Explaining God by Scott Hoezee

Explaining God December 29, 2018 Read: John 1:17-18 No one has ever seen God . . . (v. 18) The Bible has many stories about God appearing in various ways. Sometimes God appeared as that glory cloud in the tabernacle and temple. Or God appeared as a cloudy or fiery pillar. At Mount Sinai God appeared as thunder, fire, and smoke, frightening the people who sent Moses to deal with God. But once on the mountain, even Moses was allowed to see only God’s back as he passed by Moses. So has anyone ever really seen God? Face to face? Not really. Except that now the Word of God was made flesh. He became known as a man named Jesus. So now there is a sense in which we have seen God. And that’s why John can say that Jesus made God known. Actually, the Greek there says that Jesus “exegeted” God for us. Exegesis is what ministers do to open up a Bible text so they can explain it to people in their sermons. That’s why Bible commentator Frederick Dale Bruner paraphrases John 1:18 this way, “No one has ever seen (God). But God the Only Son . . . He is the One who (came down and) explained God” (The Gospel of John, p. 39). Sometimes when we are trying to understand something complex, we might say to an expert, “Can you just explain this to me in language I can understand?” When that happens, such explaining is a gift. Now you understand. And that’s what Jesus does. He explains God to us. Now we understand! —Scott Hoezee Prayer: Thank you, dear Jesus, for making God known to us in ways we can grasp! Amen.