Christology and the Gospel of John.
1. Today we're going to look at some key elements of John's Christology. What is Christology? At least as far as John is concerned Christology is about recognising Christ. Near the end of John's Gospel he comments on why he has written it using these words…
30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.
31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (John 20)
2. This tells us a number of things. First of all it tells us that John has had to pick and choose what he has included in his Gospel and, furthermore, he wants to be up front about this. In other words he is saying, 'This isn't the whole story of Jesus; this isn't all that He did but… these are the things, I think, will lead you to believe.' So secondly, John hasn't just chosen certain things at random. He deliberately picked out events and features of Christ's life which he thinks will lead to belief. And if we are to belief then that will mean at least one thing - it will mean that we recognise Jesus as being the One whom the Gospel writers know him as. So the first thing I want to say this morning is that this is where Christology starts and finishes - with belief. But secondly Christology is the work of identifying those features and themes of the life of Christ by which we might recognise Him.
3. The Synoptic writers and John go about this quite differently. For them the key is to walk with Jesus through His life and simply by being with Him we will come to know this man for whom He is. John takes a more analytical root. For Him while the story of Jesus' life is important it should not be allowed to overshadow the wonderful central truths regarding His identity and mission. So let's begin with perhaps the first of those central truths upon which John rests his case for the recognition of who Christ is and it is the 'Word.' From the outset John identifies Christ with the 'Word of God.'
4. It is no coincidence that John choose 'the Word' as His central metaphor to describe who Jesus was. Indeed, even to call it a metaphor is probably theologically incorrect because for John the Word is so much more that a sign or signifier for Christ. The Word is, of course, living, being, active and involved. The Word encompasses both the human and divine possibilities of the One we call Christ in such a way that it takes and transfers meaning in a manner quite beyond the usual limits of language.
5. But more of that later. As I said, the choosing by John of 'the Word' is no coincidence. A cursory review of the OT is enough to convince any unbiased reader that the Jewish faith into which Jesus was born and from Christianity proceeds was deeply aware of the power of words as such. Indeed, it is probably fair to say that, more than any other ancient faith it was the Jews who placed words at the heart of their belief. Yes other religions had their moral codes and their Creation stories and their sage advice. But in none of these other religions do we find the central object of worship - the divine person - so present in the words of their faith. In the other faiths of the time. the 'gods' are either enjoying the creaturely delights of their creation or are distant and uncaring of human affairs. In contrast Yahweh is there, present in the very words spoken by His chosen leader and prophets. And we find that His Word is instrumental in a way that is quite unique.
6. It is by God's Word, for example, that Creation is called into being including the creation of humankind…
- In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
- Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
- And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
- God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.
- God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day.
- And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water." (Gen 1)
- It is against God's Word that the original disobedience is committed.
1Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'" (Gen 3) - Furthermore it is by His Word that God is largely made present to people throughout the OT and while there are some visible manifestations of God in the OT in the main God turns up usually when He says something to a leader or prophet or person whom He has blessed. By the time of David the pre-eminence of the Word is well established in worship and we have David praying this in response to God's promise to him…
20"What more can David say to you? For you know your servant, O Sovereign LORD.
21For the sake of your word and according to your will, you have done this great thing and made it known to your servant. (2 Sam 6) - So what is the nature of this 'Word of God?' There is no doubt that the Word of God in the OT refers specifically to the law and its sage advice as it does in Psalm 119 where it is referred to 25 times…
105Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
106I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws. (Psalm 119) - But it is also clear from the very beginning that it is almost an extension of God - a something else that is still divine but is also other. This is the case with Abraham,
1 After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward." (Gen 15) - As much as it is with Moses…
16So Moses counted them, as he was commanded by the word of the LORD. (Num 3) - As with Samuel…
10Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel:
11"I am grieved that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions." Samuel was troubled, and he cried out to the LORD all that night. (1 Sam 15) - As for Solomon
11The word of the LORD came to Solomon:
12"As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, carry out my regulations and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. ( 1Kings 6) - And for many of the prophets…
10As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Is 55) - So by NT times it may be said that God's Word acts in a manner which is significantly different from the way human words do. It has an instrumentality of its own - it is more than simply authoritative - it is active, creative, productive of God's will. And while we may not say that it has become a person in OT literature we can point to a kind of independence from God that prefigures the NT understanding of the Word of God.
- And so we come to John and it seems as if John is prepared, at last, to call a spade a spade. No more mucking around. The Word is somehow different from God the Father but, and let us be very clear here, it is no less God, no less divine. And this Word is to be clearly identified with the Word of God known by the Jewish people from their earliest period. And this is very clearly stated in those opening verses in John 1...
11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. (John 1) - These are not some people strange to the Word or who should be strangers to it - these are the people the Word has been addressing for all their history and whom God has called 'His own.' But now this Word is no longer hidden from them - no longer far away. The Word has come to live amongst them and to be known and, just as Einstein's work brought together so much that had been mystery to science for so many years, so the Word was here to bring light - not so much to Creation - but to God Himself!
- Yes, it is the Word which is the key to knowing God. In Jewish law the testimony of a witness is absolutely vital. Two witnesses were all that were required to convict without question. The Word in John is established right at the beginning in this key role.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning…
18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known. (John 1) - Christ is the One who comes to witness to God's Truth and to testify as a true witness and later we shall see in John that the roles are also reversed. Jesus claims God as His witness.
17In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two men is valid.
18I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me."
19Then they asked him, "Where is your father?" "You do not know me or my Father," Jesus replied. "If you knew me, you would know my Father also." (John 8) - Again this echoes the important and central OT theme of coming to know God by studying and obeying His Word.
57You are my portion, O LORD; I have promised to obey your words.
58I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.
59I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes.
60I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands.
61Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law. - How does one make God his portion? How does one seek God's face? By turning to God's statutes and commands - by aligning one's life with the Word of God. But clearly this was never quite enough to keep Israel from wandering and the prophets announce that another strategy has been decided upon in heaven.
7I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart. (Jer 24)
And…
26I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
27And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. (Ezek 36) - Knowledge of God will be more than just knowledge of the Law. Rather it will be personal - it will be something that changes us from the inside out because it will involve the changing or our hearts! And this is precisely the task of the Word of God - to renew us from the inside…
13Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
14but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4) - What Jesus offers us isn't a new moral code but a life changing Spirit which carries us into relationship with God. No longer are we restricted by our own personal resources but we have a deeply personal and involved God who changes us from the inside out. But the question of John is who is this 'Word' and how will we recognise Him? The issue of recognition is an interesting one in John. Throughout the Gospel it is a live issue as to who will recognise Jesus. This begins at v10 of the prologue with those fateful words…
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. - What's worse, not only did the world not recognise Him but neither did His own people…
11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. - This is again the theme of the passage around the gathering of the disciples later on in John 1 where if you want to find a central reason why Jesus choose those He choose John supplies it - they recognised Him. Later Jesus will say that it was the Holy Spirit working in them that enabled them to recognise Him but for now what we can say is that it was their recognition of Jesus that qualified them to receive His call. But travel throughout John's Gospel and it virtually every chapter this issue of recognition is paramount, it is a key to how Jesus works and who He works with.
- Why can the Pharisees not accept Jesus? Because they refuse to recognise Him.
11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. (John 3) - You might say to me 'Ah but Richard, that is hardly their fault - how could they recognise Jesus - He was, after all, just like them!?' Jesus offers no such remedy. He quickly deals with this objection only a few verses later…
19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. - The light is there to be taken advantage of but they refuse because light shines not only of what we want to know but on everything - ourselves included. Be assured of this - if you want to follow Christ, if you want to come into the light you must be prepared to have your own deeds exposed - there is no going on with Christ unless we are prepared to have our own lives dealt with. There is no daily walk without daily exposure.
- John 4 - what does He say to the Samaritan women? 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink…' Recognition is the central issue here. John 5 the healing of the invalid by the pool and his later interrogation by the authorities. What do they want to know? "Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?" And then just a few verses later those highly offensive words of Jesus…'My Father is always at his work to this very day and I too am working.' This provokes an immediate desire to kill Jesus because He has identified Himself with God in a manner totally unacceptable to the Jewish authorities. Recognition again. We could go on but the point I want to make here is that Christology is about recognising Jesus - it's about identifying the fundamental themes of His life and work as they come to us in scripture. And most of all it is about Who Jesus is.
- But at precisely this point we need to be very careful and in particular let us take a leaf out of the disciple's book. Discovering who Christ is cannot begin as it might do in the desk of an Interpol Office - with a set of detached questions about the identity, origin and characteristics of a wanted person! Those who remained detached from Jesus during His lifetime never got to know Him! Indeed it is clear in John that detachment is not an option - knowledge of Christ requires rather commitment, a commitment that is prior to knowledge. John never says - to those who proved He was who He said He was He gave the right to become children of God… No what John says is this.
12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-(John 1) - I want you to note here how deeply personal this formula is. This is not some scientific description or formula where a detached onlooker can follow through an experiment in which he or she is never affected but only observes. This formula involves a personal commitment - one that will not leave us unchanged. And this brings me to the first of those clues to the identity of Christ in John. In John it is the Person of Christ who takes precedence over the 'idea' of Christ. In other words, for all of John's philosophical sounding language the content and identity of the 'Word of God' is filled out by his 'dwelling amongst us.' It is the particular over the abstract, the historical rather than the mythological, the concrete and not the conceptual by which Christ is known.
- So if we look at the broad structure of the prologue we find we can break the first 14 verses in to 4 clear sections. Section 1 is verse 1 & 2. Here John establishes an hypothesis - this is what He wants to prove or to show in his Gospel - Christ is the divine Word, the eternal Word. Then to verses 3-5 We discover that though He is the Creative Word through whom all things have been made humankind has rejected Him - indeed we cannot understand Him or receive Him. The parallels with Genesis 1 in these two sections are striking.
- Then in verses 6 - 9 we discover that this very same divine Word has left heaven and has come amongst us - has become concrete and particular so that He might be known. And how does that happen? It happens via a concrete and particular commitment act on our part to believe Him. (Thus we establish the priority of belief over knowing. If you think this is impossible read some Michael Polayni. What he pointed out was that even science works this way because even in science we rely on what Polayni calls 'tacit knowledge' to make educated guesses about where to find out things - in other words we don't just start in random places when we are after information about our world. We rely on certain beliefs and hunches.)
- The Word finds His being in the concrete existence of this world. And the great confessions down the ages have followed suit. They focus very much on the concrete events of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Where we've gone wrong time and again has been to make Jesus into an idea or and ideal. So He becomes an example or a principle by which we may live our lives and the very moment we go there we immediately cast aside the very relationship which is at the heart of John's Gospel - the personal relationship established as we believe Him.
- And this leads to a second clue in regard to our recognition of Christ. If we are to understand Christ as Person and not Idea we must focus on the 'Who' questions around His life rather than the 'What' or 'How' questions. By this we mean that we cannot make Christ the 'object' of any investigation without realising that He is only ever object in His eternal 'subjectness.' The Word becomes object only by virtue of His self-giving and not because we make Him the object of our investigation. Clues to this abound in John. Christ is the light - all else is darkness. We do not shine our light on Him but he shines His light on us. If we are to know Him we must know Him by virtue of His light. John 112,13 - we become children not by virtue of any human decision or act but by God's work and act. Then with Nicodemus we have those words of Jesus which totally confuse him - "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." Nicodemus immediately recognises that this is beyond the capabilities of humankind and expresses this concern and Jesus replies that the birth He is speaking of is new birth by the Spirit. 6"Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." We know God as God gives Himself to be known and that knowing is primarily a function of the work of God - it is God who works in our lives to enable us to know Him.
- In practice in the John's Gospel this comes back, I suggest, to the question of recognition. In so many of the various incidents reported by John the question that becomes central, whether by the way Christ directs the conversation or simply by virtue of what other's know about Him, is 'Who is this Person?' Two examples.
- The Samaritan women begins by talking about water and how Jesus can even ask her for water and what He will drink from. But these question are never answered by Jesus. Instead He says this…
10Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." - He turns the whole question around to that of His identity and the issue of who He is. This then opens the woman's life to faith.
- The who question is the one question which drives us into relationship with Jesus. What and how are questions which demand nothing more that observer status. Jesus indicates how important being confronted with the who question is in John 6
35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.
36But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe.
37All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
38For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
39And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.
40For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." - The central question here is one of recognition rather than one of definition. The world is divided in two by Jesus. On the one hand there are those who choose to recognise Him by entering into a relationship with Him. On the other hand there are those who ask what He will do to prove He is who he says He is and also how can He be who He says He is when He is just one of us?
42 They said, "Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I came down from heaven'?" (John 6) - Finally a third clue and one which is perhaps more related to the character and nature of the Word as expressed in the text. As we read in the prologue again the nature of the Word is 'Grace.'
16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. (John 1) - The Son, the Word is overflowing with Grace. But what is the nature of Grace. One modern word that may be used as a metaphor for Grace is initiative. Grace means to show the initiative in love. Grace does not wait for the other to make the first move but it reaches out through the offence and hurt to offer the hand of love. In the text this offer in often expressed in the indicative voice. In other words, it describes what God has already offered, what God has already done, what God has already sacrificed for the sake of love. This indicative voice is in contrast to another voice commonly associated with God - the imperative - the command. The nature of Grace in John is to place indicative before imperative and not the other way around. It is, frankly, a much more common approach to reverse this order so that God's blessing and love (the indicative) follows obedience to his commands (imperative). What we discover with Grace is that quite the opposite is in fact the case. Take for example this famous piece of evangelical prose…
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3) - This is often used to hammer home the imperative of believing in God but in fact this imperative - if it is one at all - does not come first in this phrase. What does? (For God so loved the world…)
- Again in John 6 we have a similar set of imperatives…
35Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6) - It appears that we are asked first to come and to believe and it would be easy to think that Grace begins here but in fact if we go back just a few verses we discover these words…
33For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." - What God has provided comes before what God commands. The gift of bread comes before the requirement to east and to believe. And this is the case throughout the Bible. The command of God comes after the gift. Take the 10 commandments for example. What is the gift that comes before these? Let's read just the first 5 verses of Exodus 20…
1And God spoke all these words:
2"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3"You shall have no other gods before me.
4"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, (Exodus 20) - What comes before the commands? Release from captivity! God's hand of love all through the desert. So let's summarise…
- The Word of God is firstly person not principle. Then the Word is known as we ask the Who question rather that the What or How question. God is never the object of our investigation without His active self-giving. Finally we may recognise the quality of grace in that Grace gives before it demands - and in the text indicative comes before imperative as a reflection of this.