Knowing Christ from nearness 

This week's reflection is based on the Gospel of John 17: 1 – 11 

I find the use of today’s Gospel Reading interesting. Today is the Sunday immediately after Ascension Day. The Gospel Reading, whilst apposite, in the timeline of Jesus Ministry it takes place, immediately after the Last Supper and before Jesus’ betrayal by Judas. It may have taken place in the Upper Room or whilst walking to Gethsemane. Chapter 17 is the longest recorded prayer of Jesus and is sometimes referred to as the High Priestly Prayer because it resembles the Old Testament Priest entering the Holy of Holies on behalf the people as described in Exodus 28-29. 

Many of you know that I work for a small Pharmacy Chain called Boots. Like all organisations, Boots has an online presence. This includes the use of adverts in our social media feeds, the sponsorship of TV Programmes and its own social media feed. The argument being, to make yourself known, you have to make yourself available. Some people fill their social media accounts with self-curated moments from their lives to create a brand and build a following. By the way, if you look at my social media profile, it is boring in the extreme. 

I wonder though, how the use of social media changes the way in which we know people or how we perceive people. We begin to know people from a distance. If I were to build my personal on-line presence, what would it include? Clips of me with the family, me pretending I can garden, my love of cooking, the joy of reading, being with friends, my life at St Mary’s. Do these data points really build a relationship of knowing. From social media people can be informed about me, build a picture of what I’m like, but do they know me? 

If a friend breaks their ankle and needs it to be pinned and wired back into place. If that friend is housebound for 6 weeks, how do you respond? What kind of support could you or would you give? Are you the person that would bring over home-made food, keep the garden tidy? How long do you walk down the road of recovery with them? What will you do and say? 

What does it mean to know somebody? We can know from a distance, or we can know in person. We can gather information about a person via social media, or we can get to know that person and journey with them. 

If we engage with someone via their social media, we engage in a one-sided relationship. There is the possibility that we can see shared interests and places where we could start a conversation. In some respects, this is useful, but we can disengage whenever we want. Rather than listen to a long conversation about a family holiday, we can skip to something more interesting that takes our fancy. The danger is that we shape the person according to our interests, seeing what we want to see, ignoring the things we don’t like. We spend the time on what we regard as interesting, rather than enduring a long conversation about what the other person thinks is important. 

In contrast, consider knowing from nearness. There is a different, a deeper knowing that happens in shared lived experience. There is a profound difference in looking at a video clip of a trip to Dover Castle to being IN the video at Dover Castle, being part of the action. The day doesn’t end with the two-minute clip of walking round the castle walls. There’s the Keep, exploring the secret wartime tunnels, the Dover Castle under siege exhibition, the kids enjoying ice-cream, breaking codes, exploring the site. At the end of the day walking back to the car, exhausted, carrying the picnic bags and the sleeping child who is shattered from all the running around, having had a brilliant day. The sustained interaction builds relationships. Personal presence and shared experience matter. They make for a relationship where you know a person more fully, even as you are more fully known. There is a deep kind of knowing which happens in shared lived experience. 

All of this is important, because in the Gospel Reading, Jesus is praying that we will know him. The question for us is, how do we know Jesus? Do we know him from a distance, or do we know him from nearness? 

Jesus came to reveal his Father to us. What Jesus revealed was not informational, but relational. The Father sent his Son to bring eternal life. Eternal life for Jesus is a relationship with God. Listen to how Jesus speaks about eternal life in verse 3, ‘And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent’. 

Jesus asks us to think about eternal life, not in terms of time, but in terms of relationship. For Jesus, eternal life is not merely the absence of death. It is the presence of God in our lives for ever. Jesus came to bring us into a never-ending relationship with His Father. In this relationship, we know God the Father, and Jesus Christ whom the Father has sent. This relationship is not one of information but one of formation by The Holy Spirit. 

This experience of knowing God is intimate. We are God’s treasured possessions. He sent his own Son to die for us, so that he may rise and restore our relationship. Jesus sends His Spirit that we might hear his voice and be restored to an eternal relationship with God, a relationship where we know God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one as God is one. 

This knowledge of God is both intimate and personal. Jesus shared our experience of death so that we might share His experience of life. In a world of many religions, it is tempting to reduce knowing God to information. We can compare and contrast religions. When this happens, we end up knowing information about God. We can list His attributes. We can explain his teaching. We can classify his works. 

God didn’t send his Son among us so that we can sit on sidelines, compare religions and decide which one we are to follow. Christ came so that we might experience his claim upon our lives. To be known by him. To be forgiven by Him and raised to new life by Him. Jesus came that we might know God, not from a distance but from his direct, personal intervention in our lives. 

Amen