If you don’t know me by now

When I was a student at Newbold College, we ministered to Ishmael at a maximum-security hospital in Berkshire. It was classed as a mental institution. He was there for murdering his wife with an axe. On one of our Sabbath afternoon visits, my classmate Volney Ham-Ying and I were called in by the prison officials. “I’ve got good news,” he said. “Ishmael’s good behavior has qualified him for a weekend leave.”

“Oh, good,” we exclaimed. “We’re happy for him. His family will be pleased.”

“Family? He doesn’t have any family.”

“Then where will you be sending him?”

“We’re sending him with you!”

“With us? Er, there is very little guest accommodation at our college.”

“We were thinking he would stay in the same room as you.”

Ishmael came and stayed in my room—I did not sleep very well that night.

In the morning, he appeared to be very uncomfortable and asked to return to the hospital. I said, “Let’s go for breakfast.”

After breakfast Ishmael repeated, “I want to go home.” I said, “Stay for the church service.”

After church, he said, “I want to go home.” I said, “Give the process a chance, stay for lunch.”

After lunch he said, “I want to go home.” I said, “OK, I give up. We’ve tried to be kind to you, we’ve tried to be nice to you, why are you obsessed with leaving?”

“Where are the guns?” Ishmael asked. “Where are the knives? Where are you hiding your weapons? I’ve been to a lot of places, and I’ve always been able to figure people out. Please take me home—I can’t figure you guys out!”

We could not believe it. We told Ishmael that’s not who we were. We took him back to the prison hospital—where he felt at home. In our hearts, we wondered, Have we been so long with you, Ishmael, and yet you do not know us? That was Jesus’ question.

What breaks God’s heart

John 14:8 tells us that Jesus wanted His disciples to understand His mission. Philip said to Jesus, “ ‘Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us’ ” (NIV). Jesus looked at Philip and said, “ ‘Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time?’ ” (v. 9, NIV). What Jesus was saying was, “If you don’t know Me by now, you will never, never, never know me.” It’s not in your hymn book, but it’s in the text.

Oh, this breaks the heart of God! The commentator Charles John Elliot says, “There is in our Lord’s words a tone of sadness and of warning. They utter the loneliness of a holiness and greatness which is not understood. The close of life is at hand, and Philip, who had followed Him from the first, shows by this question that he did not even know what the work and purposes of that life had been. They speak to all Christian teachers, thinkers, workers. There is a possibility that men [and women] should be in the closest apparent nearness to Christ, and yet have never learnt the meaning of the words they constantly hear and utter; and have never truly known the purpose of Christ’s life.”¹

In other words, professional pastors and accomplished administrators often miss Jesus because He is around us but not in us.

OneVoice27

The global church’s OneVoice27 initiative invites us to follow Jesus in His baptism, spread Jesus through our platforms, and know Jesus through His Word.² “If you don’t know Me by now . . .”

There are things Ishmael did not know. And, I admit, there are some things I do not know. “I know not why God’s wondrous grace / To me He hath made known, / Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love / Redeemed me for His own. / But ‘I know Whom I have believed, / And am persuaded that He is able / To keep that which I’ve committed, / Unto Him against that day.’ ”³