I never know, until I know

Jesus said: I can do nothing on my own … I do only what I see the Father doing.

In light of these words we must ask again, “What does it mean to be like Jesus?” You know the song: “I want to be like, I want to walk like, I want to talk like … the Man from Galilee…”

And you know the commercialized formula: WWJD? -- What Would Jesus Do? (I wonder: does Jesus get any royalties from the sale of key chains, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and all the other junk with WWJD printed on them?).

But this man from Galilee did nothing of his own accord. He said he can do nothing unless and until he saw the Father doing it. So am I really able to be like this? Or is this something only the Son of God was able to do? The Son of God, who surely must have had a special and exclusive means of getting messages from the Oval Office of Heaven?

I don’t know the answer to this. (Well, I can muse pretty well on the theological answer, but what I am after is the practical answer, and at the practical level, I don’t know).

But I wonder about this:

I often feel that I am not in possession of any “body of knowledge.” Here I am, a college professor – a full professor at that -- with a Ph.D. and three other degrees from “higher” education. And I am not in possession of any identifiable “body of knowledge.”

This is one of the struggles of my life. A dreaded moment for me is always when people say, “David, I’ve been meaning to ask you about this…” And then they ask me a question in the field that I have a Ph.D. in, or in one of the areas I am reputed to know something about (like theology). But before they ask the question, I know I won’t know the answer. I just won’t.

Just yesterday I was in the kitchen thinking about the passage for a Bible Study I will be leading in a few days. Then I noticed one of my Bibles on the living room table, so I turned to the passage. And in about five minutes, I knew how I would lead that study.

I then said to my wife: “The bible study just came to me. It’s funny, for all the classes I teach and must prepare for, I never know what the next class will be like … until it comes to me. And then I know.”

And she said, “You are a most unusual man ...”

Logos2Go

John 5.19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father* does, that the Son does likewise.

John 5.30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me."

John 8.28 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [he] and [that] I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.