⁷ “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; from now on you know Him, and have seen Him.”

They just didn’t get it yet, or we should say, they just didn’t get Jesus yet. Not quick studies, these disciples! But dare we judge them from the vantage point of having read the entire story of Christ repeatedly, as well as the divine commentaries on the spiritual life and truth in the epistles? Give the disciples, especially Thomas at this juncture, credit for searching, asking and wrestling with what Jesus is saying and portending. The Lord always responds to genuine inquiry.

Jesus gently chides that they had spent enough time together for the basic truths about Jesus and the Father to be obvious by now. His form of comment was meant to challenge the disciples to think back over everything they had seen Jesus do and heard Jesus say. Is it not true that faith that is growing is a faith that is always being stretched? The same goes for spiritual knowledge. Spiritual understanding must be challenged with ignorance in order to grow. And the Lord is not in the business of revealing deeper truths about Himself to people who are too lazy to recognize and confront their ignorance about Him.

Thomas and the other disciples had certainly come to a much greater understanding of who Jesus was/is than anyone else. They had left all because He had the words of life. They had confessed that He was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But there was still much to learn. Knowledge begets knowledge. A Christian can never rest content with what he has already learned, or he stagnates, becomes complacent and ceases to grow. This is profoundly true when we consider the infinite nature of Christ, His unlimited glory, His unrelenting love, His endless mercy and grace. An eternity is not enough to exhaust the joy of discovering the “glory to glory” that we uncover and gaze on, as we grow in our knowledge of Him.

Peter came to understand this and passes on his great admonition as he closes out his writing ministry: “…but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). The exploration of glory is the crème de la crème of Christian endeavors. Paul reveals his ultimate motivation in life and ministry: “that I may know Him…I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:10, 14). All other pursuits are hopelessly inferior. So Jesus tells the disciples, their education is just beginning!

Father, I too want to know Your son, the Lord Jesus Christ and to grow in understanding Him, so that I will come to know You better.