Fifty years on from high school and I still remember a sentence from one of my English teachers. Knowing not, one knows not, is in a sense, omniscience. If you know that you don't know something, then you can learn and hence, really have the capacity to know everything. When you're cock sure about stuff, you will be closed to learning and are in fact ignorant. The best way to be is to be aware of your lack of knowledge and be willing to learn. In the play Hamilton, a song relates the time when George Washington is leaving office. George notes that while he is aware that he did not consciously make mistakes he is not foolish enough to think that he did not in fact make some. Wise. Smart.
Jesus in today's passage notes that he does not know the day or hour that Heaven and Earth will pass away. Shocking! Jesus does not know? C'est impossible! I suspect that there might be a great many things that Jesus may not have known but he is smart enough to know that he does not know them.
A case in point is when Jesus cures non Jews. Jesus himself first admits that He came for the people of Israel, the Jews. He himself is Jewish, Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is also a human. When confronted with the humanity of a persons suffering ( a gentile ) and their faith, Jesus has no choice in his heart, in love, but to cure the person before him. Ask and the Father will respond. Jesus sees the all encompassing love of the Father and does the same.
As if to admit that he does not know all and to show us the way to truth, Jesus notes that we can look to the fig tree to see truths about God the Father and Creation. Jesus notes that you can obey all the Ten Commandments scrupulously and still not enter the kingdom of Heaven. There is so much more to learn and love. That is one reason I suppose that Jesus spelled out the Two Great Commandments. But more to the point here is that Jesus is pointing to the created world as lessons for us.
See what God has created all around us and see examples of the power and majesty of God's world. Everything is a design of God's and so exhibits a clue to His/Her nature.
One thing that I noted early on in life is that "homosexuality" is not a specific act and it is not known only to mankind. The attraction, spiritual connectedness of two creations in nature is not limited to opposites sexes. "Homosexuality" is evidenced throughout the animal kingdom, throughout God's created world. Wow. The arrogant 'all knowing' notion that God created simply one paradigm is errant. God created a diverse world. God is showing us, we should listen and see. To deny is to be ignorant. To embrace, understand and love is divine.
Another example of this 'knowing all' and the wisdom to know that we do not know all is in the world's religions. Someone once noted that if we all stood around an elephant in fixed positions and asked to write a description of the animal, each of us would have a quite different view. Our descriptions would perhaps all say 'large' but one might note the tusk and trunk while another the tail and literally a mammoth derriere, still another might focus on the animals height. All would be correct. The religions that claim to be the entirety of truth based on their vision of God is pure arrogance and ignorance. Each of us has a view of God. I suspect all religions have a valid ( partial ) view of God. The true differences and faults come when man places it's own strictures on God. Those man made rules are also something that Jesus railed against.
In the end, when we see our own limitations and realize that we do not in fact 'know it all', then we are on the path to real knowledge, truth, enlightenment and hopefully a whole lot of loving. Love of self and love of others.
Matthew 24:32-51
‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
‘Who then is the faithful and wise slave, whom his master has put in charge of his household, to give the other slaves their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master will find at work when he arrives. Truly I tell you, he will put that one in charge of all his possessions. But if that wicked slave says to himself, “My master is delayed”, and he begins to beat his fellow-slaves, and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour that he does not know. He will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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