Why Jesus?…

In his own words (part 16)

I often wonder why I do these blogs, because I’m not after results, I don’t look to see how many hits I get, and only rarely does someone comment. 

But Jesus said that one of the signs that we are his disciples is that we find ourselves wanting to do what he did (John 14:12). And one of the things he did was to share what he’d learnt from his Father with his disciples (15:15). 

And it’s clear that he inspires the same in his disciples, because millions of Christians through the centuries have wanted to share what they’ve learnt in their struggle to understand God. But Jesus did say in John 16:13, that “when the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” So inspiring an interest in truth is what we can expect. 

The truth, that is, about God as taught by and seen in Jesus, because that’s where the truth about God can be seen and known at its best. Which is why Jesus said in verse 14, that the Spirit “takes from what is mine and makes it known to you.” So there it is again, Jesus wanting to share everything that he knows with us. And it’s all come from the Father, because as Jesus said in verse 15: “All that belongs to the Father is mine.” So it’s through the Spirit now that Jesus is making his Father known to us, just like he passed on everything he’d learned from his Father to his disciples back in John 15:15.  

It’s not surprising, then, that through the centuries it’s been a characteristic of Jesus’ disciples to create Christian communities of learning. The origin of universities, for example, can be traced back to medieval monasteries. To quote one article I read: “The monasteries served as places of education for the monks and also for the storage of the literary treasures of ancient history and Christianity. The Benedictines developed an elaborate library system in their monasteries where they collected books, copied manuscripts, loaned books to other monasteries, and required the monks to read books every day.” 

They wanted to learn from others and share what they learnt with others – just like Jesus did. And so have his disciples all through the centuries. So it’s not surprising that Christians today seek communities of shared learning too…(continues Wednesday)