own authority. As he says, ‘My teaching is not mine but his who sent me.’ Even though Jesus has been guided by the greatest teacher of all, his accusers are amazed, asking, ‘How does this man have such learning?’

“Unlike them, he follows the spirit, not the letter, of the law. They, however, judge by rules and regulations. Because they are angry that he cared for others and healed on the sabbath, their search for the Messiah is in vain. If we are to learn one of Jesus’s greatest lessons, we will experience Christ by reaching out to others, putting mercy above all else. In that way, we follow the embodiment of God’s will.”

Moving Forward: “How can you have a more ‘hands-on’ faith?”

Some concluding comments: Two things: firstly, Jesus never says, ‘My experience has taught me thus’, no, He clearly says that it has come entirely from His Father in heaven. And secondly, Jesus was indeed ‘guided by the greatest teacher of all’ [that is, God], His detractors fail to recognize the source of His learning—precisely because they refuse to accept or acknowledge that it comes from God.