How are people known?How can you know me? Of course, there is the easy stuff. I can tell you things about me, I can share my autobiography. I can explain to you a lot of the things I've done, where I've been, how it's been for me. You can ask people who know me about me. If I was famous you would be able to google my name and read a wikipedia article about me.
Telling, sharing, explaining, asking, reading. That's all pretty obvious. But you can only get so far with WORDS, whether spoken or written. You could spend a lot of time listening and reading about me and still not really know me. If that's all you got, then you would be missing a great deal that could potentially reveal so much more to you.
You need more than words to really know me. In fact, you need a lot more than words.
Because there's a lot more about a person than what can be told. It has to be experienced.
Anything that emanates from me to you is fair game as a window into my soul. Let me give you a few examples of what I mean:
Sorrows. You can sense another person's sorrows. Even more than that--this is the good part--you can actually feel them. YOU can feel MY sorrows. And by feeling them, a little part of me is becoming part of you.
Joys and pleasures. You can sense them, and you can be delighted by them. When you are delighted by what is delightful to me, then a little part of me is becoming a little part of you.
Dreams. When you "see" what I "see," when you imagine what I imagine, a little part of me is becoming a little part of you.
Passions and compassions. When I give them away, and you receive them fully, then you are allowing a part of me to become a part of you.
Love. Receive it, and you will become more like me. Return it, and I will become more like you.
Creativity. You can look at what I've made, my handiwork. If you admire it, then my expression might leave a mark. And if it leaves a mark, then a part of me has become a part of you.
Intents and my actions. My animation, my quietness. My anger, my anxiety. Read them. Feel them.
My ideas, my ponderings, my curiosity. "Wonder" along with them, and you will know me.
My humor, my gravity. My calm, and my excitement. My diligence, my rest.
All of these kinds of things (the list is longer than a server can contain) are how you know someone. In fact, they are weightier than all the words you could hear or read about a person.
In short, they ARE me. Collectively, they might be called my WORD. They are the essence of my soul. They don't require anything of me, because they ARE me. I don't have to think about how to present them, because they simply ARE me. They are not an expression or reflection of me.
They ARE me.
Know them, receive them--and KNOW me.
You might say, this is the Logos of Jon. The Word of Jon.
My Word is ME. And your Word is YOU.
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Now, this is not a plea for people to care about me. If you are with all this craziness so far, then I want to take this one step farther. As my PASSION is to ME, so JESUS was to GOD. He was the visible form of God's very SELF. God Himself. He didn't simply reflect the Father. He and the Father were ONE. They were one and the same.
Jesus is the Word of God.
Know my sorrow, know me; know Jesus, know the Father.
Know my love, know me; know Jesus, know the Father.
Know my passion, know me; know Jesus, know the Father.
So here's where it gets crazy. In order to know me, you have to "receive" me. This isn't about understanding, or having knowledge. This is about CONSUMING. To know me you must allow part of me to come to be part of you.
You must consume me. (And you must be consumed to be known.)
Same thing with Jesus. You must consume him. Now, most of protestantism would have us believe that reading the holy writings (all the poetry, prophecy, and history of the OT, the gospels and the letters and the revelation of the NT) is how we consume Jesus. I think not.
That would be a great place for anyone to start. After all, if you want to get to know me, then you might start by asking a few people what they think of me. Ask them about the stuff we have done together, what they've seen me do. You'll get a good perspective in their words and their stories. And maybe some of that perspective will hold up once you get to know me.
But ultimately, you might actually forget all those accounts--or they will at least carry less weight--because as you get to know me directly, as parts of me become part of you, eventually your firsthand experience with my pain and dreams and desires will outweigh someone else's thoughts about THEIR experiences with my pain and dreams, etc.
So, the question is, how do we consume Jesus? Just where IS he?
