B, Lent 2 Midweek - 2 Corinthians 6:4, 9 "Known, yet regarded as unknown"

Text: 2 Corinthians 6:4,9

…As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; known, yet regarded as unknown…

Sermon

Tonight we focus on what it is to be know, yet regarded as unknown.

There is an old saying: It’s better to keep your mouth shut and have people think you’re a fool than to open it and prove it!

This saying goes along way in showing the distinction between being known, yet being regarded as unknown. Many in our society think they know and therefore desire to be known, but on opening their mouths demonstrate that they know very little. And those who don’t speak up, or fight for their rights, against hardships and distresses are perceived as fools.

Take teenagers for example; they think they know everything. Well at least I thought I knew everything when I was in adolescence. In fact all of us have been there, and still carry the fruits of those egotistical years – we still like to be seen as knowing it all.

Remember when you were an adolescent and an adult sought to help you do something. “Yes, yes I know”, you might have said. But after your dismissive words push away the help, you hadn’t a clue what you were doing.

Now put the shoe on the other foot. As adults, perhaps with a little more wisdom and life experience, helping teenagers or those with egotistical mentalities is often fraught with frustration. There is nothing more disturbing than helping and instructing someone who has no clue whatsoever and yet proclaims, “Yes I know, I know!”, when they really know nothing at all. As one who serves out of experience and wisdom you often get treated as if you came down in the last shower; as if you know nothing at all.

When God sent his Son to earth to carry the sin of the world, the Son of God was treated as if he knew nothing. He was treated in the same way as is an adult by a bunch of self-centred kids. Those that Jesus dwelt amongst thought they knew everything, they thought they knew the mind of God! But when God was in their midst they didn’t know him at all. In fact they thought he was against God and he didn’t know the right way for things to be done.

The disciples also knew nothing and Jesus came and chose them. He came knowing the will of God and called those who knew little if anything about themselves or God. But having chosen them, suddenly they thought they knew everything too. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying he must be treated as if he knew nothing; suffering much, being rejected and crucified. Then when Peter was questioned if he knew Jesus, he denied that he’d ever known him. Even one of Jesus’ closest disciples treated Jesus as if he didn’t know anything, even after Jesus had chosen him.

But Jesus did know. He was treated as if he didn’t know but really he knew more about the actions of those around him than they knew themselves. He knew why Peter had to reject him three times before the cock crowed. He knew why the Sanhedrin had to hand him over to Pilate, and he knew that Pilate would wash his hands of him. He knew these things because he knew his Father’s will and that the Father would also have to turn his gracious back on him and let him be handed over to a wrathful death for humanity’s sin; the sin of thinking we know better than God.

As the one and only servant of God, Jesus commended himself to all; in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses. Jesus was known by God, in fact he was the Son of God, and he made himself known to humanity, yet they regarded him as unknown. He suffered great anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, and yet by not of his own will but by that of his Father he was taken to the cross and there all by himself he became unknown bearing a painful death and separation from God the Father.

So why was the known Son of God, left for dead by all? Why did he allow himself to be reckoned as unknown, by humanity - who thought they knew more, and by his Father - who knew his innocence and perfection?

Jesus commended himself to us in the hardships of the cross, enduring death. He allowed himself to be sacrificed, because like an adult instructing an egotistical teenager, he knows our failings. He knows our ignorance, he knows our lack of understanding, he knows our lack of wisdom, and he knows we dwell in the ways of the world. But despite all this he loves us. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit wants to be know by us, even though in our sinful state God knows that we know neither our true selves, nor him, nor his love.

So now that God has made himself known to us in his Son, Jesus Christ, and has allowed him to be unknown. Our sin has become unknown to God through his Son’s death. We now possess the knowledge of Christ, not because we have found it, but because God has given us the life of Christ in exchange for our sin. Jesus has carried our sin so we might know God and his love for us. And in knowing God, being wise in the ways of God, we too can endure in Christ, before a world that thinks our knowledge is foolishness.

But in this life we still struggle to know God fully. We are continually tempted and struggle not to flee back to the wisdom of the world. God knows this too. Just like a parent who knows the failings of their ego centred teenagers, and could cut them down in seconds, but regardlessly still loves them and endures them; God knows his love for us is made complete in Christ, and he lovingly endures us for the sake of Jesus’ death for our sin. And in loving us, he patiently calls us to also endure in this life with Jesus for his sake.

Although our knowledge of God is limited in this life, I would like to finish tonight with the encouragement Paul gives the Corinthians in his first letter to them, that we are fully known and loved by God.

9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. (1 Corinthians 13:9-12)

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, even while you knew us to be completely sinful and turned away from you, you sent your Son, who was without sin to be sin for us. We thankyou for making yourself, and your love, know to us, through Jesus’ suffering, rejection, and death. Continue to send your Holy Spirit to us so we might know you more and more, and one day be perfected in complete knowledge of you in heaven. In Jesus’ name and for his sake we pray, Amen.