DO WE KNOW CHRIST?

DO WE KNOW CHRIST? Fr Luke A Veronis   “I myself did not know him.” Saint John repeats this twice in today’s Gospel story. -      “I myself did not know him, but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” -      I myself did not know him; but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.'  What did he mean when he said “I myself did not know him.” John the Baptist and Jesus were cousins. They first met when the elderly Elizabeth was pregnant with John and the Virgin Mary was pregnant with Jesus, and when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, John “leapt in her womb.” He must have known his cousin and something about his cousin Jesus. Yet what he knew in a worldly, familial sense meant little compared to the new revelation he received at the River Jordan. The Baptism of Christ is a Theophany, an appearance of God. John realizes this when he is inspired to say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world… I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God." From being his earthly cousin to understanding Jesus as the Son of God, the lamb of God, the One who takes away the sins of the world, there is a progression of knowledge and divine understanding here. Well, this progression of knowledge and understanding can be something we reflect upon in our own lives. Do we truly know Jesus Christ? If we’ve grown up in the Church and in a Christian home, we surely know much “about” Jesus. We have heard stories about him from the Bible. We learned about it from the sermons we hear. Every week in the Divine Liturgy we profess our Creed of Faith that talks about who Jesus is  - “light of light, true God of true God, begotten not created of one essence with the Father through whom all things were made. And for us and for our salvation He came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate and suffered and was buried. He rose on the third day according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” This is a beautiful description of WHO Jesus is. We profess He is God incarnate, God become man. That is what we celebrate at Christmas. Yet, do we truly know Jesus Christ? When Saint John say He “is the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” do we truly believe that the fallenness of this dark, sometimes very evil world has been changed by Christ. Do we understand that when He “takes away the sins of the world,” He does this by dying on the Cross for a world that is still living in utter darkness. He is not dying for the righteous but for the sinner! Jesus cries out “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they’re doing,” forgiving the world as it still lay in its darkness and sin! And this Savior came not only for the entire world, but for you and me. He came to forgive us and to change us! Knowing about God is one thing. Intimately knowing God is something completely different. Understanding that God is MY Savior, the One who takes away my sinfulness, my brokenness, my ugliness, my weakness, my darkness, and that He is the One who opens a pathway for me to become someone new, that goes far beyond simply knowing about God Jesus takes away the sins of the world. This means He takes away our sins, my sins! He forgives us. He teaches us to forgive one another. He guides us to forgive ourselves. He has shown us the path of healing and life, new life in Him! But again I ask, “Do we know Jesus Christ? Or do we only know about Jesus Christ?” During this New Year, let’s make it a central goal in our lives to come to know Jesus in new ways, in the depths of our hearts. Let’s sincerely seek above all else in our lives to enter into His Kingdom and to allow His reign to rule in our lives. When we truly encounter the living God and know Christ in the depths of our hearts, we experience the greatest joy that life can offer. We “taste and see how good the Lord is” and realize that this goodness of the Lord far exceeds any other joys of life. Yet, how do we come to know Christ? How do we encounter Jesus and develop a life-transformative relationship? Each day in this New Year, we need to create time and space to meet Him. Like any relationship, if we don’t put in time and effort, we won’t develop a serious relationship. The more time we spend with Christ, talking to Him, listening to Him, sitting in His Presence, and serving Him, the more we will come to know Him. This means talking and connecting with Him every day in our prayers. In our morning and evening prayers, and talking with Him throughout the day. The Church helps us develop this relationship with the set prayers of the Church in the morning and evening, and then we learn to express ourselves in our own words talking with Him. We also meet Him in our communal worship, when we gather with the people of God and participate in the Divine Liturgy and other liturgical services. We come face to face with Him in this communal worship. We must listen to Him through reading Holy Scripture every day and trying to hear His voice in the words of the Bible. We listen to Him in the words of the prayers that we say. We listen to Him by sitting in silence, dwelling in His Presence – saying the Jesus Prayer for five or ten minutes each day; sitting in front of an icon and simply dwelling in His Presence. To come to know Christ, we must open our hearts and minds and seek Him out. He is knocking on the door of our heart, waiting for us to open and invite Him in. He longs for an intimate relationship of love! Yet, we must seek it.aint John the Baptist said, “I myself did not know him.” Do we say the same thing? Do we know about Christ? Or do we know Jesus Christ? There is a big difference between the two. Let us make 2024 a year when we come to know our Lord in new and exciting ways!