Introducing John's Gospel
One of the very interesting themes of John's Gospel is misunderstanding.. People in the story often do not get it. Take Nicodemus in John 3. Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being born again - and Nicodemus asks "How can anyone be born after having grown old?" Jesus speaks of one who is born of the Spirit and Nicodemus says "How can these things be?" Jesus replies: "Are you a teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?" Nicodemus should understand.
In John 7 Jesus' brothers are shown to completely misunderstand him. We would expect his family to be his supporters - not so! In John 9 there is the story of the man born blind - whom Jesus heals. But the Pharisees do not like it - and have an argument with the man born blind. He ends up saying to the Pharisees "Here is an astonishing thing! You do not know where this man Jesus comes from, and yet he opened my eyes."The Pharisees do not see - just as Nicodemus does not. Regularly, the people in the story simply do not understand Jesus.
We should not be too hard on these people in the Gospel. They were not expecting God to come in human form - and particularly not to be someone like Jesus who associated with the wrong people and spoke in strange ways. But, with this in mind, why does John write his Gospel? So that we, the readers, might understand, and come to believe. Some people missed it - and got Jesus all wrong. People in the story ended up being blind. John does not want this to happen. He wants us as readers to see.
In fact John tells us why he writes in 20:31: "But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name." I find that a helpful overall perspective on the Gospel - its written that we might see - and believe - that we might not repeat the mistakes of those in the story.
Let me take another tack.
Imagine going into a room in an art gallery … one portrait on a wall - but then you notice there are four portraits - all of the same person, one on each of the walls. And while the portraits are recognisably of the same person - they have different characteristics, emphasize different things …. The person in the portrait of course is Jesus. Think of Mark's Gospel - close up - not much background scenery - the portrait gives the dynamic sense of action, and of movement, and particularly of the authority of Jesus.
What's the portrait of Jesus that John presents in his Gospel like?
I guess I want to suggest two things in particular about the portrait:
- the portrait is of a Jesus who is clearly God in human form.. There is no question from the portrait that, although Jesus is fully human, the emphasis in the portrait is that Jesus is also fully God. Now I think Mark also believes this - but Mark builds up his picture subtlely - by emphasising Jesus' astounding authority. Mark tries to draw us in - and challenge us with questions like "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mk 4:41) "Who do you say that I am?" (Mk 8:29)
By contrast John is quite up front about who Jesus is - and paints in bold and vivid colours. Perhaps that is shown most fully by the figure of Jesus in the portrait being surrounded by glory - the sort of glory and brightness and majesty that we would associate with God. For Glory is a key word in John -
John 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only Son, full of grace and truth."
Or John 2:11: "Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him."
Jesus is fully a human being - but he is shown also to be fully God.
More about this soon.
But the other thing that would be clear about this portrait is that the person shown - Jesus - was of universal significance. He is relevant to all, meets the needs of all, is Lord of all.
I want to unpack both these things a little - Jesus as fully God, Jesus as of universal significance.
How does John begin? John wants us to come to believe in Jesus. In order to do so, he starts, not quietly with birth stories, like Matthew and Luke, nor right into the story like Mark, but rather like this:
1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
The beginning of a book is crucial. In fact Jn 1:1-18 introduces us to all that will follow, and also gives us the correct perspective from which to view the whole Gospel.
"In the beginning …" what does that remind us of?
Gen 1:1 - "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth"
But Jn 1:1 is before creation "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". We don't get to creation until v3 "All things came into being through him [through the Word]."
John paints the picture of Jesus against the backdrop of all of creation, and of time itself!
In order to understand who Jesus really is, then, we need to see him against the backdrop of all of creation.
For of course John is talking about Jesus here - we are told in v14 "The Word became flesh and lived among us" - the Word is Jesus, or Jesus is the Word made flesh.
But John begins "In the beginning was the Word …"
So the canvas of this portrait is even bigger - or even older - than creation - it goes back even before creation! Why? Because John is not talking about creation - but about God.
NOT In the beginning God created .. But In the beginning, the Word was with God and was God. Jesus the Word, is God, and so is bigger - greater than our world - and so not contained in it. It is another way of speaking of the Lordship of Jesus.
So in giving us his portrait of Jesus John starts by saying that we can only understand who this human being Jesus is, if we also see him as the Word - the Word who is God - as well as human. People like Nicodemus in the story misunderstand - they don't see who Jesus really is. John wants us to understand - and come to believe and have life - and in order for that to happen we need to know that Jesus is the Word made flesh, living among us, full of glory.
The Word is a great term. Logos. Greek philosophers thought of "the Word" (or Logos) as "the rational principle in accordance with which the universe existed" (Stanton). So as a term, it resonated with gentiles, and had a ring to it which pointed to deity. But it also has a very strong OT background. The word of God in the OT refers to the way God's communicates with people - the word of God comes to the prophets for the people of Israel. And note passages like Psa. 107:20 he sent out his word and healed them,
And
Is. 55:11 "so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
And of course in Genesis 1 God speaks and creation happens! The Word is associated with God in creation - and that is exactly what John says in Jn 1:3 "All things came into being through him - through the Word -, and without him not one thing came into being"
And the amazing statement in 1:14
"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth."
Unprecedented!
And think how fundamental Words are. Imagine a god who could not speak - who had nothing to say to the world - no words of grace or mercy or love. A god who cannot speak is in the OT almost the definition of a dumb idol. Yet Jesus is the Word - the very communication of God.
See again how universal this is - all of humanity needs to hear - and God speaks in and as the Word. Now of course God also acts - but God's acts often need interpretation, they need to be accompanied by Words.
So calling Jesus the Word was a way of appealing to both Jewish and Gentile readers, a way of associating Jesus in the closest possible way with God - the Word was with God and the Word was God - fully God - , and a way of speaking of Jesus' universal significance.
But then note John 1:18 "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son - that is Jesus -, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known."
This too is letting us into the secret - painting in unmistakably divine terms.
No one has ever seen God - even Moses was not permitted to see God face to face.
But Jesus, the Word, is here called "God the only Son"!!! Right at the end of the story Thomas will confess that Jesus is "My Lord and my God" (Jn 20:28). Jesus is God - the only Son. It is from passages like this that the Church rightly went on to think of God as Trinity - as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Jesus the Word, the Son, is close to the Father's heart - the old translation was "in the bosom of the Father" - in the closest possible relationship, by the Father's side as one in the closest possible intimate relationship. For the unity of the Father and the Son is a unity of love.
Jesus the Son "has made him known". - he has exegeted him, he has interpreted the Father. If we want to know what God is like, look at Jesus. We cannot see God - but Jesus has come in flesh, has been seen and heard - and has interpreted God to us - as God in human form.
Here again is the secret of John's Gospel - here again the portrait on the wall is crystal clear. John is saying - do you want to understand the Gospel I have written - then you need to see Jesus as the one who makes God visible - who interprets God to us! And he can only do this because he is God in the flesh.
I've said that John paints Jesus the divine Son against the broadest possible backdrop, and that he shows that Jesus is universally relevant. He thus portrays Jesus in universal terms - as relevant to everyone.
We're told that explicitly: Jn 4:42:
The people of the Samaritan village said to the Samaritan woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world.."
Saviour of the World - saviour for the World
And so John presents Jesus in universal terms, as the solution to the world's needs:
Notice in 1:1-18:
1:3-4 "What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people!"
You can't be much more broad-ranging than that! Everyone needs life - and light - and both are found in Jesus!
And 1:14 "And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth."
Grace and Truth - full of grace and truth
Grace - God's underserved favour and mercy heaped upon us.
Truth - the truth.
1:16: From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. - wave of grace, after wave of grace.
And truth - the truth about God, the truth about who we are - not so much abstract truth - though certainly that - but relational truth - that in relationship with Jesus we find truth and the utmost reliability about ourselves, God and the world.
Let me just broaden this themes of the Gospel being about Jesus as God - and Jesus as universally relevant. For I think the "I am" statements come in here too - and they show that these two themes keep coming back again and again.
The body of John's Gospel has lots of "I am" statements.
Can you remember some?
They are important in two ways here: In Ex 3:14 we read: "God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
I am is one of the names of God. When Jesus speaks of himself using this phrase, he is again saying he is one with God the father.
John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am."
But then note how Jesus speaks of himself in John:
John 6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty."
John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
John 8:12 "Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life."
John 10:7 So again Jesus said to them, "Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
John 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live,
John 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
All of these are universal needs … Jesus answers them all!
So Jesus - the human one, who is God - the Word made flesh - is the Saviour of the World - and meets all our needs - for life and light, and grace and truth, and the way, and bread of life, and water, and resurrection and the gate and the good shepherd.
You see how John is painting on the broadest possible canvas. And you see how he is hoping that we will all understand - that we might believe and have life!
In fact Jn 10:10
I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
John 5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself;
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;
But as John presents it, this is eternal life that begins now!
John 4:14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.."
That's why Jesus speaks of all these things in the present - I am the bread of life now!
So John lets us into the picture.
20:31:
"But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."
Gain new perspective - like seeing the earth from space - suddenly see the planet differently! John's purpose - that we might see Jesus differently - not just as this inspired human being, or not just as Messiah, but as God's Son, God in the flesh, as Lord, as Saviour of the World, as the one who brings life - as the one who meets all our needs - who gives life to all the world.
Well how do we read the Gospel of John? How do we interpret it? What have I tried to do:
John is richly symbolic. Light and life, and word and vines and so on. We need to read John's symbols and understand something of their power as symbols.
John often echoes the OT. In the beginning … When he talks of the Lamb of God he is thinking of the Passover Lamb.
We need to know some history - for example about the meaning of the term "Word" - but also facts like that Jews and Samaritans didn't get on - so Jesus is overcoming both ethnic and gender barriers when he's talking to the Samaritan woman
And John 7 is set in the context of the festival of Booths or Tabernacles. This festival was associated with water - so in Jn 7:37 when Jesus says "On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there, he cried out, "Let anyone who is thirsty come to me" Jesus is saying he is greater than the Jewish festival.
We need to see what the whole Gospel is about - which is what we've tried to do. It was written to be read as a whole book - not in parts. To continue the portrait analogy, we wouldn't study just the eyes of someone in a painting, and then think we'd understood the whole painting. We'd look at the eyes, in the context of the whole face. So we need to read all of John's Gospel - and study the parts in the light of the whole.
John often circles around themes and comes back to them again and again - themes like Jesus as water, or the relationship between Jesus and God the Father. It's like the spiral you go up to get to the hydro slide at Moana - round and round the same themes, but getting higher! Again, we need to read the whole of the Gospel.
But most of all, John is written for people who will believe and obey - not just people who will study, but people who will abide in the vine, who are thirsty and will drink the water of life, who have dwelt in darkness but on whom the light has now shown. As we go, as we abide, we will come to understand these things more deeply.
Jesus is the Word made flesh - God come to interpret God to us, that we may come to have life in him - and that we may live for this one who is the Word made flesh.