Knowing God

 Holy Father, ...the world does not know you (Jn. 17:25).

"The world does not know you."  The impassioned plea of Jesus in John 17 was that the "world" would come to know the Father.  Just a few chapters previously, He had promised to send the Spirit, Who would teach us all truth, the Spirit, the Advocate, who would dwell with us and make Jesus known to us.  

And then Jesus will continue to make known the Father to us:  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (17:26).

What Jesus is talking about here is experience of the Father.  "To know" in Hebrew mentality is to "experience."  We are not talking about head knowledge; we are referring rather to 'heart" knowledge -- a kind of knowing that cannot be shaken.  The famous line is "A man with an experience is not swayed by a man with an argument."  What Jesus wants the disciples to have is experience of His Father, the same kind of experience that He Himself has while on earth.

So then the question arises:  How can we have such an experience?  How can we "know" God the way Jesus knew the Father?  During Jesus lifetime, He practiced open table fellowship with the "world" that did not know the Father -- the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the ordinary fishermen who were looked down upon by the religious scholars and scribes.  "I came to call sinners, not the righteous," He proclaimed.  The Father Himself was seeking the lost sheep, those who did not know Him.  

Today, Jesus still seeks those who do not know the Father.  "Behold, I stand at the door and knock," He says in Revelation 3:20.  "If anyone will open to me, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me."   Open table fellowship.  He was not ashamed to eat at Zacchaeus' house; he is at home in ours.  He "will come in," wherever, however, we live.  And He is not ashamed to invite us to His house, where He enjoys fellowship with the Father.  All He wants is to share with us His own experience of the Father.  It's really that simple.  

And for our part....it's as simple as opening the door.