Apart from a ute, boat, and half-day on Friday, builders and preachers have much in common. What architect drawings, onsite consults, and hammers are to a builder, so exegesis, hermeneutics, and homiletics are to a preacher. Exegesis is the act of drawing out the meaning of a Bible text, hermeneutics is the consideration of how to interpret the text, and homiletics is the art of actually preaching the text. (And pedantics is the art of criticizing the preacher!)

There is a lovely use of the word exegesis in the opening chapter of John’s Gospel. In speaking of how we might know God, John says: ‘No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.’ That middle part of the sentence is speaking about Jesus. That last part of the sentence is the verb to exegete. In other words, Jesus is the key to knowing God. He is the one who shows us what God is really like.

Apart from Jesus, God can be recognized as Creator, but not as Father. He can be thought of as existing, but not as being personally present. He can be perceived as being powerful, but not as being loving. Only in Jesus can such grand truths be known. And therefore as the old saying goes: ‘Know Jesus, know God. No Jesus, no God’. (But Jesus is not only good at the exegesis part; he’s good too at the hammer and nails!)