“Jesus said . . , Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

So if you want to know what God is like then get to know Jesus. How do we do that as he has been dead for nearly two thousand years? By reading about him in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. At every Communion Service there is always a reading from one of the Gospels. That is often the time that we stand to hear the words, which we do because spiritually we are in the presence of Jesus and therefore in the presence of God. In many cases it is the words of the gospel that are picked up in the sermon, as a means of helping us to understand more fully who Jesus was and therefore helping us to understand God more fully.

How much do you want to know Jesus, is two or three minutes a week adequate? How long would it take to form a human friendship if we only met for three minutes a week? For some people yes the reading may only be three minutes but they then go on thinking and praying about it for much longer. Indeed maybe until the next gospel reading. For others the desire is to read more during the week as a time of quiet and prayer. Often in addition to the Bible people have Commentaries which help them understand what is going on in the reading.

Whatever approach you take always remember that there are members of the ministry team available to answer questions if you are puzzled by what you are reading. We all have strange ideas about the Bible. As a child I used to be annoyed with Christmas cards that showed Joseph leading a donkey with Mary on it through snow, how stupid was that? And yet the first time I visited Bethlehem it was in the middle of a snow storm! This is because Bethlehem is over 2,500 feet above sea level. The thing that is wrong with the Christmas card is Mary riding on a donkey. To this day in Jordan you will see women going up steep hills, the man leading the donkey which is loaded with shopping and behind the women holds onto the donkey’s tail and is towed up the hill. Riding a donkey because of the shape of its backbone is uncomfortable, bordering on painful; and don’t tell donkeys but they have no feeling in their tails. There is always much to learn and none of us can ever know all the answers.

We can also learn about Jesus by reading what the early followers of Jesus thought and taught about Jesus and in the Old Testament we can read about what it was to be a Jew, for Jesus was a Jew and like all Jewish boys he would have learnt the first five books of the OT by heart and all 150 psalms.

On top of all that there are books about Jesus written through the centuries and every year more and more are published. So if you have a spare five minutes there is always more you can do which will help you to understand more about Jesus and therefore more about God. Will you ever know everything about God, no you won’t, but at least enjoy trying to find out about the one that we come to worship, week by week.

Andrew SSL