Thoughts About "Signs"

Signs in John's Gospel

Miracles have as their object the material, created world. They are events in which natural laws, the laws of physics or chemistry that we find so apparent and inviolate are in fact suspended, abrogated, or ignored entirely. During these suspended moments a materially impossible event becomes possible and becomes part of ordinary life. Once effected, the result is as "natural" had natural processes somehow brought the same event.

Some have noted that any sufficiently advanced technology may perform an action that seems to suspend natural laws, but in fact is well in keeping with nature's way. In contrast to this, Scripture does not present its miracles as very cool parlor tricks. Rather, they are presented as intrusions of the supernatural into the ordinary passing of time.

If these miracles took great energy, concentration, and inordinate mental anguish for Jesus, we find no evidence in John for this, nor in the rest of the gospels either. John presents us a man able to bypass the laws of nature by virtue of his own nature whenever he so desires, such as the famous walking-on-water event.

Yet, one might find it remarkable that, if indeed Jesus had such power beyond the natural, he should have been so sparing of it. But Jesus appears to have little interest in the undoing of nature for convenience's sake. (After all, if one receives the prologue to the gospel, nature - the created order of things - was his doing!) He bypasses nature to demonstrate compassion and to give evidence concerning his person.

Compassion, however, does not require supernatural ability; rather, it requires the will of a person to act outside one's own personal convenience. In keeping with this, the major reason for Jesus' miracles tells of his connection to power well beyond nature, beyond this created order.

The Gospel of John refers to Jesus’ miraculous deeds not as “miracles” or “wonders”, but always uses the term “sign”. (On one occasion, in 4:48, Jesus uses both terms “signs and wonders” in a general sense, but not of any one particular miracle.) Of all the things Jesus did, which John assures us could not be contained in all the world’s books, John tells us he chose particular ones to elicit in his readers faith in Jesus as the Christ of God.

Overall, the New Testament uses the term “sign” some four dozen times or so. The term draws attention to an identifying aspect of a thing that makes an event unique or recognizable in some manner. And, the New Testament's interest regarding “signs” tells of identifying characteristics to make evident God’s sending of Jesus.

So, John tells of nine specific extraordinary, miraculous events; two are not explicitly identified as signs (6:16-21, walking on water; 21:6, haul of fish), leaving seven signs proper in keeping with John’s interests.

Why does not John refer to those other two miracles as signs? He does not say. Perhaps what he has in mind is that since these were more private, and not public matters, they were not consequently subject to public scrutiny as the others were. Or perhaps he wrote with less scrutinizing of the matter than we're reading it. In any case, it appears that John chooses his signs as those events for which considerable numbers of people stand as eye witnesses.

Sign and Citation
Changes water into wine - 2:9, 11
Heals a child - 4:51, 54
Heals paralyzed man - 5:9; 7:31
Multiplying food - 6:11, 14
Gives sight to a man blind - 9:7, 16
Gives life to a dead man - 11:44, 12:18
Comes back to life himself - 21:14; 2:18-19

Six of these miracles are identified immediately as “signs.” John identifies the seventh and culminating event likewise as a sign, the resurrection of Jesus, but one must keep in mind the early part of the gospel in order to make the explicit connection as a sign.

There is a progression of depth and power to the signs that are given. From a lighthearted wedding feast to the raising of Lazarus from the dead, John offers us a slow revealing of Jesus’ supernatural power. Water to wine, healing a deathly sick child, healing a man paralyzed for 38 years, multiplying food to feed 5000, giving a man born blind sight, calling a man dead and buried four days back to life, raising him from the dead.

Why does John call these signs? A sign points to something. These signs point to what? They point to the inevitable conclusion that the only person who could effect such events must be one with God. Events that nature, the creation, cannot bring about, must draw from the divine, from the Creator, from beyond nature. Human beings, without aid, cannot do these things. These signs point to Jesus as one in intimate and unique relationship with God, through which relationship God acts powerfully to change nature’s events.

And if this be so, that Jesus has such relationship with God that he may act outside natural flow of events, then what he says must also have the same source for authority and power. If he can feed bread to 5000 people starting with 5 loaves, then when he says, “I am the bread of life,” it must be so. If he can give sight to a man born blind, then when he says, “I am the light of the world,” it must be so. If he can raise a dead man to life, then when he says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” it must be so.

And if God raises Jesus from the dead, then when Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by me,” it must be so.

And this brings us to John’s use of the miracles as signs: the signs point to what Jesus said. They are the exclamation points of Jesus' words. These signs give testimony to his relationship with God. Just so, Jesus calls us on more than one occasion to consider his works, if we cannot stomach his words. 5:36; 10:25; 14:11.

"If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 10:37-38

The signs point to the authority in his commands: "And this is his commandment, that we love one another as he loved us."

Other uses of the term “sign” in John speak generically either of other unidentified miracles Jesus performed, or are further discussion of the ones we have mentioned already.

1. 2:23 Many believed when they saw the signs he did
2. 3:2 Nicodemus acknowledges the signs Jesus does as evidence of God’s presence
3. 4:48 Unless you see “signs and wonders” you will not believe
4. 6:2 In Galilee/Tiberias Jesus worked “signs on the diseased”
5. 6:26 You do not seek because you saw signs, but because of food
6. 6:30 What sign do you do to elicit belief in you?
7. 7:31 Will the true Messiah do more signs than Jesus?
8. 10:14 John did no signs, but what he said of Jesus is true
9. 12:37 Jesus did “many signs” but the people did not believe
10. 20:30 Jesus did “many other signs” but not written down

So the demonstration of Jesus' power outside of nature points to the authority of his person: that his words speak the will and desire of none less than God. "Hear ye him!" exclaims the Lord God of creation.

Yes, Lord, we hear. Help us hear.

Thoughts On Opposition to Jesus

Opposition, Persecution, and Killing of Jesus in John's Gospel

John writes the gospel of Jesus from the viewpoint of the cross. From the beginning of the gospel we read of the Word, which Word becomes flesh in the person of Jesus (1:14),through whom was the cosmos created, but whose creation did not know him (1:10); the Word who came to his own, but his own received him not (1:11).

In previous notes, we considered the seven self-identifications of Jesus: (1) I am the bread of life; (2) I am the light of the world; (3) I am the door of the sheep; (4) I am the good shepherd; (5) I am the resurrection and the life; (6) I am the way, the truth, and the life; (7) I am the vine.

We noted further that each of these has intimations of God’s own identification of himself with Moses at the burning bush event, “I Am,” “I Am that I Am” (Ex. 3:14). It is not really a name in the proper sense, but a statement of God’s own existence, that he is existence itself. The name becomes, consequently, an identification that sets the biblical record for all covenant relations between God and his people, Israel.

This self-identification of God (I Am), is rendered in English transliteration as "YHWH". This is the name that one should not use in vain, according to the Law. So, in order to guard against improper use, even accidentally, it became the custom of the Hebrew people not to say the term at all, but, even when reading Scripture itself, to substitute the term with the phrase ha shem, that is, “The Name.” This custom became so prevalent, pervasive, and persistent that it became no longer known even to this day what the proper pronunciation of the word is. People make their best guess, “Jehovah” or “Yahweh”, but nobody knows. Since there are four letters to this term, it is sometimes called “the tetragrammaton,” that is, “the four letters.” Most Bible translations seldom translate the term, if at all, but conventionally substitute “The Lord” in capitalized letters for the tetragrammaton.

As we see, this Name of God held the deepest reverence for the Hebrew people. And at the very center of John’s gospel, we find this statement on Jesus’ lips: “Before Abraham was, I AM” (8:58). We shall return to this again.

Intimations of this identification come earlier in the gospel. For example, when the woman at the well says that she expects the Messiah to come and resolve all religious questions, Jesus answers with, “The one who speaks with you: I am.” 4:26. Our Bibles usually render it (and appropriately) more like this, “I who speak to you am he.”

It was not lightly that Jesus said this, nor was it lightly received. It is because of who Jesus is, his very nature, that we find the mystery of his actions and teachings revealed plainly. The clear and present implication of Jesus’ identification of himself is not lost on his hearers, and this is the account for these current thoughts, the story for today.

Shortly after John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (1:29), Jesus has the occasion of visiting a wedding feast in Cana, Galilee, where he performs the first of his signs: changing water into wine (2:1-11). Since Passover is at hand (2:13), he then goes up to Jerusalem where he drives out sellers of cattle and money changers from the temple grounds (2:14-17).

And here comes the first confrontation in this gospel between Jesus and the Hebrew authorities. They ask him for the credentials that give him permission to upset the lucrative temple trade, “What sign have you to show us for doing this?” (2:18). Jesus’ response gives away the whole of the gospel: “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” (2:19).

We understant that he spoke of his body, of course, and not of the temple built with stones by human hands. He spoke of his own death, burial, and resurrection, which events would not come for several years yet. However misunderstood he was by his challengers at that moment, we have foreshadowed once again for us here at the beginning of the gospel the key events in Jesus’ life: The presentation of his being, the response of rejecting him or of believing him, his tragic end and glorious resurrection.

Some time later, again in Jerusalem at another religious festival, Jesus heals a man, paralytic, ill for 38 years. As the authorities realize that the healing takes place in opposition to the Sabbath laws, in which it was not lawful to engage in the healing arts or in any work (including carrying a bedroll), they confront Jesus with his illegal activity.

Here is the first explicit reference in the gospel to a reason why the Hebrew authorities went after Jesus: not only did he aid and abet another to break the Sabbath law by telling him to pick up his bedroll and walk (5:10-11), he himself broke the Sabbath law by engaging in the healing arts. 5:16.

Beloved of God, we ourselves, so unaccustomed to thinking that religious concerns should take precedence over work or sports, cannot begin to imagine the challenge of Jesus’ actions to his peers. So foreign are we to that time and place, so alien are we to that culture, that as a matter of course our sympathies lie immediately with Jesus who stands against this "obviously" silly law.

The modern religious failure to comprehend the otherness of God, leads people to a degree of casual relationship with God that cripples. In modern culture, intimacy with God finds a place, not of awe, respect, and profound obedience, but of humdrum boredom with the divine. God "understands" that the Superbowl exempts one from real worship ... that indulging private pleasures over feeding hungry children is excusable ... that deployment of bombs is necessary when the nations don't give proper respect ...

Sometimes, out of a forced sense of enlightened spiritual understanding, we scoff at the foolishness of the Sabbath laws and applaud Jesus in his keenness to recognize their folly. In taking such a view, however, we fail to grasp the gravity of the events. We fail to grasp what Jesus would say to us in the similarly foolish religious laws we moderns have devised in binding heavy burdens hard to bear on men’s shoulders. Mt. 23:4.

But this was no trivial matter: John clearly says Jesus was persecuted for this very point.

Jesus, however, does not allow the difficulty to rest in a matter so slight as mere civil disobedience against unjust law. He answers his critics with that which infuriates them, and brings out the best they had to offer God: not only will they pursue him as a lawbreaker, they decide to kill him.

The words of Jesus that elicited this response in his accusers were these: “My father is working still, and I am working” (5:17).

We hear those words, and again, we moderns are so far from that culture, so far from a sense of the divine, so far from the sense of the transcendent and the holy, so far from the sense of deepest awe and respect for God, that we fail to grasp the stunning statement of Jesus. How could those words solicit such extreme reaction from his detractors? This is no mere dispassionate, theoretical, theological confession that he, the Son, is the second person of the Trinity, as sometimes is stated in such a banal manner. (Nor does writing such thoughts imply whatsoever that this present writer has a grasp of all the implications!)

Nonetheless, Jesus makes an unpalatable statement about God first: God is at work. For the deist of that time, and of our time, this does not fit well in our schema. God created and then God rested, and the remainder is up to us. Jesus, contrarily, says God is working still. God has not left alone the creation as though he were a clockmaker who built a clock, wound it up, set it in motion, placed it on the mantel, and then went off to play a restful game of golf. God, rather, pursues actively the working of creation right now. Still.

But on what basis was the law given that the Hebrew people should keep the Sabbath holy and do no work in it? It is, after all, the fourth of the ten commandments. The rationale given for the law is this: “For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:11.

The law said, “God rested on the seventh day.” Jesus said, “God is working still.”

This is why Jesus heals on the Sabbath, because his Father is working. Still. This is the second reality Jesus presents about his being. Since his Father is at work, therefore, he, Jesus, is at work on the sabbath. He must work on the sabbath for the very reason that his father works. There is a profoundly intimate relationship between God and Jesus, indeed, between the Father and the Son. He will say that he does what he sees the Father doing. Jesus reveals a reality of God that was not apparent before.

And the authorities hear that in calling God his Father, in this context Jesus made himself equal with God. They hear him as a blasphemer, as one who misrepresents God, as one who does not convey the reality of God at all. And therefore, as one who must die as the law says. Lev. 24:10-23. “He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him; the sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death.” (L. 24:16).

Later, during the Feast of Tabernacles, again in the Jerusalem temple, the people listening to him wonder why the authorities do not arrest Jesus. The crowds think they know Jesus’ background, they think to know his origins. But Jesus responds to say, “I have not come of my own accord; he who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.” 7:28-29. The authorities try to arrest him on the spot, but cannot do it.

The next day Jesus made the claim that if God were the father of those opposing him, they would have received Jesus. Those who had believed in Jesus say they are children of Abraham. Yet, since they did not receive Jesus, Jesus said it is evident that their father is the devil. 8:44. The authorities respond to say Jesus is a despicable “Samaritan,” and, “You have a demon!” They exclaim, “Who do you claim to be?”

Jesus said that God, his father who sent him, glorifies Jesus. Abraham himself, Jesus goes on to say, was glad to see the day of Jesus. (Now Abraham lived about two thousand years or more earlier!) The people ridicule Jesus, “You are not yet 50 years old – and you’ve seen Abraham?”

We feel the tension rise, until Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I AM.”

The people, livid, pick up stones to kill Jesus then and there on the spot. But Jesus hides quickly and escapes.

The following winter Jesus is back in Jerusalem for another religious festival, the Feast of Dedication. 10:22. The authorities collect about Jesus and press him to tell them plainly whether he is the Messiah or not. Jesus’ answer brings them to pick up stones once again to kill him right then and there. He concludes to say, “I and the Father are one.” 10:30-31.

Not hiding this time, Jesus stops them from throwing the stones with a question, though. He asks them for which of the good things he had done were they planning to kill him. In the ensuing exchange, Jesus calls them to believe at least the good works he does, even if they cannot abide what he says. He then ends his call to them with, “that you may know that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 10: 30. At which point they try to arrest him, but he escapes their grasp.

Later, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. An increasing number of people believed in him, and the priestly authorities feared there would be no stopping his increase.

It is at this juncture where we see a second reason for wanting Jesus dead. The authorities feared the Roman government. As more and more people are swayed by the signs Jesus showed, and as the nation of Israel receives Jesus, then the Romans will come and destroy the temple and Israel both. 11:48. The high priest Caiaphas, made his unwitting and infamous prophecy to the council, then. “It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, and the whole nation should not perish.” 11:50.

Finally, apparently some weeks later, during another Passover feast, the temple guard arrests Jesus, whereupon Annas and then the high priest Caiaphas try him. They send him on to Pilate, the Roman governor for final sentencing, and anticipate that Pilate will determine Jesus’ guilt. Pilate, unhappily, has difficulty ascertaining the nature of the accusation, partly because the authorities would not tell him what the problem was. The temple authorities simply said that if he were not guilty, they would not have handed him over to Pilate. 18:30.

After a lengthy examination, Pilate accepts Jesus guilty of rebellion and sedition, in the claim that Jesus is a king of the Jews. And when Jesus is nailed to the cross, that was the charge put on the cross with him.

So, the reasons John presents for opposition to Jesus are:

1. Jesus breaks the Sabbath laws
2. Jesus blasphemes the Name of God, claiming to be "I AM"
3. Jesus will bring the wrath of Rome on the nation, destroying it
4. Jesus claims to be King of the Hebrews, in violation of Roman rule

We may see that Jesus, then, is not simply a misunderstood man who was condemned unjustly. He was, rather, a disbelieved man, whose statements about himself were understood quite well, a man pursued at times secretly, at times openly, but always relentlessly by his opponents precisely because they understood clearly who Jesus said he was.

The challenge with which Jesus confronts us remains: Who is this Jesus? Is he who he says he is? Or is he a Samaritan, a demon possessed madman?

A Few Clarifying Thoughts

Regarding "I Am"

Some friends have pointed out there are several more than the seven “I am” phrases we examined in the gospel of John.

They are quite right.

Yet, our focus has been to consider the phrases in which Jesus makes an emphatic, explicit declarative statement about his person, that is, about his nature. We looked for those phrases that explicitly, and not implicitly, emphasize the words, “I” and “am”, carrying existential meaning, “to be, to exist.” A noun usually follows the phrase, indicating that Jesus “exists” as a certain thing: bread, light, door, good shepherd, resurrection (and life), way (truth and life), vine. Typically, in these he speaks metaphorically. There are seven such phrases (sometimes used more than once in a discourse), the ones we examined.

We also noted the singular “Before Abraham was, I am” as the central statement concerning Jesus’ self-identification in which he intended, and was so understood by his hearers, to say he and the Father were one.

There are other phrases in our English Bibles that read “I am” in Jesus’ words, of course. These are sometimes idioms of our language in which the verb “to be” is a helping verb. We dismiss those instances from being part of the thoughts above.

Yet, other times Jesus appears to indicate that he “is” something which we do not include above. For example, Pilate asks whether he is a king, and Jesus summarizes Pilate’s statement with, “You say that I am a king.” (18:37). Jesus does not exactly assert, “I am a king”; we infer this through reasonable and logical deduction, and Jesus acknowledges that we infer this. Yet, though we, with Jesus’ fellow Hebrews, reasonably infer that Jesus presents himself as a king, the point is that Jesus did not say this explicitly. And we were looking for explicit self-identifications.

Or again, Jesus says to those who oppose him, “You say I am blaspheming because I said I am the Son of God?” (10:36). Here as before, Jesus summarizes his opponents’ inference, and he agrees that their inference is correct. Yet, we note two things that are at slight variance from what we sought for originally: (1) As in the previous case, we infer that he is the Son of God inasmuch as he calls God his father; Jesus, however, did not use that exact phrase about himself in his discourse. (2) It is not immediately apparent in our translations, but Jesus does not use explicitly the term “I” here. Rather, the term is implied by the verb. In contrast, we were looking for those self-identifications in which Jesus was emphasizing the “I” explicitly.

The above discussion will suffice as offering representative examples of the process we engaged.

Having said all this, I do not want to put more emphasis on the matter than makes truly too much difference. Nevertheless, we should be aware of these types of subtleties in Scripture.

Regarding The Law and Sabbath breaking

Some friends take issue with the allegation that Jesus broke the Sabbath laws, in the account of John 5.

I wish to summarize fairly my friends' thoughts with these words: Jesus was not breaking God’s law either in healing the man on the Sabbath or in bidding the man carry his bed roll. Rather, in Jesus' day the application of the Sabbath law was misapplied to mean that one ought not to heal nor to bear burdens on the Sabbath. This misapplication of the Mosaic law grew out of events much subsequent to the giving of the Law. Therefore, Jesus broke no law of God.

Now, it is true that the gospels do not present Jesus as breaking laws of God.

Jesus indeed, in the gospel of John, after showing them their inconsistency in applying the Law, calls upon his fellows to “judge with right judgment” in regard to this very question. (7:21-24). Jesus’ detractors did not see it his way, of course, but that’s beside the point.

Nonetheless, Jesus broke the law, not God’s law to be sure, but he broke the law of the land (the Sabbath law as it was then defined) and he bade another to break the same law likewise.

In his defense to the accusing authorities, we note that Jesus does not challenge them in their misapplication of the fourth commandment. Rather, he speaks of inconsistent application of the law. Jesus is not ignorant of the consequences of his actions; he could have waited another few hours until after the Sabbath to heal ... but he did not.

This is a reality we, too, must face as we consider who he was and what he did. We are left to struggle with Jesus’ motive or intent in his willful breaking of the law, a man-made law, but law nonetheless.

In the gospel of Mark, his answer to a similar circumstance is no less stunning than what he says in John (5:17). He says, “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27). His argument leading to that thought (vv. 25-26) is not merely that the Law was misapplied, but that David even broke what the Law was quite explicit about!

At every level, Jesus challenges us to rethink our relationship with God so that we may be sons of God indeed, that we may be perfect, as he is perfect. (Mt. 5:48).

Thoughts on "I Am" in John

A Brief Excursus On "I Am"

Now – the question that confronts human beings ever remains: Who did Jesus think he was? Indeed, who is Jesus of Nazareth? As Nathanael asked it, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

An unwed young woman became pregnant (Lk. 1:34) and gave birth in due course to a baby boy. She and the young man she subsequently married named the child Jesus (Lk. 2:21). Due to powerful and oppressive governmental authorities in their nation (Mt. 2:16ff.), they fled their home to become fugitives in a foreign land (Mt. 2:14). After some years of displacement they finally settled in a small village in the northern part of their own country (Mt. 2:23; Lk. 2:51). In time, as the usual progression of things go, the young couple had other children, at least four other boys and two girls (Mk. 6:3). Little is known about this struggling family other than some names and lineage (Mt. 1:1-17; Lk. 3:23-38). Evidently, the father worked as a carpenter/mason and taught his trade at least to the oldest son (Mt. 13:55; Mk. 6:3). Their dates of death are unknown, though it is suspected the father died untimely (Jn. 19:26-27), leaving his widow a single parent with hungry mouths to feed.

As ignominious as the family is, their oldest child grew to become the most controversial person in human history, whose name to this day brings in some quarters bitter ridicule, in some careless dismissal, in others mystifying puzzlement, and in yet other quarters deepest devotion. About 30 years of age (Lk. 3:23), Jesus suddenly left his mother and younger brothers and sisters to pursue what he recognized as God’s call to itinerant preaching (Mt. 4:1-17). Though never more than a hundred miles from his hometown, he traveled extensively throughout his country preaching the kingdom of God. He collected a dozen and more followers whom he taught meticulously, tirelessly, and thoroughly his vision of God’s nature and his vision of God’s kingdom, that is, a kingdom comprised of human beings overwhelmed by God’s love, committed to love God and one another as they themselves have been loved by God (Jn. 13:34-35).

It is only in the writings of his followers, in their witness to Jesus, that we have glimpses of Jesus to examine. Indeed, the only writing explicitly attributed to Jesus (Jn. 8:6-8) was never transcribed nor told by his followers, and blew away with the dust. This record of his followers, a set of writings collected over a period of several decades, does not give all the information we would like to have about him, but this record does give enough insight for people to make all necessary decisions in regard to Jesus. Their record is not entirely clear concerning the length of Jesus’ preaching, but it seems that it took place over about three to four years.

His preaching was brought to an end by powerful religious and governmental concerns who saw in his radical preaching subversion of the established religious order and sedition from proper government. These authorities, with a crowd of regular people before them, in two distinct trials found him guilty both as a terrorist who misrepresented God and as a rebel who incited mobs to violence subverting rightful authority. Though finding him worthy of capital punishment, the jury determined immediate execution was too good for him, so they abused him, they tortured him at length, they nailed his arms and legs to wooden beams, and they hoisted him up in shameful, stripped, public display until he should make payment on his debt to society by agonizing, suffocating death.

According to the amazing testimony of his followers, and against their initial inclinations, after being buried in a tomb he came back to life three days later. For a subsequent six weeks almost, he further instructed his followers concerning God and the direction their lives should take. Finally, to their wonderment, and with the promise that he would return in the same manner, he then levitated from the earth into the skies disappearing into clouds.

One of the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ preaching and life was John. His testimony is written in the gospel that bears his name. John states that he wrote the detail of his testimony so that people would come to believe in Jesus as the Christ, as the Son of God, and that due to this believing in Jesus, that people would have eternal life.

In reading through John’s gospel, one cannot help but recognize that Jesus had an overwhelming sense of mission: he knew where he came from; he knew what he was here for; he knew where he was going. Not that everyone agreed with him in his answers, but that very few were left wondering about his own sense of being.

So, we pursue the question: Who did Jesus think he was? In examining this, however briefly, we can begin then to see that people’s reaction to him relates to this mission he described for himself.

In John, Jesus uses seven indicators concerning his identity, each of them startling and challenging to our ears. If, in the course of casual or even of deep conversation with other persons, we would hear someone use the language Jesus used to describe himself, we would have reason to wonder at the deceitfulness or, more kindly perhaps, at the sanity of such a one. Consequently, when Jesus uses these phrases, it is all the more important that we pause and consider his claims.

The seven statements are, in the order we find them:

· I am the bread of life. Jn. 6:35.
· I am the light of the world. Jn. 8:12.
· I am the door of the sheep. Jn. 10:7 (10:9).
· I am the good shepherd. Jn. 10:11 (10:14).
· I am the resurrection and the life. Jn. 11:25.
· I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jn. 14:6.
· I am the true vine. Jn. 15:1 (15:5).

For the moment we consider these seven statements as means to anchor events in John’s gospel. As we hear Jesus’ words in identifying himself, we understand Jesus to use descriptive metaphors of various aspects of Jesus’ life, metaphors symbolic of varying aspect of his nature. Most make use of solid, real world phenomena: bread, door, shepherds, road, grapevines. A couple use more ethereal concepts as metaphors: light, resurrection. Nonetheless, he uses real world phenomena to speak of true characteristics of his person.

I am the bread of life, he who comes to me shall not hunger. Jn. 6:35.

Jesus had collected about himself several thousand disciples and curiosity seekers. The day before his first self-identification, he had fed a crowd of 5000 men with 5 barley loaves and two fish. The crowd ate until they were sated. That night Jesus walked on water. The crowd rushed to find Jesus for more food. Rather than feeding them, Jesus challenged them to be about working for food that does not perish, namely, believing in Jesus. The discussion turned to the feeding of Israel in the wilderness with manna, that is, with “bread from heaven.” Jesus indicated that Moses did not give the bread from heaven, but that it was the Father, God, who gave it. And, Jesus went on eventually to say, the bread from heaven gives life, but what came in Moses’ day did not keep Israel from dying. 6:49. When Jesus said “the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life,” the people said, so to speak, “Well, give it to us.”
And Jesus said, so to speak, “I’m it.”

I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jn. 8:12.

Controversy had begun raging concerning Jesus’ identity. Is he the Christ? Is he the Prophet? Is he a charlatan? Our Bibles tell plainly that Jesus had been put to the test about his dedication to the plain teaching of the Law concerning a woman caught in the very act of adultery. When all was said and done, the scribes and Pharisees left him alone, and he forgave a woman of her sin, bidding her to sin no more.

Jesus’ answer to their questions was, “I am the light of the world.” He went on to say, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” 8:31-32.

I am the door of the sheep . . . if anyone enters by me he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. Jn. 10:7,9.

Jesus had healed a man born blind, and in doing so incurred the anger of his detractors because he had healed on the wrong day. After indicating the peril of those who claimed understanding, but who refused to believe in Jesus, he then continued to explain his being. He is the door, the gate, for a sheepfold; a door through which sheep may come in and find security and go out to find pasture. Not only does he come through the door, unlike a thief, he is the door. By means of him may the sheep thrive, they may have life, and have it in abundance. Jn. 10:10. This, in contrast to thieves.

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays his life down for the sheep. Jn. 10:11; 10:14.

As he speaks of sheep, he changes metaphor almost in mid-stride to make a contrast in his relationship with the sheep with hirelings. He is the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep. The sheep are those who recognize him as their shepherd; they are the people who believe in him. Unlike the hirelings who run at the sign of trouble, Jesus “hangs in there” with his sheep, and dies in order to protect them from the ravaging wolf.

I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever believes in me shall never die. Jn. 11:25-26.

Jesus’ good friend, Lazarus, has died. Lazarus’ family had earlier called for Jesus, and now friend and foe alike confront Jesus for not having arrived earlier to prevent, perhaps, Lazarus’ death. Jesus engages one of the deeper discussions in the Bible with Martha, Lazarus’ sister. As Jesus consoles her, he lets her know that Lazarus will be brought back to life. Martha acknowledges this truth as she believes in the future resurrection of the dead. Jesus explains he does not mean Lazarus will rise on some far off future last day. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” It is as though he were to say, the “last day is here, now, and I’m it.” The person who believes in Jesus comes to life, never to die. The last day comes and goes with Jesus.

I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but by me. Jn. 14:6.

Jesus faces imminent torture and death. A close friend has gone off into the darkness to betray him. Another prepares, unbelievingly, to deny knowing him. Jesus’ disciples feel the stress of some upcoming struggle, but will not accept the inevitable. Jesus ministers to them words of healing and comfort for the impending distress. In readying them, he tells them he’s leaving them in order to prepare for them a home in the Father’s house. He tells them they know the way where he’s going. Thomas disagrees strongly, “We do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

And Jesus answers, “I’m it.” Want to know the way to heaven? Jesus is the way. Is there another way to heaven? “No one comes to the Father but by me,” Jesus said.

I am the true vine and my Father is the vinedresser. Jn. 15:1. I am the vine and you are the branches. Jn. 15:5.

Still, as Jesus prepares his remaining disciples for his upcoming glory, he speaks of the relationship he and they share together. They are not to be slaves, but friends, now. He speaks of his relationship with the Father, God: Jesus is the vine, God is the vinedresser. He speaks of his relationship with them: Jesus is the vine, they are the branches, indeed, the twigs. In this metaphor, their life is rooted literally through him. He alone gives them wherewithal to produce fruit. Without rootedness through him, there is no fruit. And where there is no fruit, there is cutting off; and even where there is some fruit, there is pruning for even more fruit.

…

In all seven of these “I am” statements Jesus speaks of relationships: relationships with the Father, God, and relationships with people. In them he identifies himself in intimate relationship with God, and calls his disciples to the same.

But in his use of the the phrase, “I am . . .” he echoes a profound relationship with God, as his Father. This identification becomes unequivocal in Jn. 8:58. His compatriots understandably challenged him when he said that Abraham (who lived some 2000 years earlier) was glad to see the day of Jesus. They said, “You’re not 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Jesus knew, and they understood him completely, that “I am” is the phrase used in Scripture for God. When God called Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses asked God who it is that sends him. God said, “I am” (... sends you).

This self-identification of Jesus with the Father, God, served as the source of deepest resentment among his peers, so that they intended to kill him. They understood this as blasphemy, as cursing, as using the name of Jehovah God in vain. And they eventually killed him for this very reason.

Nonetheless, our beginning question, “Who did Jesus think he was?” is now answered in John: Jesus thought he was the exclusive, unique, and key figure for human relationship with God (and ultimately, with other humans). Indeed, he thought that he and the Father were one, and that through his shepherding, people from various flocks might become together the one flock of God.

Thoughts from John 7

In Chapter 6, John reported Jesus had been teaching in Galilee. As his custom was, though, whenever a high feast day arose Jesus would end up in Jerusalem, and so it is now. Despite the fact that the authorities in Jerusalem have decided to kill Jesus (5:18), the feast of Tabernacles has come and Jesus goes to Jerusalem, but privately (v.10). About the middle of the feast Jesus begins teaching openly in the temple.

The question arises: “How is it that this man has learning, when he has never studied?” (v. 15). The question does not imply that Jesus never went to school. Every boy (and a few of the girls) in ancient Israel knew his grammar and studied the scrolls. Instead, the implication is that he has not been through the recognized higher levels of education as was common among the rabbis of the time. The teachers and scholars of that age did not see, however, that lower levels of schooling prepared one for true knowledge. Indeed, we see their scorn of the common crowds precisely because of ignorance of the law (v. 49) “But this crowd, who do not know the law, are accursed”.

In answer to the question of his teaching authority, and as he has previously, Jesus insists that his learning comes directly from the one who sent him. Two dozen times or so in this gospel we hear Jesus speaking of the one “who sent” him. Jesus presents himself as one who comes not by his own initiative, but as an obedient servant of God, on a mission appointed by God. Indeed, he speaks of someone unknown to his hearers as the one who “apostled” him (vv. 28-29), that is, who sent Jesus as his personal emissary. Jesus has not come here for his pleasure, but he is come for the Father’s pleasure. His whole life is wrapped up in the desires of the Father, not his own.

In the close identification between him and God, his Father, Jesus wants it to be no question in anyone’s mind that he views himself as subordinate to the Father, yes, but to the Father alone.

When his mother (2:4) or even his brothers (7:3) present their plans for him, he points out that he operates not on anyone else’s time schedule, not even his own, but on the schedule of the Father. Their time is now, but his time is not yet come (7:6-7). When religious authorities confront him with his breaking of the Sabbath law, his answer points to the Father who “is working still” (implied: is working on the Sabbath), and so Jesus, too, is working – on the Sabbath (5:17). Throughout the gospel we hear Jesus saying in so many different ways and even in more of the same ways, that he operates by the power, by the initiative, by the authority, by the example, by the words, by the vision of God, his Father.

And so it is in this case. “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me.” (v. 16). Not only does he operate under the will of the Father, nothing he does is by his own personal initiative or authority. What Jesus sets up in these discussions is that to receive Jesus is to receive God, and to reject Jesus is to reject God.

The issue is not that Jesus means, here, to insist on his own deity and that people should bow before him on account of his own status. Quite the contrary: His point goes well beyond personal claims to godhead to emphasize that inasmuch as his will is to do the will of God, when one either believes in or rejects him, that one believes in or rejects God himself.

This is not mere propositional believing in or rejecting of the “second person of the Trinity.” Rather, the concept is entirely in keeping with Paul’s later assessment of the matter, that Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself taking on the form of a servant.” Phlp. 4:6-7. Or again, as the Hebrew writer said, “It was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.” (2:10).

Still, it is one thing to make claims about one’s authority and another to have the necessary documentation or evidentiary proof for those claims. Jesus has already addressed the evidence in the latter part of chapter 5 when he presents his five witnesses who testify to his authority. He will return to the question again in chapter 8. But now in answer to the question: How can a person know that Jesus does act indeed by direction of the Father? he offers this answer. “If any man’s will is to do the will of the Father, he will know.” (v. 17).

Note: It says not, “Anyone who desires to know God’s will” comes to the solution. He says, rather, anyone who desires “to do God’s will“ comes to know whether Jesus’ teaching and life is from himself or from God. Subtly and surely Jesus makes a powerful distinction between having a lot of information about God (knowledge) and the practice, the doing of God’s will.

Biblical faith, believing, is not altogether an intellectual event, but leads a believer to practice. It is in the practice of God’s will that one comes to maturity, that one’s faculties may be trained distinguish between good from evil (Heb. 5:14). Training does not only take place in the head, in the mind, but training finds its resolution in the experience of the practice.

Science. It is not uncommon to think that knowing a lot of facts about the physical universe makes a person wise in the ways of science. Unquestionably, there are more scientific facts than any human being should ever have to know. But knowing even all those facts makes no one a scientist. It just makes one an encyclopedia. And the main thing encyclopedias do is to sit on a shelf. In distinction to this, science is the practice of the principles of science, however humble that person’s bank of knowledge may be. Science is no mere reading and accepting that the earth is round. Science is to get out there in the real world and to experience, to practice the events that give evidence of the roundness of the earth.

Just so Jesus says that it is the practice of God’s will that makes one a believer, indeed. And to highlight the lack of such practice, Jesus speaks to the Law: These authorities who make such a big deal about it, do not keep it (v. 19). Witness the fact that they want to kill Jesus.

At this point in the dialogue, his detractors deride Jesus to say he has a demon. Jesus answers their charge on two levels.

First level: Since the conversation originated with Jesus’ healing a man on a Sabbath day, he returns to that event. He shows that the authorities, while claiming knowledge and wisdom of God in the Scriptures, in fact make a general mess of it. While they claim that no work at all may be done on the Sabbath, they in fact keep circumcision on the Sabbath. Jesus brings up a moral dilemma: when two laws appear to contradict each other, what do you do? Do you keep one to break the other? Rather than answering in the abstract, Jesus simply points out that the practice of the authorities is to keep the custom of circumcision despite the fact that the law says, “Thou shalt not work.” So, Jesus chides, if they can make some cuts, why can he not operate to make an entire person well?

Second level: Then he comes to his point. Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.

The sense here is that wisdom comes out the context of the Scriptures. Godly wisdom is not limited to a given detail divorced from that context. Rather, it is this detail in particular within the context of all other details, and in proportion to its place in Scripture. In contrast, the Pharisees and their ilk sought to paint all the commands of God, or at any rate far too many of them, in one dimension: flat. Is every command in the Law equally important with every other command?

Jesus clearly states this not to be case, and calls for judging, that is, for making discernments, determinations, and decisions, based not on appearances, but on substance. Substance is the same as what the apostle Paul calls for in Timothy: rightly handling the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15), distinguished from certain persons “desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make assertions.” (1 Tim. 1:7).

Godly wisdom recognizes that some parts of Scripture are more important than other parts of Scripture. While tithing, for example, was indeed to be kept in its smallest detail, tithing itself does not occupy the same place as justice, mercy, and faith. (Mt. 23:23). These are “weightier” matters.

And more to the point, it is the practice of justice, the practice of mercy, the practice of faith that leads one to make right judgment. When knowledge is theoretical and has no experiential doing, when knowledge has not had the test of practice, then discernment finds but shallow, subjective appearance for its weak base.

At the feast of Tabernacles, the custom was that water should be collected at the pool of Siloam and brought up to the temple where it was poured out, symbolizing God’s riches outpoured on the land and its people. On the last day of that feast, Jesus placed himself firmly in the temple and cried out loud, “If any one thirst, come to me and drink! He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” (v. 37-38).

His hearers' response varies from believing Jesus as a prophet, to Jesus as the Christ, to skepticism, to making outright attempts to arrest him altogether.

Once again we hear Jesus making the claim of marvelous relationship with God: Come to Jesus, and God’s blessings well up from within! As John presents the gospel of Christ Jesus, he affirms that the river welling up to eternal life was a reference to the Spirit which would be received by those believing in Christ.

So why didn’t those who believed then receive the Spirit? because, John says, Jesus had not yet been glorified. That is, Jesus had not yet lifted up on his cross, had not yet died, had not yet been resurrected, and had not yet ascended back to the Father. Until such time, the Spirit would not be received in such a manner.

But what does it mean to drink from Jesus Christ? It means to believe in him as being indeed one with the Father inasmuch as the Father sent him.

The structure of New Testament language does not call for abstract faith: almost always the Scripture says to "believe in" or to "believe into". The text of the Scriptures places highest emphasis on the object of faith, not on the person having faith. The living and abiding Word of God calls men and women to believe in God, and believing in God, to practice one's life in keeping with a faithful God.

Our thinking tends to be somewhat intellectually propositional: The thing to be believed is out there as a proposition and one either accepts or rejects the proposition in one’s own mind. While biblical language does not deny this propositional aspect of faith or belief, biblical language calls for a considerably greater sense of personal commitment to the object of faith. It is one thing to believe that a tightrope walker may carry a person in a wheelbarrow across a waterfall, and quite another to trust that same tightrope walker with one’s own life by getting into the wheelbarrow.

Just so, to believe in Jesus is not merely to believe a fact, or series of facts, about him. It is, rather to trust in him and to commit oneself to the practice of faith in the hands of Jesus.

And Jesus’ claim is that, by drinking from him one would receive his Spirit, a spiritual well of ever flowing spiritual water that would quench spiritual thirst throughout the ages. Coming to Jesus gives life through eternity, because the Father has set his seal on Jesus as his Anointed, his Christ, his Messiah.

Are you thirsty? Come to Jesus and drink! Your thirst will be quenched and spiritual water will well up through eternity. Receive his eternal-life-giving Spirit and live!

Thoughts from John 6

Starting with five barley loaves and a couple of fish, Jesus ends by feeding 5000 men ready to go to arms. After each of the mob has had his fill, his disciples collect twelve basketsful of leftovers. The 5000 man army sits impressed, so the men conclude he must be the long-sought-for prophet as they prepare to take Jesus forcibly to make him king. Jesus, however, will not become anyone’s king by force. He neither forces his kingship over men, nor will he be forced into kingship by men. If you are to crown Jesus as king of your life, it will be on his terms, with his agenda, and not on your terms with your agenda.

Jesus makes his way across the lake, walking on the water's surface tension. Meeting his disciples rowing hard against the churning wind, he enters the boat with them, calms the storm and their fears, and they find themselves suddently, immediately at Capernaum, their destination.

The next day at the synagogue in that city, the army finds Jesus. Wasting no time, Jesus readily challenges their motivation for seeking him out. They have not come, he says, because they saw signs, that is, because they saw signs pointing to spiritual realities. Rather, they have come because they found a way to feed their bellies, they have come because they found a way to satisfy their political passions. So they think.

Jesus uses a press to draw from people faith in him. Like most presses, an oil press has two plates that slowly move against each other in order to squeeze oil from the olives placed between the plates.

One plate of Jesus’ press consists of the signs which he performs, the miracles for which there simply is no natural explanation and which therefore stand as unequivocal evidence for a supernatural source. The other plate consists of his teachings. He says, “Do not work for food that perishes, but work for food that endures to eternal life.” 6:27.

A main goal of work is to acquire food in order to live. We eat bread in the sweat of our collective face, just as God decreed would be the case (Gen. 3:19) ever since the fall of man to the present day. And now Jesus says, so to speak, “Don’t do that.” Instead, he calls us to labor for a different type of bread, the eating of which enables one to endure in eternal life.

Jesus introduces a profound irony related to this labor inasmuch as he will give this bread. The bread is a gift that cannot be worked for! Understandably, the army asks, “What must we do to be doing the works of God?” The irony is now fully developed, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 6:29. The work to be pursued is not work at all, but is faith in Jesus!

The people are not ready to hear talk about faith in Jesus, so they ask for proof, for a sign that tells them they should accept Jesus’ teachings. (We remember that Jesus had accused them earlier of not seeking signs, so now that they’ve collected something of their wit, they’re asking about them.)

We human beings are a curious lot: Jesus had just fed us the day before and we were going to make him king violently. Today we’re asking for a sign whether we should accept bread from Jesus that gives eternal life.

What this rag-tag army asks for, of course, is a continual daily feeding as was the case with Moses so many years before in the wilderness. When Jesus speaks of bread that abides to eternal life they are thinking of manna in Moses’ day. Under Moses’ leadership, for forty years Israel ate manna found on the ground and collected every morning (save the Sabbaths).

Jesus makes two assertions concerning the matter. (1) It was not Moses who gave the bread, but God. It did not simply fall out of the sky because Moses was a wonder-worker. It came from the Father himself in heaven. He later points out that this bread, manna, as providential as it was, did not confer life. All the ancients died. (2) The real bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life.

So the sign of multiplying the barley loaves and fish pushes one plate in Jesus' press. Here’s the other plate.

The people clamor for this bread of God that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world, and Jesus says, “I’m it.” “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst.” 6:35. Jesus is that which comes down from heaven and gives eternal life.

Jesus' press works: the signs give evidence, the teaching causes stress. Considerable argument and eventually even fighting among the people broke out on account of Jesus’ claim that he has the power to give eternal life.

Now, there are two strands in Jesus’ discussion: a premise strand and a promise strand. Here is the premise.

Jesus presses ever more the claim that the Father and he are of one mind: All people that the Father gives to Jesus will come to Jesus. 6:37. Jesus came from heaven not to do his own will, but the will of the one who sent him, God. 6:38. It is the Father’s will that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. 6:40. No one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. 6:44. Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Jesus. 6:45. Jesus, who alone is from God, has seen the Father. 6:46.

Throughout his talk Jesus returns to the notion that he is the bread that came down from heaven. 6:41. I am the bread of life. 6:48. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh. 6:51. My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 6:55.

The promise strand in Jesus’ statements to the people in Capernaum consists of eternal life.

“Him who comes to me I will not cast out.” 6:37. “I should lose nothing of all [the Father] has given me, but will raise it up at the last day.” 6:39. “Every one who see the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.” 6:40. “He who believes has eternal life.” 6:47. “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” 6:54.

Then Jesus states: “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” 6:63. This is the final squeeze of the press. Jesus clearly identifies the bankruptcy of the flesh. You can eat all the steak you want, but you will die. You can eat all the tofu you want, but you will die. You can labor for all the varieties of food there are in this world, but you will die.

Jesus’ promise stands that he will give life, eternal life, to those who come to him. He gives life to those who hear him, to those who feed on him, on his words. His words give life. He gives life to those whose sustenance and power to live remains the living and abiding word he speaks, the word that he is. He himself is the Word that feeds the spirit. And he gives life to any that come to him.

“This is why I told you no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” 6:65. The Father and the Son are one in purpose and nature so that Jesus will not receive whom the Father has not sent.

Some use the thought to support the notion that God preselects destinies of all human beings, some he selects for eternal life, the rest he selects for eternal condemnation. It is not difficult to see why this verse should be used in such a manner, however mistaken the notion may be.

Nonetheless, Jesus’ plain meaning remains that in order for someone to come to him, and for Jesus consequently to save such a one, that person must accept God’s condition: belief in Jesus as his Messiah. It is not adequate to believe that Jesus was a good man. Not adequate to believe that Jesus was a pretty special guy. Not adequate to believe that Jesus is the world’s best moral teacher. Not adequate to insist that Jesus was the top religious figure in all history to be admired.

God sent Jesus as his own personal, unique, one-and-only, never-to-be-repeated representative as a lamb sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus is God's own son. Jesus is God in the flesh. God with us. If a man or a woman will not believe this of Jesus, then Jesus promises nothing of coming to him for salvation.

As the immense crowd of disciples concludes that Jesus’ statements are too hard for them to accept, they begin to leave. The army, once ready to make him their king, disbands. Jesus demands too much of their passion, of their food, of their comfort.

This is the difference between olives and human beings. Olives can have no say concerning placement in the press. People, however, are in Jesus’ press only as long as they choose. They either get out as the pressure mounts, as their own desires conflict with Jesus' call, as friends or family turn against them, as the values of the world entice them; or, they yield in the richness of faith to Jesus to eternal life.

One of the saddest phrases in all the Bible comes now. It says, “They no longer walked with him.” 6:66. These who a day before would make him king, today no longer walk with Jesus. This is no slipping away slowly from mounting cares of the world. This is a deliberate choice that wants to leave the glory Jesus offers in order to find approval among men.

But really, even the slipping away slowly finally comes to the same thing: Leaving the glory of Jesus for the decay and rot of the world.

Jesus turns then to the few people left, “Do you also wish to go away?” 6:67. And they say, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

(However, even among them who do not leave, Jesus warns, is a devil, speaking of Judas who would eventually betray his Lord. 6:70.)

Still, the question comes not only to them 2000 years ago, but to us, to you. Are Jesus’ words too hard for you? Are you walking with Jesus? Or have you decided no longer to walk with him?

Jesus asks you the same question: Will you also go away ...

... yet, to whom shall you go for real life, if not to Christ?

Come to Jesus, come to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Pt. 2:4-5.

Thoughts from John 5

When you read from the passage, listen for the trial that takes place.

Jesus heals a man paralyzed for 38 years, but on a Sabbath. In those days, in that land, it was against the law to engage in the healing arts on the Sabbath so the authorities pursue Jesus to bring him to justice, as they see it. As they later interrogate Jesus about the matter, Jesus points out (7:22) that even they themselves set aside the Sabbath law in order to perform circumcision, so why can’t he perform healing on an entire body? Rather than to acknowledge their own inconsistency, or even to provide a rational answer for their practice, they decide to kill Jesus because he called God his Father, making himself equal with God. 5:18.

In this event, we see Jesus’ true love for people in trouble. He does not care what happens to himself, but he acts on their behalf whatever the cost to himself. If helping a paralyzed man causes Jesus grief from the authorities, so be it. Jesus will help just the same.

Jesus now continues to speak of healing, but he takes the discussion from healing a physical body to healing the human spirit, the soul, the inner being of persons. He now speaks of life beyond this world: he speaks of resurrection after death.

If people are impressed by Jesus’ healing of a paralyzed man (and we are!), then what will they think when they see the dead raised to life? What will they think when they see Jesus himself raised from the dead to rise into heaven to be with God? Jesus makes the claim that God has given him power and authority to give, not only healing, but life itself!

Whoever hears Jesus’ word, and believes in God who sent him, has eternal life. Jesus gives to that person eternal life right now! It is so immanent, so real, that the person does not come into a future judgment or condemnation, but the person passes from death into life (5:24). Jesus further emphasizes the certain future: Oh, Yes! there will be resurrection. All the dead -- every dead person who from time immemorial ever has lived and has died and has decayed into the dust of the earth – all will hear the voice of Jesus calling them to life.

Those who have done good will rise to life, that is, to eternal life; those who have done evil will rise to judgment, that it, to condemnation. (If this cataclysmic event took place today, in your own estimation which would be your own end: life or condemnation? Have you done good or have you done evil?)

We note Jesus equating doing good with hearing his words and believing in the God who sent him.

The authorities, as we have seen already in earlier passages, have a great concern for Jesus’ own authority. Who gives him permission to come into the temple, to bring a quick end to religious commerce, to stop the making of money off people in the name of God? Who gives him permission to break the Sabbath laws? Who gives him permission to encourage others in breaking the Sabbath laws?

Before giving a listing of authorities who support him, he affirms that he does not make decisions from himself, but that every decision he renders is the will of the Father who sent him. He does not judge, except as he hears. 5:30. He agrees that he does not have the right to simply decide for himself, so he will not offer his own person, that is, his own personal right to make decisions, as an authority source.

Jesus offers five sources for the authority vested in himself. 5:30-47.

The picture Jesus draws is that of a trial. Are you hearing it already? In this trial, Jesus stands accused of impersonating an authority he reputedly does not have. Jesus serves as his own defense counsel, the religious authorities serve as the jury. Jesus calls a number of witnesses to the stand to testify in his behalf, and they do testify overwhelmingly in favor of Jesus. Incredibly, however, the jury will not hear the witnesses’ testimony.

So, first he reminds them of John the Baptist, whom the people believed to be a prophet of God. 5:31. Jesus reminds the authorities that John, about whom they themselves had inquired, had born witness to Jesus. But then, Jesus says he does not really need John’s authority; he does not need authority from a human being to do the works he does.

This brings Jesus to his second source of authority: The very works he does bear witness to his authority. 5:36. The works Jesus does are twofold. On the one hand, he means the miraculous deeds (changing water into wine, healing a child long distance, giving walking legs back to a man paralyzed, and so on). On the other hand he means the teachings he gives, and the actions he takes such as cleansing the temple with impunity. He says these works are given him by the Father.

Indeed, the Father himself is Jesus’ third witness. 5:37. The challenge here, however, is that the authorities have not listened to God. They do not have God’s word abiding within them. This “not abiding” should not be confused with inability to quote the words of God. It is, rather, a heart that all the while knowing what the words are, will not yield to the truth of those words.

Nonetheless, the fourth witness to take the stand is Scripture, the Bible itself. 5:39. Scripture bears witness to Jesus but the religious authorities will not listen. The irony in the matter is that these religious authorities study the Scriptures all the time, they “know” them inside and out. But they cannot see the forest for the trees. Jesus says that these religious authorities “search the Scriptures thinking that in them they have eternal life.” Unquestionably, the Scriptures speak of eternal life. The religious authorities think that by being able to read or to memorize the Scriptures, that by this knowing and by this memorizing they have attained eternal life.
However, Jesus turns all this on their head to say that the Scriptures stand as a testimony to something other than their own righteousness, namely, to himself. They, the Scriptures, do not have life in themselves, but they point to where life is: life is in Jesus, the Son of man, son of the Father, the Messiah.

And this heralds the fifth and last witness to the stand: Moses. 5:46. Moses had lived centuries earlier and stood as a major contributor to the writing of the Scriptures. The law of God had been handed down to the people through him. The record of God’s dealings with the people until they came to the Promised Land had been kept in the main by Moses. Moses was rightly known as God’s outstanding prophet until the very day of Christ Jesus. The religious authorities sought to find in Moses’ writings everything that they needed to know in order to live.

But the religious authorities will not hear what Moses wrote about Jesus. Consequently, Jesus points out, he, Jesus, will not accuse these religious authorities before God, but the very Moses on whom they set their hope will accuse them before God, because they did not receive the written witness of Moses himself. The words on which they had set their lives for study, but words which they would not hear, those words written in the earlier ages, those words which they had memorized, those very words would stand to accuse against the religious authorities, because these religious authorities would not listen to those words and believe in the Christ of whom those words spoke.

Jesus, no longer a defendant, but a judge in a different trial, renders a decision, the religious authorities suddenly on the defense. Jesus’ conclusion of the matter: Why will these people not listen? His judgment is quite harsh – because they do not have the love of God in themselves. 5:42.

Here is the key to hearing God: having God’s love within.

Now, what does “having God’s love within” mean? In the clear context here, Jesus provides the fundamental answer: He contrasts between seeking glory from God and seeking glory from men. To have God’s love within means that the core of one’s life pursues God’s approval, rather than to find approval from the world's authorities. It means that in the work place, at home, in private time, a person’s activity and thought turns on the will of God. It means a most excellent quality commitment to the pursuit of God’s will in one’s life.

Against this backdrop, the religious authorities pursuing Jesus have interest in making each other happy. They give each other little gold stars, so to speak, when they please one another religiously. How can you believe God, Jesus asks, when your interest is to receive glory from one another, but you do not seek the glory from the only God?

So, we find the foundation problem in the gospel of John to be fear of finding disapproval among one’s peers, to look for glory from this world, rather than to receive Jesus and the glory that comes from God through him. 5:41-44.

There is another trial now. Jesus is on trial before you. He has given you the evidence. You are the jury. Will you believe the evidence Jesus provides, or will you reject his evidence?

Come to Jesus! John the Baptist pointed to him, the works he performed testified that he is from God, God himself speaks to Jesus, the Scriptures point to him, that ancient prince of Egypt, Moses, wrote about him. Come to Jesus and find favor with God, find glory from God no matter what else may happen in this world. Because when this world is done, and all your friends are dead, and all their glory has died with them, there is only one who can call your dead self back to life to dwell in eternity, Jesus, the Christ of God. Do not be unbelieving so as to face a resurrection of condemnation. Come to Jesus, and find glory beyond this world throughout eternity!