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That You May Believe (John 20:31)
At the time of the launch of the film about Muhammad
Ali I saw Will Smith, who played in the main role, interviewed on the
Oprah Winfrey show. In the course of the interview he remarked to Oprah
that there have been more biographies written of Muhammad Ali than of
Jesus Christ. A wide-eyed Oprah exclaimed, "More than Jesus Christ?" as
though such an idea was a revelation, incredible, hardly conceivable.
The truth, of course, is that, although attempts have been made down the
centuries to treat the life of Jesus in a biographical style, such attempts
seem doomed to failure since we only have so much material available and
research is frustratingly hampered. Writers have 'harmonised' and conflated
the gospels (which are not themselves biographical, nor indeed histories
but historical accounts). Some have tried to fill the gaps in the accounts
we have, for instance finding legends of Jesus' childhood and recounting
them. And attempts have been made to describe, if not the specific life
of Jesus, then the 'typical' life he might have led outside the gospel
accounts, given what we know of Jewish life 2,000 years ago. Biography
just doesn't seem to have been the aim and purpose of New Testament chroniclers
so why did they write as they did?
We are told that, "All Scripture is God-breathed,
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness"
(2 Timothy 3:16)
Whatever the Bible writers had in mind as they wrote Scripture tells us
that it is all in the purposes of God. The term 'God-breathed', or divinely
breathed, gives the clear sense of Scripture being the word of god Himself,
God's words to man and through man, rather than simply man's attempt at
writing his own account unaided.
We are also told that, "Jesus did many
other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have
life in his name" (John 20:30-31)
Much more material, then, was available to the disciples who witnessed
and knew much more than they tell. However, in the purposes of God, these
things were written 'that you may believe
that Jesus is the Christ'. The purpose and
end of Scripture is that we may believe aright, not that we simply get
our account straight, but 'that [we] may
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing
[we] may have life in him'. The aim
is our salvation not our education, redemption not information.
Scripture is there to give us encouragement and hope (Romans 15:4). The
events recounted there are for examples and warnings (1 Corinthians 10:11),
that we may believe in Jesus and, in believing, know life through him.
May we this week find hope in his word, learning to trust that God has
given us all we need for life and godliness
'through our knowledge of him' (2 Peter 1:3).
Not through our knowledge of facts and data, but through our knowledge
of Jesus, and my we know him indeed.