Thinking the Bible Together

Thoughts About "Signs"

2007-02-11T21:19:00.000-09:00

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

2007-02-04T07:07:00.000-09:00

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

2007-01-27T17:24:00.000-09:00

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

2007-01-13T09:37:00.000-09:00

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 relate 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 concerning 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 sheep fold; 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 changed 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 runs 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 called for Jesus, and Jesus’ is confronted by friend and foe alike for not arriving earlier to perhaps prevent 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 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 in him. He alone gives them wherewithal to produce fruit. Without rootedness in 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’s” 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 is it that is sending him. God said, “I am”.

This self-identification of Jesus with 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 the Lord God in vain. And they eventually killed him for this very reason.

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

Thoughts from John 7

2007-01-06T17:42:00.000-09:00

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

2007-01-01T09:29:00.000-09:00

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

2007-01-01T08:49:00.000-09:00

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!

Thoughts from John 4

2006-12-16T12:22:00.000-09:00

God is the seeking God. God is at work now. God is doing something today. God is looking for people at this moment. God is looking for true worshipers. God seeks people who will worship him in spirit and truth.

Among the more outstanding relationships in Scripture is that between Jesus and John the Baptist exemplified partially in Jn. 4. When controversy had arisen on account of Jesus’ greater popularity, John answered his disciples, “He must increase and I must decrease.” 3:30. Yet, when Jesus knew that the Pharisees picked up on the dissension, it is Jesus who leaves (4:1-3) in order to allow John freedom to continue his work for God’s kingdom. John defers to Jesus, Jesus defers to John, and the result glorifies God. How different from the worldly, carnal approach: Whoever’s left standing at the close of the day is in the right and is victor; might makes right.

Jesus and John both found their affirmation and vindication in the ancient prophets: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts.” Zch. 4:6. These are among those to whom it is ascribed, “of whom the world was not worthy.” Heb. 11:38. So, Jesus retires from Judea.

In his travel away from Judea for Galilee, Jesus retires at a well in Samaria. His disciples go into the nearby town to secure provisions. A woman from the town comes to draw water whereupon Jesus engages her in a life-changing conversation about God. At first they talk about drinking water, about the distress between Jews and Samaritans, about the surprise of a man addressing a woman, about the well’s history, about artesian water fountains, and about distinguishing between marriage and mere living together. Soon enough, however, Jesus turns the discussion to what he loves the most: the realities of God.

As she comes to realize that Jesus must be a prophet and no ordinary man, she asks about worship: The Samaritans worship God on this mountain, Mt. Gerizim; Jews worship God over there in Jerusalem, at the temple. Here in effect is her question, “Who is right?”

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
Jn. 4:21-24.

Jesus’ answer comes at two levels. At the first level he states assuredly that the Jews are right, “Salvation comes from the Jews.” Samaritans worship, but they do not know what they worship; the Jews worship what they know.

Having resolved that matter, he returns to his greater interest: Who is God, what type of God is he? That is, What is God’s nature, and what does this imply for genuine worship? He had already indicated that true worshippers need to worship in spirit and in truth. He comes back to this notion and explains the reason for this: God is spirit.

This detail gives us the context for the woman’s question. The woman asks about the structure of worship: Is it to take place here or there? Is worship to be performed in the manner of the Samaritans or in the manner of the Jews?

We note that the structure of the Hebrew system of worship had been explicitly given to them through Moses. Much of the OT discusses the means, the details, the actions that are to be taken in proper worship. For sacrifices, kill this goat, but not that goat, in this place and not that place. Take certain of a bull’s entrails and do this specific thing with them, take other parts of the beast and do those other things with them. Eat this, don’t eat that. Burn this, don’t burn that. The tent of meeting must have this color and not that color, in this layer and not that layer, in this position and not that position, out of this material and not that material, with this design and not that design. The priest must wear this and not that. The fire must be this fire and not that fire. The feast day must take place here and not there, on this day and not that day, with these persons and not those persons. The incense must have these spices and not those spices. The ark of the covenant must be carried in this manner and not in that manner. And so on.

Indeed, when the apostle Paul writes the Romans in regard to Hebrew advantage, he underscores the Jewish worship system as unparalleled:

They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen. Rom. 9:4-5.

He says theirs is “the worship.” He speaks to the structure addressed, however, ever so briefly and inadequately already. Paul affirms Jesus’ revelation that salvation is from the Jews.

So, her fundamental question remains our unenlightened question, too. What does the Deity want of the structures of worship? This and similar ones consume us because we humans want to appease the Deity. We seek to make sure the structures of worship keep the Deity satisfied so that we will be blessed, or at a minimum, so that we will not condemned in unleashing the Deity’s wrath by our inattentiveness or unconcern about those structures.

In this fear of wrong structure, just so, we hear people say, “What do you mean that there is no organ? I don’t feel like it’s worship unless the organ plays.” Or, “The worship was lacking because we could not clap in the songs.” Or, “What kind of church is this without the minister’s proper religious clothing?” These questions concern structures. These are the Samaritan woman’s questions.

Jesus’ answer leaves her with, “God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 4:23.

Though God designed and ordained the structure of the Jewish worship, and as stunning and overwhelming that worship is, it remains a copy, a shadow of the reality of heaven itself. That system of worship holds only a form of what is genuine, it patterns the genuine article to be sure, but it is not itself the reality, it itself is not the thing itself. It is a marvelous model, but remains only a model, a structure, a shadow. Thus, the apostle Paul will write:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. Col. 2:16-17.

It is the same discussion as the Hebrew writer poses when discussing the Mosaic system as a shadow of the reality, but not the reality itself:

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary; for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain." Heb. 8:5.

And again:

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices which are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near. Heb. 10:1.

Her questions concern shadows ... and so do ours. When people say, “How can your church organization be strictly congregational? It should have more structure than that, there should be state or national levels as well,” this concerns the structures of shadows, but not the reality. When people say, “In order to organize properly and allow for useful progress, the local congregation must have one person, the pastor or minister or preacher or evangelist, at the top of that organization,” they speak of shadows, not of the reality. When people say, “The church building should be beautiful and attractive,” they speak of shadows, not of the reality.

As he speaks with the woman, Jesus says that God actively engages something. What is it? God seeks. God engages in an activity of seeking, and particularly of seeking true worshipers. God seeks men and women whose interest it is to worship him truly, to worship him genuinely. So how does one become a true worshiper? Jesus answers, The true worshiper is the one who worships in spirit and in truth. That's whom God seeks.

Beloved of God, God has all the worshipers he needs whose interest is in the shadows: whose interest is in this mountain, or in that city, or in that organizational structure, or in this type of music. Those whom God seeks worship in spirit and truth. Do not be misled into thinking that shadows have substance. They do not.

So what does this mean to “worship in spirit and truth”? We have a keen interest in this since this defines “true” worshipers. It is not so much that “spirit and truth” can be separated out altogether; they cannot. These are facets of the same nature. Nonetheless, we shall here speak of them separately for a few moments.

Jesus provides an answer to the meaning of true worship: God is spirit, consequently, true worshipers must worship in spirit. Spiritual worship takes your heart before the throne of God in obedience to his sovereign design. Spiritual worship takes place in the core yielding of your will in deference to the will of God in every aspect of your life. Spiritual worship is the acknowledgement that you are not God, and that God alone is God. It is the fulfillment, not merely the memorization, of the first commandment:

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. Mk. 12:29-30.

Spiritual worship takes place in the center of your very being as you bow before God’s majesty and call upon God as the

blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. 1 Tim. 6:15-16.

(In other settings I have discussed the propriety of acappella singing, prayers, preaching, communion, giving, of biblical church organization, and similar things of a lesser nature, and to repeat these now fails to serve the doctrine Jesus sets forth here. So I shall not reiterate these now.)

Thus, spiritual worship must not be confused with completing certain prescribed, "authorized" items of worship. Spiritual worship must not be confused with appeasement of a wrathful God. Spiritual worship is what happens inside your heart, inside your mind, when you sing, when you pray, when you learn, when you give, when commune. But these vehicles by which worship may be expressed are not the worship itself. Spiritual worship is you before God in awed reverence and praise.

What is worship in truth? Jesus provides the answer to this question likewise. The truth is that Jesus is the Christ of God.

She said, “When Messiah comes, he will show us everything.”

He said, “Here I am.”

To take this foundational reality and to equate it with instrument-accompanied singing on the one hand or with acappella singing on the other, is to engage the shadows, but not the reality.

To worship in truth is to come into the presence of God through the Son whom he sent as the embodiment of the Word. It is to worship empowered by the Son of man lifted up. It is to worship believing in the Son as the Christ of God. It is to worship believing that Jesus found his nourishment consumed by the will of the Father.

To worship in truth leads one to follow Jesus in the presence of God, and from the presence of God commissioned, to follow Jesus back into a world of needy people.

In practice, if not principle, it comes to the same place as Rom. 12:1-2, namely, that spiritual worship is the presentation of our bodies as living sacrifices before God. Substitution of some structure in the place of one’s very spirit is not true worship. To replace one’s spirit, that is, one’s inner self, with a place of worship (this building and not that building) is, rather, to engage in shadows.

So, what exactly is worship in spirit and truth? Is it entirely an internal thing that deals with one’s heart and belief? It is that, Yes! And more: Worship in spirit and in truth finally translates the intimate, personal abiding in the presence of God into an engaged invitation to that same relationship for others. It translates into a reality of visiting the orphans and the widows in their affliction; it translates into keeping oneself unstained from the world. Jas. 1:27. It translates into fellowship with the work of God himself in this too real world.

Just so, as she began drinking at the eternal fountain, the woman at the well said to her people, “Come, see a man who told me all I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” And they believed because of her testimony. 4:39. But then they came to believe because they saw for themselves that he is the Savior of the world.

Thus, in retiring, Jesus works and God is glorified. God seeks her, makes her his own, and she becomes a worshiper in spirit and truth. God seeks them, and they become his own.

Thoughts On "Born of Water and Spirit"

2006-12-10T09:06:00.000-09:00

John 3:3-9

3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 8 The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus said to him, "How can this be?"

Is the phrase “of water” (from 3:5, “born of water and Spirit”) a reference to water baptism, or is it a reference to a natural, physical childbirth into the natural world? From the second century through at least the fifth century of the Church, the phrase "born of water" was understood as a reference to water baptism.

A. Here, however, we will begin with a common argument supporing the notion that the phrase refers to natural birth, and not to baptism.

1. Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of God, one must be born from above (3:3), intending birth into a spiritual order.

2. Nicodemus responds incredulously asking about a second natural birth (can a man when he is old enter again into his mother’s womb and be born?), missing the point entirely that Jesus speaks of a spiritual birth.

3. When, therefore, Jesus mentions water, he acknowledges Nicodemus’ unhappy misunderstanding, but then Jesus goes on to say that does not mean a contrived second natural birth (“of water”) but speaks of a spiritual birth (“of Spirit”) instead. It is as though Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Nicodemus, once a man has been born naturally there is no longer need for a second natural birth; rather, what is needed is a spiritual birth without which one may not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

4. Thus, there is a parallelism to be found in Nicodemus’ phrase, “enter his mother’s womb again” (3:4), with Jesus’ word, “of water” (3:5), and again with Jesus’ word, “what is born of the flesh is flesh” (3:6).

5. The second parallelism is “born from above” (3:3), “born . . . of Spirit” (3:5), and “what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6).

Consequently, Jesus’ phrase “born of water” does not refer to water baptism, but it humors Nicodemus’ misunderstanding and leads the Pharisee to Jesus’ actual meaning, namely, a new, spiritual birth.

B. And now we consider an argument supporting the notion that “of water” refers to water baptism as part of the process toward a spiritual birth.

1. Jesus introduces the concept that a new birth must take place in order to enter the kingdom of God.

2. Nicodemus, failing to grasp the fact that the birth is a spiritual event, ridicules the notion by referring to the impossibility of a second natural birth.

3. Jesus corrects his misunderstanding by showing that the birth is not physical, but spiritual in nature by indicating that reentry of the womb is not necessary, but that water suffices for the event that leads to spiritual birth.

4. In all of Jesus’ discussion, the only matter he insists upon is the new birth, “You must be born from above” (3:7). He contrasts the flesh with the spirit, and never speaks of one complementing the other. He shows how the flesh and the spirit are in opposition to one another, such that what is born of the flesh does not understand the things of the Spirit. To understand things of the Spirit requires a new, spiritual birth.

5. When Jesus says “born of water and Spirit”, he does not provide a contrast of water on the one hand and Spirit on the other, but speaks of them in a singular and complementary fashion. He speaks of one birth having two components, a birth “of water and Spirit”; he does not speak of two births, one a water birth and the second a Spirit birth.

6. The language Jesus uses ties “of water and Spirit” into one grammatical unit. The thought is this: a person is born out "of water and Spirit" more or less simultaneously; one is not born out of water first, and then born out of Spirit in a second event.

7. The parallelism consequently is this: To enter the kingdom of God one must be born from above, (3:3); to see the kingdom of God one must be born of water and Spirit (3:5); what is born of the Spirit is spirit (3:6). In contrast to these notions, Nicodemus speaks of a fleshly rebirth (3:4); Jesus redresses the fleshly as being ineffective for spiritual realities, what is born of the flesh is flesh (3:6).

Thus, the phrase “born of water and Spirit” details the singular spiritual birth of which Jesus speaks in this passage.

So, which is it? The most straightforward solution results that "born of water" concerns water baptism into Christ, and is not a reference to physical childbirth. Indeed, baptism is what Jesus commanded for discipleship, Mt. 28:18ff.; baptism is what Jesus’ Church heard on Pentecost, Acts 2:38; baptism was the practice of Jesus’ apostles, Rom. 6:3-4; baptism is one of the seven unifying fundamentals of those called by Christ, Eph. 4:5; baptism is one of three agreeing witnesses to Jesus, Son of God, 1 Jn. 5:8.

=============

The statement was made above that the understanding of Jn. 3:5 as a reference to water baptism into Christ was held exclusively in the Church during its first five centuries. A few examples will suffice: the first example returns to us from early in the second century, the second from late in the second century, the last from the fourth century. We understand that the practice and belief of the Church in those early centuries (after the first century) do not become automatically normative; nonetheless, they help us see how the earliest preachers, teachers, and bishops received and passed on the tradition.

Irenaeus (Ante-Nicence Fathers, Vol. 1, Apostolic Fathers, Fragments, p. 574)

"And dipped himself," says (the Scripture) "seven times in Jordan." It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but (it served) as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: "Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven."

Tertullian (Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, Fathers of the Second Century, p. 675)

When, however, the prescript is laid down that "without baptism, salvation is attainable by none" (chiefly on the ground of that declaration of the Lord, who says, "Unless one be born of water, he hath not life"), there arise immediately scrupulous, nay rather audacious, doubts on the part of some ...

Augustine (Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, Letters, p. 407)

But the possibility of regeneration through the office rendered by the will of another, when the child is presented to receive the sacred rite, is the work exclusively of the Spirit by whom the child thus presented is regenerated. For it is not written, "Except a man be born again of the will of his parents, or by the faith of those presenting the child, or of those administering the ordinance," but, "Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit." By the water, therefore, which holds forth the sacrament of grace in its outward form and by the Spirit who bestows the benefit of grace in its inward power, cancelling the bond of guilt, and restoring natural goodness, the man deriving his first birth originally from Adam alone, is regenerated in Christ alone.

Thoughts from John 2:1 - 3:21

2006-12-02T15:21:00.000-09:00

John 2 easily divides into two sections: Jesus’ first miracle, turning water into wine, and the cleansing of the temple. Events concerning the temple cleansing spill over into the third chapter with Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus.

The sense of an eyewitness report finds relief in the detail brought into the account. (1) His mother insists that Jesus take care of the awkward situation in which wine for the marriage feast fails. Jesus distances himself respectfully from his mother. His time henceforth is scheduled by the Father, and by no one else, not even by his beloved mother. She, nonetheless, hears no rebuff and sets him up to resolve the matter. (2) Under Jesus’ direction, the servants fill six unwieldy stone jars with water, and under Jesus’ control, these jars yield some 120 to 180 gallons of wine for the party. (3) The questioning dialogue between the chief steward and the bridegroom tells of memory hearing their puzzlement all over again: “The best wine comes last.”

You can almost feel John smiling as he tells this story: Out of a potentially socially embarrassing situation, through motherly insistence, to the amazement of the master of ceremonies, we find sweet ironies, and an impossible solution. Jesus’ ministry opens in the festivities and commonness of life: a wedding party. When Jesus is there, the everyday changes into the extraordinary. The result yields his disciples’ belief in him, though hardly developed fully as it will be after Pentecost.

The banquet readily symbolizes the coming of the new age, the age of Christ, the coming Holy Spirit. New wine is for new wineskins (Mk. 2:22). It further hints toward a yet coming festivity that believers have to experience (Rev. 19:9), the wedding banquet of the lamb. The best is yet to come. When Jesus reigns in your life, your cheap soul becomes invaluable.

From an idyllic account of life in rural Galilee, the gospel account plunges us into the noise and din of urban Jerusalem: It is the yearly feast of Passover pointing the celebrants to God’s deliverance of their forebears from Egyptian slavery; as a backdrop to the biblical narrative the immense temple in Jerusalem, one of the wonders of the ancient world, rises atop Mount Moriah. By the tens of thousands from all over the world, pilgrims gather for the great festivity. As Jesus joins them, he sees within the temple grounds the banal merchandizing of animals for the required sacrifices and the currency exchange. Though the merchandizing may have benefited the travelers, though corrupt priests in charge may have benefited unduly by the exchange, Jesus’ anger does not concern conveniency or corruption. Rather, he finds fault in the very notion of using the house of God as a mercantile emporium at all.

He makes a whip of cords then drives them all out including the oxen, the sheep, he scatters the coins, and upends the money changers’ tables. He commands the sellers of doves to get their wares out of there “from now on.” He commands them all, “You shall not make the house of God a house of marketing.” When the authorities confront Jesus demanding evidence for his credentials in the matter, Jesus answers maddeningly, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”

His opposers then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he spoke of the temple of his body. (2:20-21)

The sign, or evidence, for his credentials must follow their action; before he will give them the sign, they first must destroy the temple. The irony remains that he spoke of the temple of his body, while they thought he spoke of the sanctuary on the hill.

Jesus did other signs not told in the Gospel of John which brought many to believe in him (2:23); but such remains an unenlightened belief. Jesus would not believe in those persons! (2:24) He knows what is in man, he needs no pollster to give him information about men’s thoughts. And he will not entrust himself to a man. (2:25)

If ever Jesus will entrust men with himself, their faith must rest on something more than mere miracles and wonders; theirs must be a faith enlightened by his very person: Men must believe both the Scripture and the word which Jesus himself has spoken, not just his ability to change water into wine.

Thus John has now readied us for the dialogue with the best of the best of religious teaching. The discussion results from no mild curiosity, but summarizes a tense dialogue between a fading order and a dawning new age of the Spirit. The interchange stands as the crossroad of gospel teaching.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus ... This man ... said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him." (3:1-2)

As we have it, the gospel events John narrates point us to a dialogue between Jesus and a Pharisee (3:1), a ruler (3:1; likely a member of the Sanhedrin, 7:50), a teacher (3:10) of the Hebrew people. If miracles stand as pointers to Jesus’ identity, his discussions give the substance and meaning of it.

Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man be born when he is old?" (3:3)

Over and again John brings to the foreground a profound misunderstanding between Jesus and his contemporaries, between the reality of spiritual life and the generally accepted view of it. Jesus jumps readily into the fray with Nicodemus to indicate that before seeing God’s kingdom one must be born anew, that is, be born from above. That is, to be born into it. Indeed, unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus demonstrates the poverty of his perception, but not only his poverty – it is the poverty of the best of the human mind, and not just any human mind but the human mind seeking the things of God. Nicodemus represents the best religious mind we humans have to offer. He is a ruler-teacher of Israel, yet he does not “get it.” Nicodemus gives evidence of his lack (and, therefore, his need) of spiritual birth, since he does not understand what Jesus says.

One may feel the effect of the wind, but have no knowledge of the wind - where it came from, where it’s going. In the same manner people may feel the movement of the Spirit, but without birth from above, without birth of water and Spirit, without spiritual birth, there is no understanding of either of the Spirit’s provenance or direction. Jesus does not say here that what the Spirit does is always a mystery. What he says is that without spiritual birth there is no comprehension.

Nicodemus said to him, "How can this be?" Jesus answered him, "Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand this?" (3:9-10)

Jesus chides Nicodemus as a teacher ignorant of “earthly things,” the easy stuff, so to speak. Note that Jesus speaks of the new birth as “earthly things”; entrance into the kingdom of God is not itself the substance of the kingdom. Our personal, physical births into this physical, material world are not in themselves the physical world. Birth is the movement from one world to another, from the world of the womb to the world outside. Just so, spiritual birth is a necessary baby step from one world into the next, but is not itself the next world. Jesus chides Nicodemus inasmuch as Nicodemus does not recognize the need for a spiritual birth, never mind what living in the spiritual world is – Jesus has not yet begun to speak of the heavenly things themselves, of life in the kingdom of God!

When Jesus says “You have not received,” “I have told you earthy things,” and “you have not believed,” though he first addresses Nicodemus singularly, at those junctures he addresses the plural so as to say, “You all have not received/believed.” It is not only Nicodemus who does not understand or believe, but all people do not understand.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life ... But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God. (3:16, 21)

The good news is that there is salvation from the wrath of God, from judgment and its inevitable condemnation, there is heaven for ever in the presence of God for those who come to believe in the Christ of God. For these there is no further judgment, no crisis, no condemnation. For those, however, who remain unbelieving, judgment has already become them. By their unbelief they demonstrate their love for darkness, not for light, because they prefer doing what is evil.

We should not think that those who believe have lived godly lives beforehand. What it says, rather, is that the ones presently coming to the light are not afraid to let it be seen that God is presently working in their lives. “Doing what is true” is equivalent to “deeds wrought by God.”

The new birth is not possible by human agency unenlightened and unaided by God. It first requires God’s love demonstrated in giving his Son, Jesus Christ; in giving his son as a sin offering (Rom. 3:24-25; Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21). It requires the triumph of God’s salvation rather than his condemnation. It requires believing in Jesus. It requires searing honesty about one’s own life in exposing oneself to the light of Christ. It requires doing what is true, namely, yielding one’s deeds to the work of God.

What is required? You must be born anew, born from above. And then comes real life.

Thoughts from John 1:1-18

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The Gospel according to John is a missionary document. It was written to encourage disciples of Jesus to evangelize, by giving essential tools needed to make disciples of the nations. By preaching this gospel, by teaching this gospel, unbelievers may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so believing have eternal life.

The Good News according to John begins with a song of worship to God. It proclaims the nature of God, of God’s character, of God’s heart, of God’s own reality: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Good News according to John proclaims a succinct cosmology: The Word cast fire into every star, he lit the spark of atoms, and set the deep darkness ablaze with his glory. From out of his nature, the Word exuded life, life that became light for every human eye. And his nature shines to make an encompassing darkness fade away.

The term “Word” translates the original term logos. What is the meaning of this term? Logos is the term from which we ultimately derive any number of words in our language, such as “logic” and a goodly number of compound words such as bio-logy, theo-logy where the suffix “-logy” means “study of.” The original term “word” or “logos” can mean “reason”, “purpose”, “message”, or, as in our case more to the point, “wisdom.” This makes some sense inasmuch as Proverbs 8:22-31 indicates that God used wisdom as his agent of creation. However, wisdom in Proverbs only hints at the Word of John’s Gospel.

Nothing existing since the beginning has existence except through this Word. The Word came into his universe, he came among his own people; but the cosmos he lit did not know its own creator, the people at the center of his heart did not receive him.

But some did receive him. To believe in him is to receive him. And here is the heart of the moment's Scripture selection: He gave authority/power to the believing-in-him-ones to become sons of God. This power to become God’s children is not a power inherent to the in-him believers – it is given to them by him. Lest we who read his Bible misunderstand and start to think that we have achieved something for ourselves . . .

Lest we look to ourselves, the Bible says, “who were born, not of blood.” Lest we cast eyes upon our own heritage to say, “Because of what father or mother has done, we are special”; or, “Because of what the Restoration Movement has done, we are special”; or, “Because of what the Reformation has done, we are special”; or, “Because of what the martyrs have done, we are special”; or, “Because of what the Church has done, we are special” . . . The Bible says, “who were born of God.”

Lest we listen to ourselves, the Bible says, “who were born . . . not of the will of the flesh.” Lest we hear our own willful pride to say, “Because we planned and put our minds to it, we are special”; or, “Because of our collective intellect and wisdom, we are special”; or, “Because we have organized ourselves just right, we are special”; or, “Because we considered every nuance and put all the pieces in place, we are special” . . . The Bible says, “who were born of God.”

Lest one thinks to one’s own effort, the Bible says, “who were born . . . not of the will of a man.” Lest we reason in line with personal output and charisma to think, “Because I studied hard and worked hard, I am special”; or “Because I sweated and did the grunt work to make it happen, I am special”; or, “Because I wanted it to happen I wielded it, I am special” . . . The Bible says, “who were born of God.”

Lest we think that building our own Tower of Babel into the sky will make us children of God, the Bible speaks of the Word himself to be the one upon whom angels ascend and descend between heaven and earth. Christ alone is the portal to the throne of God, and humans become children of God by God’s own action, not by their action. By God’s own will, not theirs. Salvation does not arise in the human desire to have life, as real as that desire is, but it comes instead in God’s desire to give life. Life is his gift, it is his grace.

Humans do not become children of God because they believe. Rather, it is because they believe in him. It is the object of faith, not faith itself, who brings sonship and salvation. It is not “believing,” as an intransitive verb, as an abstraction, but believing in him, believing in Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, where “believing” becomes transitive, it transitions the self from self to him.

The Word, which was in the beginning with God, and indeed was God, became flesh and tented among us humans. He lighted our campground with his glory, and from his overflow we have received grace upon grace. Grace after grace. Grace and more grace. Gifts upon gifts. He brings the throne of God into the very midst of this benighted world, and his life becomes our splendor. Suddenly in him, a far away God, a transcendent God whose name is worshiped in fear becomes immanent, accessible to any person, and may now be worshiped in love, in reality, without fear; he renders a distant God to become Abba, Father, Abba. And he renders us his beloved children.

Why? because that’s the way he is.

The Bible makes a big deal of the distinction between law and grace. It says that the law was given through Moses; in contrast to what was given, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The first time John identifies Jesus Christ as the Word, the first time he mentions Jesus by name, it is to say that in Jesus, the Son of God, comes grace and truth. Grace and reality. That is, the reality of God’s nature. The Son has seen the Father, and makes him known to the rest of us.

Moses brought the law. Jesus brought grace and truth. The truth that Jesus brings concerns the reality of God, the reality of God’s nature. It is in this gospel, for example, that Jesus bids Mary Magdalene inform the brothers that Jesus is alive, and that, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

Jesus has not only seen God, an unparalleled event in itself, but Jesus comes from the very bosom, from the very heart of, from the very arms of the Father. He knows God, and makes God known.

Do you want to know God? Do you want to experience God? Then come and follow Christ, to follow him. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Andrew heard this and followed after Jesus. Then, first thing, he found his brother Simon and told him of Jesus. Jesus found Phillip and said, “Follow me.” Phillip found Nathanael and said, “Come and see.”

Jesus finds people and calls them to follow him. He has found you, and has called you to follow him. And why? because he wants to show you the Father, and make God known to you. This is grace, that you may know the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, and in believing in him, to have eternal life.

Introduction

2006-11-25T08:42:00.000-09:00

The intent for this area stands to give (yet another) pursuit of biblical ideas. You are welcome to read and respond. Comments are moderated.