I remember the day I bought the book. It was the biggest book I had ever added to my then infant library; The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had a fan for life and that book followed me over many ensuing years until – alas – it disappeared. I never ceased to be amazed at the knowledge Holmes had and the deductive reasoning he applied in case after case. I can’t imagine a person in London at the time that had a higher IQ.
Time after time he would come upon the scene of a crime and put forth almost everything there was to know about the victim and the perpetrator. He would come into the room where the crime had been committed, look around, pull out his magnifying glass, pick up some insignificant piece of lint and begin to pontificate… The murderer is six feet tall, belongs to the Zoological Society, has long fingernails, smokes Havana cigars and speaks French!
Sherlock Holmes, the worlds greatest deductive reasoner in the world. And there are many many Sherlock Holmes in the church today. They walk up to the scene of the murder and in a steadied and firm voice describe the victim… He was born of a virgin, was a carpenter, turned water into wine, walked on water, fed 5000, raised his friend from the dead, was tried and convicted of a crime He never committed, was crucified to atone for mans’ sins, buried in a borrowed tomb, rose from the dead, rose to heaven and is alive and sits at the right hand of the Father!
Pretty awesome knowledge of a man and His life, but they fail just as Sherlock Holmes did. They know something “about” the victim of the crime from the evidence available to them, but they can’t say that they “knew” the victim. Before a man can be known he must first reveal himself; his likes and dislikes – his hopes, fears and ambitions – his thoughts, wishes, motives and feelings. The problem with reasoning is that it can tell us things all about the victim, but it takes revelation in order to “know” him.
That is where far too many of Jesus’ bride fall short. By a process of reasoning they know many things about Him, but how He feels about things and what His thoughts are and what His perfect will is are not known. The Jesus they know is only superficial because the 66 books that reveal who He truly is are unfamiliar to them. Those 66 books tell us all we need to know regarding Him and His purposes in redemption, and we have the greatest teacher in the history of the world to reveal Him to us.
Yes, Sherlock Holmes may have been the greatest deductive reasoner ever invented, but the Holy Spirit is the greatest revelator that ever existed. The One who is ready, willing and more than able to take us beyond the obvious surface knowledge “about” Jesus to the “revealed” Word of God that fills in every missing gap. We can never know Jesus by a process of reasoning, it takes a lifetime of day-by-day revelation of who He is and what He has done for us for us to begin to truly “know” Him.
Are we satisfied with the surface Jesus or do we truly want to know the revealed Messiah, the soon coming King who will judge the world?
Elementary, my dear fellow believer, elementary!