Knowing Jesus
“And when they got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard he was. And wherever he came, in villages, cities, or countryside, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and implored him that they might touch even the fringe of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.” (Mark 6:54-56)
Throughout my years in Raymond, I have been introduced to countless people by way of report. You know exactly what I mean, don’t you? Someone says, “Do you know John Doe? Oh, you know him! He lives on Court Street, grew up in Raymond; he did this and that and so on and so forth.” In a short conversation, you have an amazing biographical sketch of someone, but do you know them? You may know everything about them, yet you pass them in the Corner Market every week without recognizing them. That’s a problem, isn’t it? Regardless of how much information you may have on someone, you can learn more from a fifteen-minute conversation on the canned good aisle than a million Facebook posts.
Do we not see this in our passage? The Pharisees knew the Scriptures, they had some conception of who the Messiah would be; but when He was manifested in their midst, they did not recognize Him. Paul – “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” – this Paul did not recognize Jesus; instead, he persecuted Him and His people unto death. Information about Jesus, they had much, but we all know there is a vast difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus.
Yet what do we see in our passage? Instead of rejection, we find recognition. These men and women bring their sick and dying to Jesus. They recognized in Him a boundless compassion, only matched by His awesome power to save. The soul that recognizes Jesus as who He is cannot but clamor to touch even the fringes of His garment. The smile of His face is enough to strengthen weak knees and raise the spirits of the lowly and downcast. Their love for Jesus demonstrates their knowledge of Jesus.
My friends, do we have this same knowledge? If winning Bible Jeopardy could not get the genius Apostle Paul to heaven, neither will it for us. We must pause and ask ourselves the question – do we know about Jesus, or do we know Jesus? Have we experienced this great longing for Him? Are our affections moving us to act on Jesus?
