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Our text points us to Christ’s teaching on that in life what we should thirst for, the truth, as it is only that, which will make us free. Free from what? We live in a world that is greedy for knowledge and this passes onto our lives; we are told we have to absorb more to survive. The same is with our computer systems in business. One often today, hears the term used about business computers that they are suffering from “information overload”. Too much information has been keyed or programmed in to them that they then become slower and begin to mix up that data and start to print and calculate the wrong things. This sometimes causes what is termed as a virus and then can pass on this problem to other computers, simply by talking or connecting with each other. This same problem of “information overload” is passing on to us as human beings to keep up. Telephone messages, texts, facebook, chat sites, social media, e-mail to be searched out, junk mail to read through before we throw it out, all forms of media urging us to chase after more and more information, updates in the forms of seminars, job training, night courses, magazines from this to that, and it goes on and on. Information technology is here to stay, we cannot go back to the good old days as they are referred to, so we have to learn to manage our time a little better and get our priorities right so that we do not get “information overload” turning into a virus and not only affecting us, but also damaging those around us. We must always remember that there is still only the same number of hours in a day. The more we try to cram in, the more troubled we can become.

Our Lord foresaw this as He perceived His disciples finding it difficult to take in His teachings. He always kept them simple. If they wanted more information, He answered their question and no more. We can see examples of this when they asked about His authority, the resurrection, the payment of taxes, John the baptist and many other places in the Bible. He saw that they were becoming troubled at all this new information and gave them that wonderful advice that is still for us today, in John 14:1, “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” If we do not heed this and allow our thirst for knowledge  to turn into greed, it is no different than a man’s quest for wealth, it can have the same consequences, we can become demanding to be told about everything, but half the time, we don’t understand and only get half the story, which our prejudices then only allow us to hear what we want to hear and often we are hearing distortions, exaggerations, gossip and even lies, all for the sake of knowing more than our fellow man.  We can easily let this greed over-shadow the good things in life, such as family life, friendship and faith and trust in our Lord. This greed has the same meaning as our Lord spoke in Mark 8:36, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul”. All the knowledge in the world will avail us nothing if we do not find the truth, for it is only the truth that will make us free. That truth can only be found in our Lord’s words and we must never let ourselves be distracted from attending where we hear this truth proclaimed, and must always make a permanent place for this truthful knowledge to be stored in our life. Our Lord has provided that for us as He told in John 14:16-17, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him: for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”