"Need to Know"
#92-26Presented on The Lutheran Hour on February 23, 2025
By Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Lutheran Hour Speaker
Copyright 2025 Lutheran Hour Ministries
No bonus material MP3
Text: John 7:28-29
Have you also found that, in many cases, you don't really know something until you need to know it? In my case, this is certainly true, and my mom must have realized this about me after her patience had almost run out and she was explaining to me for the umpteenth time how to operate our clothes washing machine. She explained it well, but to 16-year-old me, she may as well have been explaining the launch procedure for the space shuttle. All that business about which buttons to push, which detergent to use and how much, whether to use fabric softener or bleach, and the difference between permanent press and delicates ... my mom explained it, but I wasn't really listening. I didn't know it. I didn't care to know it, because, at the time, I figured I didn't need to know it. Maybe you've felt something similar when it came to how to bake a turkey or sew up a loose button on a dress shirt, or check your car's power steering fluid or balance a budget. You just don't know this stuff until you need to know it.
It's true, because we don't give our full attention to something, to really learn or understand it, until the situation or circumstances demand it. This goes beyond knowledge of domestic tasks. It also applies to our self-knowledge. There are things about my personality I didn't know until I was put in situations that confronted me with them. I didn't know how much I could worry until I really had something to worry about. I didn't know how petty I could be until someone wounded my pride.
But you don't know until you need to know. It's how we come to know ourselves. It's also how we get to know other people. How many times have you been in a situation when you had to work with someone on a project, or were thrown together into some crisis, or maybe just shared a ride with someone on a long road trip with poor cell reception, and there was no one else to talk to? So you got to know him or her better than you ever thought you would. Your knowledge of these people mostly came by necessity. You didn't really know them, or didn't care to know them, or maybe didn't even notice them, until you needed to.
It's true in everyday tasks, in self-awareness, in relationships—it's even true in our relationship to God, the One who created us. If you believe that you don't need a Creator to understand yourself and your place in the world, then you rule out the possibility of knowing your Creator, if you don't think you need one. Even if you mentally accept that there was a Creator somewhere back years ago, but you don't feel like you need a Creator now, on a daily basis, because you're getting along just fine, then the result is the same, isn't it? If you don't need God, you won't know God.
But what if you did become aware of your need? Maybe you haven't named this feeling as such— as "need for God"—but you've felt it. You felt it when the ground underneath you gave way, when the plans and the people you counted on fell through, and you realized you're alone. You felt it. You felt it just after you reached that last mountaintop. You made it! All your plans came together. All your people showed up. All your hard work paid off. And you realized that it's still not enough. You still feel empty inside. You felt it that morning when you woke up and went outside and you saw the sun coming up again and the day was full of possibility and beauty and adventure and you had this burning desire to say "thank you" to someone. You felt it. You felt your need for God. It's always there, waiting under the surface, an open invitation, God inviting you to know Him.
Only in the context of that need, the need for God, does Jesus of Nazareth make sense. Otherwise, He's just a figure from ancient history. And if He were just a figure from ancient history, you wouldn't even know His Name—some random Jewish man from some backwater town in the Middle East. But you probably do know His Name because He's the most talked- about human in history. Even though He wasn't from anywhere that mattered, and He didn't have any important political or social connections, and He wasn't an army general or a famous inventor of some new technology. There's no reason you should even know His Name. Except for the fact that long ago there were some people who were confronted with their deep need for God, the same need you've felt. And then, they were confronted with Jesus. And He was somehow different from every other person they'd ever met. No one ever talked like He talked. No one ever did the kinds of things He did in the way that He did them. He polarized people, He divided people. And the more time people were around Him, the more they found themselves either for Him or against Him. Either He's crazy, or He's the Creator become human to meet our need and make Himself known.
This controversy about Him led to His crucifixion. It was His claim about Himself that got Him killed. And then, three days after His death, He showed up again, alive again, and He met with some of His followers, because they needed Him, because we need Him. Jesus said He was going back to God, His Father. But that He was sending them, His followers, to spread the word about Him, the good news that simply by knowing Him—the crucified and risen and returning Jesus, by following Him, by trusting Him, by being baptized into His Name, all our deepest needs will be met, all our true desires fulfilled, forever.
So, His followers set out with this message, the work of making Jesus known, telling His story. Which is how we got these four ancient Gospel biographies about Jesus in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, although they aren't just biographies in the regular sense—information about a dead person. No, they are a living Word, a message—a confrontation and an invitation. When you listen to them, they confront you with your need for God, that gnawing feeling that's always there, often unnoticed but shows up, sometimes in guilt, sometimes in gratitude, sometimes when you're lonely, sometimes when you're in a crowd. The Gospels of Jesus expose this need and offer Him to meet it.
There's one chapter in one of those four Gospels about Jesus that especially drives this point home. It's in the Gospel of John, (chapter) 7. I'll give you some background on the chapter first because there's a lot going on in it. But there's a theme that ties the events and the interactions together, a core truth you don't want to miss, which is that you won't know Jesus until you need Him. The chapter starts with a reminder that already people want to kill Jesus because He was claiming to be equal with God. Also in this chapter, we hear about Jesus' brothers—half-brothers anyway, the four younger sons of Mary and her husband Joseph. They're Jesus' half-brothers because Jesus, according to his human nature, was conceived not by Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit, and born of Mary when she was still a virgin. Anyway, the interaction between Jesus and His brothers shows that they don't really know Him, because they don't realize they need Him.
The same is true for the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem. They don't recognize their need and so they're not even open to knowing Jesus.
Finally, there's the crowd. They're trying to find out about Jesus to see if they might need Him. But they got the order wrong. It's only when you finally need Jesus, only when you can't live without Him, only when you've got nowhere else to go, only then will you begin to know Him. So, in the lead up to John 7, we hear that some of the Jewish authorities want to kill Jesus. The event that triggered it was reported in chapter 5. Jesus was in Jerusalem, in Judea. He healed a man who'd been paralyzed, but the healing had happened on the Sabbath Day. But there wasn't supposed to be any work on the Sabbath Day, and the authorities interpreted the healing as a form of work. And when they confronted Jesus about this, not only did He not apologize—He raised the stakes. He made Himself equal to God. He called God His own Father. He said God works on the Sabbath and God's Son works on the Sabbath, too. That's why they wanted to kill Him, because He left no middle ground. Either He's dangerous and trying to deceive them, or He is from God and is telling the truth.
The scene in chapter 7 sets up like this: so Jesus went around Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jewish leaders there were trying to kill Him. Now, the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was drawing near. The Feast of Tabernacles was when Jews from all around made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and for seven days they lived in temporary shelters—booths or tabernacles. They did this to commemorate how their ancestors had lived like this in the desert for 40 years as God was disciplining them and preparing them to enter the Promised Land. They celebrated this feast every year to remember how God provided food and water for them in the desert, because God had promised to provide for them wherever they went.
So at that time, Jesus' brothers said to Him, "You ought to leave here and go to Judea so that Your disciples can see the works that You are doing. Because no one who wants to become famous does things in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world." See, even His own brothers did not trust in Him.
Jesus answered them, "The right time for Me has not yet come. For you, any time is right. The world cannot hate you, but Me, the world hates, because I am testifying against it, showing that its works are evil. You go on up to the feast. I am not yet going to this feast, because for Me the right time has not come." After saying this, Jesus stayed in Galilee. However, after His brothers departed, He went up to the feast, not publicly, but in secret.
Now, at the feast the Jewish leaders were watching for Him, saying, "Where is that man?" Among the crowd, there was widespread whispering about Him. Some were saying, "He is a good man." Others said, "No, he deceives the people." But no one said anything about Him publicly, for fear of the Jewish leaders. It wasn't until halfway through the feast Jesus stood up in the temple courts and began teaching. The Jews there were amazed and started asking, "How did this man get such learning without having studied under some great teacher?"
Jesus answered them, "My teaching is not My own. It comes from Him who sent Me. If anyone desires to do God's will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own. He who speaks on his own seeks his own glory. But he who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him, that Man is a Man of truth. And there is nothing false in Him. Did not Moses give you the Law from God? Though none of you keeps the Law. Why are you seeking to kill Me?" The crowd answered Him: "You are demon possessed! Who is seeking to kill you?"
Jesus answered, "I did one work of healing on the Sabbath, and you all are amazed. For the sake of this healing, Moses gave you circumcision; though it wasn't actually from Moses, but from the fathers. And you all circumcise a person even on the Sabbath. Now if a child can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the Law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry at Me for healing the whole man on the Sabbath? Stop judging by appearances and make a right judgment."
At this point, some of the people from Jerusalem started asking, "Isn't this the man that they're seeking to kill? And yet here he is speaking openly and they are not saying a word to him! Have the authorities concluded that this man is the Messiah, the Christ? But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where He is from."
Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts cried out, "Yes, you know Me, and you know where I am from. And I am not here on My own. But the One who sent Me is true—it's Him you do not know. But I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me."
At this, some of them tried to seize Him. But no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come. Still, many from the crowd put their trust in Him. But they were saying, "When the Messiah comes, will He not do more miraculous signs than this man?" The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering these things about Him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent the temple guards to arrest Him.
Meanwhile Jesus said, "I am with you only for a short time. Then I go to the One who sent Me. You will look for Me, but will not find Me. Where I am, you cannot come." So, the Jews there said to one another, "Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go to where our people are scattered among the Greeks? Will he teach the Greeks? What did he mean when he said, 'You will look for me but will not find me' and 'Where I am you cannot come'?"
On the last and greatest day of the feast Jesus stood up and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink! Everyone who trusts in Me, as the Scriptures say, streams of living water will flow from within him!" By this He meant the Spirit, the Holy Spirit whom those who trusted in Him were later to receive, because as yet, the Spirit had not been given fully, because Jesus had not yet been glorified, that is, crucified, risen, and ascended.
When the people heard Jesus' words, some started saying, "Truly this man is the Prophet." Others said, "He is the Messiah." But others said, "How can the Messiah come from Galilee? Don't the Scriptures say that the Messiah comes from David's family—from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?" So, the people were divided over Jesus. Some wanted to seize Him, but no one laid a hand on Him.
Finally, the temple guards returned to the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they said to the guards, "Why didn't you arrest him?" And the guards said to them, "No one ever talked like this man does." The Pharisees answered, "You mean he's deceived you, too? Have any of the leaders or the Pharisees put their trust in him? No! But this mob, that knows nothing of the Law—there is a curse on them!"
Nicodemus, the man who had gone to see Jesus earlier, who was one of their own number, he asked, "Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him out, to see what he is doing?" They said to him, "Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it and you will see that no prophet arises out of Galilee."
John 7 drives home the truth: Jesus divides people. He always has. So, where do you stand with Him? If you stand against Him, or you don't think you need Him, God's Word confronts you. That gnawing feeling inside you, sometimes felt in gratitude, sometimes in wonder, sometimes in guilt or shame, sometimes just the vague sense that you're missing something—well, Jesus is Who you're missing. But if you don't think you need Him, you'll never know Him. And if you don't know Him, you'll never know life, true life, but only this mortal life that will end in death and hell and separation from God, and from everything that is good.
But what if you're somewhere in the middle? You're not against Jesus, but also you're not sure if you really need Him. You might even go to church and listen to the Bible. You might call yourself a Christian and do Christian-y things, but you don't have this dramatic need for Jesus to satisfy your deepest longings. If that's where you are, the Gospel of John compels us to say at least two things. First, the same warning goes for you: just because you don't currently feel that need, doesn't mean it's not there.
But second, there's a promise, an assurance. Yes, it's true that you won't really know Jesus until you need Him, but the greater truth is that Jesus knows your need even if you don't. Because He loves you and His love won't run out, because He created you. And He knows that you can't live without Him. He knows how He designed you to live and thrive and grow in a relationship with Him and His people. That's why He died on the cross for your sins and rose to give you new life with His people, His church. That's why He sent God's Spirit and Word to confront you and invite you, and promise to return for you, and raise you from the dead, and make a new creation—and all this He did, even before you knew you needed Him.
I suppose it's something like a mom explaining to her 16-year-old son the difference between the permanent press and pre-wash. I was 16. I didn't know what I needed. Who does, when they're 16? And I still don't know how she could love me like she did. But she did. That stream of living water within her, Jesus' Spirit in her—never runs out.
Would you pray with me? Dear Jesus, You alone know how much I need You. Thank You for meeting me, even when I don't feel it. Amen.
Reflections for February 23, 2025
Title: Need to Know
No reflection segment this week.
Music Selections for this program:
"A Mighty Fortress" arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker" arr. Henry Gerike. Used by permission.
"Crucifer" by Sydney H. Nicholson, arr. Peter Prochnow. Used by permission.
"O God, O Lord of Heaven and Earth" From The Concordia Organist (© 2009 Concordia Publishing House) Used by permission.
