SAYING 91
They said to him, “Tell us who you are, that we may believe in you.” He said to them, “You test the face of the sky and of the earth, and him who is before you, you have not known, and you do not know (how) to test this moment.”
To me, this saying is similar to the passage in the Gospel of John where the disciples ask Jesus to “show us the Father” and Jesus responds by saying, “Have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?” But, it is also reminiscent of Luke 12:54-56 where Jesus says:
“When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘It’s going to rain,’ and it does. And when the south wind blows, you say, ‘It’s going to be hot,’ and it is. Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time?”
But, here, the question asked of Jesus is about his own identity, and it comes with a challenge: Show us who you are so that we may believe [trust] in you. As if to suggest that his own disciples don’t know who Jesus is and aren’t sure if they should trust him.
In response, Jesus does not tell them who he is. Instead, he points out that they don’t understand how to understand. The lack of faith in him they are experiencing comes from an inner place of not knowing how to know.
To underscore this failure to discern reality, Jesus points to the sky above and the earth below. What are these? Do you understand what the sky is? Do you understand the relationship between the sky and the earth? Do you still see them as two separate things divided by space and time? If so, then this is why you fail to know the one standing before you. Because you continue to see the one before as separate from yourself, and separate from the sky above and the earth below. This is why you “do not know how to test this moment.” Because your eyes are unable to see, and your mind is unable to comprehend reality as it truly is.
Once we can see clearly that the sky and the earth are not separated, then we can see that Jesus is not separated from us, and that we are not separate from the earth, the sky, the moon, or anyone else.
This is the answer to their question; the answer they apparently aren’t yet prepared to receive: The one before you – Jesus – is the same as you are. If you knew yourself, you would know who Jesus is. If you understood your connection to the sky above and the earth below, and the universe around you, you wouldn’t need to ask someone else what their connection to everything was like. You would simply know it and everything would make sense to you.
The face of the sky is your face. The face of the earth is yours as well. Your face and my face are the same. Once we see that, your need for answers will fade away.
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What if God is all of us? Find out more about what it means to be one with God and one with everyone else in my book, SOLA DEUS: What If God Is All Of Us? available now on Amazon>
Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
His latest book, Second Cup with Keith is available now on Amazon HERE>
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