It is one thing to believe that Jesus knows everything. It is another thing entirely to believe that Jesus knows me.
There are billions of people alive in the world right now. Billions more have lived before us. Against numbers like that, it can be difficult to understand how our relationship with Jesus could possibly be as personal as Scripture describes it. We know that God loves the world. We know that Jesus died for humanity. But does He actually know me? Does He know what I am thinking right now? Does He know my history, my fears, my private prayers, the things I have never told anyone?
There is an interesting moment in John 1 when Nathanael meets Jesus for the first time. Before Nathanael has a chance to explain anything about himself, Jesus speaks about his character. Nathanael is understandably confused and asks a question that gets right to the heart of this subject: “How do you know me?” (John 1:48)
Jesus answers, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
We don't know what happened under that fig tree. Maybe Nathanael had been praying. Maybe he was thinking. Maybe something deeply personal had happened there. Scripture doesn't tell us, and perhaps that's because the important thing isn't what happened under the tree. The important thing is that Jesus saw it and He easily convinced the skeptical Nathanael of this.
Nathanael immediately understood the significance. His response was, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”
Something that Nathanael apparently thought had happened privately had been seen by Jesus.
We find something similar in John 4. Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well and begins a conversation with her. They have never met, yet Jesus knows intimate details of her life. Eventually she runs back into town telling everyone, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29).
But there is something even more incredible happening in this story, Jesus knew her story before He started the conversation!
He didn't discover her past and then decide whether He wanted anything to do with her. He already knew, and He sat beside her anyway. That tells us something important about what it means to be known by Jesus.
He doesn't only know the cleaned-up version of us. He doesn't only know what we say when we pray, what we do at church, or what other people see. He knows the entire person.
David describes God's knowledge of us in Psalm 139: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.”
Then he says something difficult for us to fathom, because it is so beyond human capability: “Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.”
Before you explain yourself, He knows. Before you say the prayer, He knows. Before you find the words to describe what hurts, He knows. Jesus demonstrated this throughout His ministry. He knew what people were thinking even when they didn't speak it (Matthew 9:4). He knew Peter would deny Him before Peter could imagine himself doing it. He knew Lazarus had died before anyone brought Him the news. He knew Zacchaeus by name before Zacchaeus ever climbed down from the tree.
None of these people had to get Jesus' attention, they already had it. And that may be where many of us misunderstand our relationship with Him.
We can begin approaching Jesus as though He is incredibly busy and we are trying to become noticeable. Maybe if I pray longer, worship harder, read more Scripture, become more disciplined, or become a better Christian, I'll somehow move closer to the front of the crowd.
But Jesus never describes His relationship with us that way, He describes Himself as a shepherd- “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14)
Earlier in the same passage, He says the shepherd “calls his own sheep by name.”
That is an extraordinarily personal picture, Jesus doesn't merely know that you exist, He knows you personally.
He knows what makes you laugh and what makes you afraid. He knows the things you're still trying to understand about yourself. He knows where your faith is strong and where it is struggling. He knows the prayer you have prayed a hundred times. He knows the one you haven't been able to say aloud. He knows every failure you wish you could erase and every act of obedience nobody else ever noticed.
And somehow, being completely known by Jesus does not result in Him backing away from us.
Regardless of where we are in our lives, it results in an even more personal invitation, “Come to me.” (Matthew 11:28) That's the part we shouldn’t miss... you don't have to introduce yourself to Jesus. You don't have to convince Him that your situation matters. You don't have to compete with billions of other people for His attention. And you don't have to become a better, holier, or more impressive person before He becomes interested.
The same Jesus who saw Nathanael underneath the fig tree sees you. The same Jesus who knew the woman at the well before she told Him her story knows yours.
Perhaps growing closer to Jesus doesn't begin with trying harder to get His attention, maybe it begins with believing something that has been true all along: you already have it.
~Devin
Devin Osborne
The Early Church
