May I Never Know About Jesus Instead of Actually Knowing Him

 

It's a questionable thing when authors put words into Jesus' mouth that Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John haven't already reported on.

The hit TV series, The Chosen, does it well and clearly communicates that they are using their imaginations to tell the stories of those who were Jesus' first followers. They're not trying to convince anyone that it's a documentary and humbly present their bingeable show as encouraging entertainment, not canonical Scripture.

Conversely, in THE IMITATION OF CHRIST: Classic Devotions in Today's Language, by Thomas à Kempis (Compiled and Edited by James N. Watkins), there are passages specifically labeled as being The Christ talking to The Disciple. The good news is that, so far in my reading at least, these Kempis-written Jesus words have not contradicted anything Jesus actually did say.

The reason I bring it up at all is because I have been dumbstruck by a single sentence coming from the pen of Kempis but attributed to Christ. It has laid me flat and whether they are really the words of Jesus or not doesn't make any difference.

Some have much of me on their lips, but little of me in their hearts.

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Truth is...As someone who has been talking and writing about Jesus for...well...a long time, I dread the possibility of Jesus saying that about me. "Search me, O God, and know my heart today."