The Closer we get to God the nicer He becomes.
Preacher : Damian Larcombe
Date : June 7th 2026
I would like to begin with a Letter I found online. Its satire and originally published in 1988. It’s a letter from the Jordan Management Consultants to Jesus regarding the Resumes of the Apostles.
To: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafter’s Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922
From: Jordan Management Consultants
Dear Sir:
Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organisation. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.
The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.
As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.
It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.
Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.
One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.
We wish you every success in your new venture.
Sincerely,
Jordan Management Consultants
As a society we tend to judge people by their appearance, credentials, clothes, social status, all before looking at their hearts. God doesn’t do that at all. He looks at the heart first. To put it in modern terms, God constantly chooses people HR would reject.
In our passage in Matthew, we find Jesus calling Matthew from his tax collectors booth. Now we have all likely heard that story a few times, however, do you know what’s interesting to me? Tax collectors were seen as denying their heritage and betraying their people. Therefore, they were despised by the rest of the population. Matthew was exactly the kind of person respectable religion avoided. Yet Jesus walks directly to his table and says, “Follow me.” God constantly chooses people the world would overlook. The people who did the most important roles in the Bible were often those dismissed by society.
Which brings me to a question. What is God actually like? Is He a tyrant like some people imagine the Old Testament portrays Him? Is He a distant disinterested figure like the world often suggests? Is He a benevolent benefactor? A loving Father? A best friend?
Would it surprise you to learn that the God of the Old Testament is the same God in the New Testament? Sometimes people falsely separate the two. To quote Chuck Missler, “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.” Let me say that again. “The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed.”
So how do these things connect? I will give you the academic answer first, as Shane Willard puts it: “The Bible is a dynamic, progressive, moving revelation of what people thought God was, leading to the final revelation of God in the risen Christ.” Or even more simply, “Although God does not change, the more people understood about God, the closer He got and the nicer He got.”
Now that does not mean God changed. It means humanity slowly began to understand Him more clearly. The closer humanity got to God, the clearer His love became.
You see, I have always believed the Bible is God’s love letter to humanity. Yet many people get hung up on the way the Old Testament sometimes depicts God. I think part of the problem is that finite human beings are trying to fully understand an infinite God. There are some things we can know about God, and truly know deeply, but there are some things that simply go beyond us.
I watched a movie on Thursday called Sheep Detectives about sheep solving a murder. It was clever, but there was a brilliant scene where the sheep try to explain Christianity to other sheep. The three sheep stand outside a church trying to explain God with absolutely no understanding of theology.
Lily: What is this?
Sebastian: This is the church, where someone named God lives.
Lily: Who’s God?
Sebastian: It’s a bit confusing, God is a shepherd.
Mopple: So he could be our shepherd?
Sebastian: No. Because he’s also a lamb.
Lily: What?
Sebastian: And he’s also invisible. And he’s made of bread. And he damns things.
Lily: Dams things? Like a beaver?
Sebastian: Yes.
Lily: So God is a big invisible lamb beaver, made of… bread?
Sebastian: Yes. And they eat him on Sundays.
Mopple: Poor God.
Now all humour aside for a second, I feel like we as humans can sometimes sound a bit like that when we try to explain the Trinity or the resurrection or eternity. We see glimpses. Shadows. Pieces of the puzzle. But not yet the full picture.
That is where I use my favourite theological quote of all time. It comes from Winnie the Pooh. “If it says so, then it is so.” It sounds simple, doesn’t it? But there is actually wisdom in that simplicity. There are some things our minds simply cannot fully grasp. So, God gradually reveals more and more about Himself throughout scripture, so humanity is not overwhelmed all at once.
Can you imagine God talking to Abraham and saying, “By the way, sacrifices are not really needed, and one day I am going to save humanity through My Son, who is also Me, by dying on a cross for sin”? Abraham would have been completely confused. What is a cross? How can someone be both Father and Son?
Instead, God meets humanity where they are and slowly leads them somewhere better.
In Abraham’s culture people sacrificed constantly. They mutilated themselves to appease their gods. Child sacrifice was common throughout the ancient world. Which explains why Abraham does not question circumcision with a stone or taking Isaac up the mountain. To Abraham, this was how gods worked.
But then something incredible happens. God stops Abraham and provides a ram. Abraham climbed the mountain expecting a god like every other god. He came down having met something better. God was revealing more of His character. It is almost as if God says, “You think I want your children sacrificed? No. I will provide the sacrifice.”
As scripture continues, humanity’s understanding becomes clearer and clearer, like putting on a new pair of glasses and suddenly seeing things in focus. God says to Moses that Abraham did not know Him by His covenant name. Then God reveals His name, Jehovah, YHWH. God is drawing closer to His people and restoring what was broken in Eden.
Then later through Hosea, God says, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Now if God had said that directly to Abraham, Abraham may never have understood it. To Abraham sacrifice was simply what you did to approach a deity. But humanity was slowly learning something revolutionary. God is not ultimately after rituals. He is after restored hearts.
Then finally Jesus arrives, the clearest picture of God humanity had ever seen. The God who once seemed distant is now eating with sinners, touching lepers, forgiving failures, and calling tax collectors. When the Pharisees questioned why Jesus would spend time with Matthew and sinners, Jesus responds with the quote from Hosea: “I will have mercy and not sacrifice.” Then He adds, “For I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
Suddenly everything comes into focus. The God humanity feared turns out to be far kinder and far more loving than they imagined. God did not become kinder but because He simply is kind.
He always was. Humanity simply saw Him more clearly the closer they got to Him.
And the beautiful thing is this same Jesus still walks past tax booths today. He still calls broken people. He still chooses the ones the world rejects. He still desires mercy more than sacrifice.
The closer humanity got to God, the clearer His love became.
From altars of fear to the empty tomb.
From sacrifices to mercy.
From law written on stone to grace walking in flesh.
God did not become kinder.
He always was.
Jesus did not come to change the Father into someone loving.
Jesus came to show us what the Father had been like all along.
And that same Christ still walks past tax booths today.
Still calls broken people.
Still chooses the ones the world rejects.
Still desires mercy more than sacrifice.
Because the final revelation of God is not terror.
It is Jesus Christ. Amen
I feel the hymn “God and Man at table are sat down captures the truth of the revelation of God’s love beautifully.
O, welcome all ye noble saints of old,
As now before your very eyes unfold
The wonders all so long ago foretold,
God and man at table are sat down,
God and man at table are sat down
Elders, martyrs, all are falling down,
Prophets, patriarchs are gathering ’round
What angels longed to see now man has found,
God and man at table are sat down,
God and man at table are sat down
Who is this who spreads the victory feast?
Who is this who makes our warring cease?
Jesus, risen saviour, prince of peace,
God and man at table are sat down,
God and man at table are sat down
Beggars, lame, and harlots also here,
Repentant publicans are drawing near,
Wayward sons come home without a fear,
God and man at table are sat down,
God and man at table are sat down
Worship in the presence of the Lord,
With joyful songs and hearts in one accord.
Let our host at table be adored.
God and man at table are sat down.
God and man at table are sat down.
When at last this earth shall pass away,
When Jesus and his bride are one to stay,
The feast of love is just begun that day,
God and man at table are sat down,
God and man at table are sat down.
