Cosmology: God is the Word and was there at the beginning. He is the first cause of everything including life and illuminates all. Darkness does exist, however, though it is inferior for the obvious reason that dark is merely an absence of light.
History: John [the Baptist] came to say that this light and life was coming into this world. This being owned everything but was not recognized in the creation. Still, He came so that the people could become children of God. He became a human being, John is a firsthand witness; the reader is thus secondhand.
Theology: The law came from Moses, grace and truth through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God but his son, Jesus, makes God available.
History: John roused the establishment. They sent leaders to interview him at Bethany on the Jordan. He preached the message that we read above. Next day John met Jesus. John called Jesus the "Lamb of God" (who would take away the sins of the world) and said he saw the Spirit of God come down on him like a dove. "I testify that this is the Son of God," John said. This will be important later (like at the end of Chapter 10).
The Fellowship: Jesus starts collecting disciples. Two wanted to follow; he invited them to do so, not being any more specific. Andrew brought his brother Simon to Jesus who renamed him Peter. Jesus called Philip and Nathaneal, surprising the latter with apparent extra-natural knowledge. He then made even bigger claims that there would be more of this and that they would see the heavens open and angels of God with him (the "Son of Man"). All these guys were from Bethsaida.
Summary: God exists as a superset of the 4-D universe we know, pre-, post-, and extra-existing everything in time and space. He projected into that universe for a short "lifetime", in a tiny place, as we all do. This was announced by the warm-up act, John. Jesus, demonstrating higher attune-ness with his universe started building a community.
Extra-natural: They were all at a wedding where the host ran out of wine. Jesus' mother informed him of the problem and asked him to step in. When he declined, she told the servants to follow his directions. Now he was on the spot so he instructed them to fill up 20-30 gallon ceremonial washing jars. They then dipped some out and took it to the steward who declared it better than any wine they'd had so far, better than usual for such circumstances. This taken as a miracle, they retreated to Capernaum.
History: Jesus took the group to Jerusalem for the Passover and found the men selling animals for sacrifice in the temple court area, apparently gouging the pilgrims with exchange rates. This made him angry and he ran them out, invoking his Father. Interesting, they apparently didn't fight back but rather challenged his authority, asking for a miracle of "proof." He offered to rebuild the destroyed temple in three days which they didn't buy because it had taken many years to build the building, but after Jesus' resurrection, the disciples figured out he was talking about his death and resurrection. Apparently he was doing some miracles, however, since the crowds believed him, but he didn't trust them because he knew how crowds and people are.
Doctrine: Jesus teaches Nicodemus about what it means to be "born again." One must be born of flesh to be here on the earth. One must be born of "Spirit" to enter the "kingdom of God." One can sense spirit but does not really know what it's doing, that's what it is like. Jesus got frustrated with Nicodemus, a leader who did not pick this up quickly and started talking about earthly things and heavenly things. He claimed that nobody has been to heaven but him and that here he would have to be "lifted up" so that "everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." Indeed, God loved the world so much that he sent Jesus just for this purpose, so that no one would need to "perish." Still, people tend to like their evil, dark ways and to ignore the light of this truth. Those who do live by truth in this light see plainly that all this good is from God.
History: John and Jesus were both baptizing. Their disciples argued; John's came whining to him.
Theology: John: "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven." "He must become greater; I must become less." The rest of his speech amplifies on this and focuses on Jesus' superior role. He is saying that your lot comes from heaven and you approach your status as a result, whatever that may be.
History: Funny thing, Jesus wasn't even doing the baptizing, his disciples were. When the Pharisees found out, he went to Galilee. On the way Jesus rested by a well, being tired as us physical beings often are. He stayed alone by a well while the disciples went into town for supplies.
Encounter: A Samaritan woman came up and he asked her for a drink. She was surprised. By social convention, he should speak to neither Samaritans nor women. He turned the discussion into a parable, the "water of life" which, after receiving, one never thirsts again. This was spiritual but the Samaritan woman took it as practical, "… give me this water so … I … won't have to keep coming here…"
Extra-natural: He told her to go get her husband; she said she didn't have one. He knew in fact that she had had five husbands and that she was living with someone now to whom she wasn't married. Sounds downright modern. She realized he was a prophet and turned it into a typical religious argument of trivialities. He answered this directly by saying that all such things would be superseded and that "spirit" and "truth" would ultimately be all that mattered. He then declared himself to be the Messiah. This is the very sort of demonstration and declaration that the religious leaders had been denied by Jesus. He gave it to a slow, totally worldly, foreign woman.
Personal: A problem I have with being "Christlike" is that Christ, being God, can fix anything he encounters and does. I realized yesterday that, though I can't fix just anything in the universe, I can fix some things when they encounter me. I fail even at that, however, being finite with distorted values and poorly practiced.
Continuing with the Samaritan woman: The disciples came back and were surprised to find Jesus talking to a woman. You know what they were thinking, but they didn't dare say anything like "what are you doing?" or "what do you want?" Meanwhile, the woman went back into town to get not only her sixth pseudo-husband but everyone else there who would come too.
Encounter: The disciples tried to get him to eat some of the bread they had bought but he declined (for emphasis), turning the discussion into a parable. "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." That work is to "harvest the crop for eternal life". The sower and reaper would then rejoice together.
History: Jesus stayed two days and many of the Samaritans believed him firsthand. He then left for Galilee and was welcomed there. (This is where that wedding had been.)
Extra-natural: An official had a sick son and was afraid he would die. He came to Jesus for help. Jesus was exasperated that people wouldn't believe without miracles (maybe it was non-trivial effort for Jesus to do these things), but the man begged him to come on behalf of his child. At that point, Jesus simply spoke that the boy would be OK, and he was right then. They figured this out later by comparing notes between the official and his people back home. This is credited as Jesus' second miracle and shows him not to be constrained by location in what he can know and do.
Extra natural, and Jesus wasn't the only one: At a pool near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem people were accustomed to being healed when the waters stirred. They said an angel was there. One invalid man had been there trying to be the first into the pool (the convention the angel used) for thirty-eight years. Jesus healed him on the spot, told him to pick up his mat and walk. It was the Sabbath so the guy got in trouble for carrying his mat (i.e. "working"). He referred the religious leaders to Jesus but didn't even know who or where he was. Later, Jesus saw him at the temple and said, "Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you." What could this mean? Eternal damnation? Is it a specific personal teaching or a warning for everyone?
Rules: This breaking of the Sabbath put Jesus at odds with the religious leaders. He told them that God was always at work so he was too. This statement making him equal with God, the situation deteriorated further. "Look", he says (I'm paraphrasing), "I can't do anything I don't see the Father doing. You will see a lot more than this; the dead will be raised. I will give life to whomever I please. And you know what else, the Father won't be the judge of people, I will, but I will judge to please him. To cross over from death to life, hear and believe me. One day the dead will hear his voice and rise out of their graves." (Not paraphrasing now) "Those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned." There it is, good works wins, evil deeds lose.
Legal case: He doesn't testify about himself, God testifies about him. John testified about him too, not that human testimony counts, but the religious leaders had listened to John for a while. God and Jesus being God's son is proven by what God has sent Jesus to do (but at this point he is not explicit about what that is other than what we've already seen: good works, proclamation of God's kingdom). The religious study the scriptures in hopes of salvation. Those scriptures tell about Jesus so they should listen to him but don't. He will not need to condemn them in the judgment then, Moses, who wrote the law, will.
I get the idea that by this time in the proclamation, he is speaking loudly, accusingly.
So, Jesus has done a miracle, thwarted the religious by-laws, and pleaded his case of divine status and authority. What do I make of this claim at this point? It's not that hard to accept academically, but what is it that I must "hear and believe"?
History: Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. Due to the miracles, a huge crowd followed. Jesus saw them coming from the hillside where they parked and asked the followers they could feed all these people way out here. Philip said eight months wages couldn't do it, even if there was a place to shop. Peter found a boy with some bread and fish, which was offered. Jesus blessed this, passed it out to the five thousand people, they all ate, and twelve baskets of leftovers were cleaned up. There are various explanations for this -- people had stuff in their own pockets and so forth, but enough of the crowd was convinced that it was a bona fide miracle that they were going to make him King. Knowing this, Jesus withdrew into privacy. Blessedly, he was not running for President….
Extra-natural: The disciples started across the lake while Jesus was still praying in the hills in private. A big wind came up in the night and while they were afraid, they saw Jesus walking across the lake nearby. They took him into the boat and arrived immediately at the other side.
The crowd questioned: Witnesses from the crowd knew that there had only been one boat on the other side and that Jesus had not been in it with the disciples when it left last evening; nonetheless, here he was. (These disciples do not seem capable of collaborating in a huge deception, nor does anyone accuse them of such.) Members of the crowd challenged him. His answer, you are not looking for eternal life, which I offer, you are looking for these temporal miracles, the food that spoils. "What must we do to do the work God requires?", they asked. "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." They asked for a miracle, like manna, to establish his authority to ask this. This seems strange, as they were following him around in the first place due to their perception of such amiracle. Perhaps they were still hungry. A couple of themes are developing here -- Jesus claims to be the bread from heaven which gives life to the world while the people keep wanting to be fed (or watered) in this creation.
Preaching in the Capernaum synagogue: Jesus is here to do his father's will, which is "that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." It is so that none of the people who accept God will be lost. This led to consternation. The Jews knew that he was from Mary and Joseph. Jesus then repeated himself at some length and the consternation turned to the standard physical versus spiritual misunderstanding, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" Jesus continued with his spiritual parable of the flesh and the blood that is the "real" food and drink, as opposed to the physical versions that people consume and still die. Many followers found this too hard to swallow (so to speak) and left, but the twelve, unsure what to do, stayed. Though handpicked, Jesus said, one of even them was a devil. He referred to Judas Iscariot.
History: He stayed out of public for a while. Some wanted to kill him. They hated him because he told everybody that the world was evil. He was popular, however, so no one would denounce him in public. The disciples urged him into the limelight in Judea so his brothers and others there would believe themselves, but he wouldn't go.
John 7:14 - 8:11
2004
August 28 for September 15
History: He went up in the middle of the feast after all and taught publicly. The new complaint was, "How did this man get such learning without having studied."
Philosophy: Jesus replied that his teaching was from God (not from him), do God's will and you would know. No one of them actually keeps the law of Moses, yet, "Why are you trying to kill me?" I have the same response the crowd did to this: What are you talking about? It had something to do with healing that man on the Sabbath, which he now explains. You circumcise on the Sabbath to keep the law, so why not make a man whole? "Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment."
Jesus apparently hasn't much empathy for people making wrong judgments. Well, not the religious leaders who should know better anyway.
History: Some in the crowd recognized him as that controversial preacher and started asking each other if the leaders might have concluded that he was the Christ since they weren't doing anything about this public teaching. This didn't last long. Jesus then proclaimed himself rather loudly and some tried to seize him, but nobody did "because his time had not yet come", whatever that means. Many believed but the Pharisees, goaded, sent guards to arrest him.
Preaching: He proclaimed himself yet again, causing confusion saying he would go where they couldn't. He meant heaven; they thought he meant Greece. The crowd got stirred up, some believed, some said, "How can the Christ come from Galilee?" (By scripture, the Christ had to come from David's family in Bethlehem.)
History: The guards didn't arrest him, getting them in trouble with the Pharisees who said, "… he has deceived you also?" The crowds who believe are ignorant and cursed, they said, but at this point Nicodemus bravely spoke up: Can we condemn someone without hearing them out? The leadership consensus was, though, that this man couldn't be anybody important because he was from Galilee.
Interesting that Jesus' opinion of the crowd was similar; they were ignorant but blessed, by his arrival.
(A note says that the next story isn't in the earliest and most reliable manuscripts.)
History: Jesus was teaching next day on the Mount of Olives and the leadership brought him a woman caught in adultery in order to trap him. He could condemn her and compromise his own teaching, or he could urge for her forgiveness and break the law of Moses (one of the Ten Commandments, second half). After considerable reflection and under increasing pressure, he suggested that those who were without any of their own sin lead in the stoning. They all left, beginning with the oldest. Indeed. At the end Jesus, who was still qualified, did not condemn her either but said, "Go now and leave your life of sin." She did not die, but she did die to her old way of life.
John 8:12 - 47
2004
August 29 for September 16
History: Jesus refers to himself as the "light of the world", source of the "light of life." The Pharisees try a different rebuttal: Sole testimony is invalid. Jesus replies at length that his testimony is valid because it is from him and his Father. They asked who his father was; he replied that they didn't know this father, a real insult if they had caught it. This reinforced their confusion as they thought they knew God. Again, nobody seized him because his "time had not yet come."
Exclusive claims: Jesus goes on to say that they will die in their sin and not go where he is going, the same thing that will happen to anyone who doesn't believe that Jesus is who he claims to be. This was additionally confounding but many standing there did believe.
A pattern has developed. Jesus does not intentionally speak in riddles, he just tells what he knows as truth, what his Father has told him. This is riddle enough for people who are well versed in all the factions and possibilities of religion. They just can't get it because they are not accustomed to anyone explicitly or implicitly speaking directly for God. Only after he is "raised up", as he also says repeatedly, will they understand.
Now Jesus addresses those who have believed: "You will [now] know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Interesting, the new believers don't get it either, they claim never to have been slaves to anyone, but Jesus counters that they are slaves to sin, and that slaves have no place in the family, but if a son sets them free, as he does, they really are free. New believers or not, they keep arguing that they descended from Abraham and were children of God.
The exchange thickens: "Why is my language not clear to you?" (I can identify with this problem in the use of language.) Becoming exasperated with these new believers, Jesus calls them children of the Devil, which is why they are unable to hear. The devil was a murderer and liar from the beginning; lying is his "native language". If you belong to God you hear what Jesus says. If you belong to the Devil, you do not.
Interesting way to treat new converts.
John 8:48 - 9:34
2004
September 4 for 17th
The exchange continues: They claim he is demon possessed and a Samaritan. Jesus' answer is that he is not demon possessed but that he honors his Father, while they do not. "… if a man keeps my word he will never see death." This makes them certain that he is demon possessed as even the original patriarch Abraham had died. The reply, "Abraham saw my [this] day and was glad." Their retort: Jesus isn't even fifty and he has seen Abraham? "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"
The words here translated "I am" have been God's name for himself since he started talking to people back in the days of Abraham and Moses. By now, the term was sacred, indeed, unspeakable to the faithful who did not want to risk taking it "in vain" (the first of the Ten Commandments). Anyone who wasn't God saying this would be accused of blasphemy. They picked up rocks with which to kill him on the spot but he slipped away… again.
Theology: They came across a blind man. He was born that way. "Who sinned?" the disciples asked, "this man or his parents." The theology of the time was that bad like this came from some identifiable sin (not just the random imperfectability of a four dimensional universe, my hypothesis). Jesus, as usual, turned this on its head. "Neither… but so that the work of God might be displayed in his life" and he talked again about being the "Light of the world," a nice image for this particular incident. Jesus then healed the blind man before the crowd got too big and this, as always, led to trouble.
Investigation: The Pharisees did an investigation since this had occurred on the Sabbath. That's another theme developing here, Jesus seems to do more good on the Sabbath than any other time. Maybe it's just reported that way. Well, of course, to the Pharisees doing the interview, the healer couldn't be from God since he had broken their little by-law about the Sabbath. After questioning, they decided the man must not actually have been blind, the standard, legitimate, skeptical approach. "Big claims need big proof," Carl Sagan used to say. They subpoenaed his parents who testified that this was their son and he had indeed been blind from birth. They were careful, however, not to claim to know anything about how he came now to be able to see.
If anybody claimed Jesus was the Christ, they were to be put out of the synagogue, not pretty in this place where the faith was the only salvation and only connection to society. Since the healed man was of age, the parents referred the investigators back to him. After more questioning under pressure, much of it 'leading the witness' to have him say what they wanted to hear, he said in essence: I don't know what's going on here but I used to be blind and now I can see. The fact that you don't like or know anything about this man who did it is not my problem. When they asked him to repeat the story again and he retorted, "Do you want to become his disciples, too?" it got ugly fast. The man started preaching nearly like Jesus does, "If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They threw him out, saying, "You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!" See the question above about who had done the culpable sin for his original blindness. This was the only way their religion would allow them to see this.
John 9:35 - 10:42
2004
September 6 (!) for 20th
History: Jesus found the excommunicated man and asked him if he "believe[d] in the Son of Man?" The man didn't know what he was talking about, so Jesus said, 'It's me,' after which the man "worshipped." Pharisees who happened to hear this challenged him, of course. Jesus said they retained their guilt since they would not accept him and his teaching although they claimed to be enlightened.
Preaching: Jesus expands the metaphor to a shepherd and sheep. The sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd but not someone who isn't authorized. The crowd, as usual, doesn't follow this, so he gets explicit, "… I am the gate for the sheep." There are other features: no one who came before was legitimate. It's not clear whom he is talking about here, the Prophets? Other religions? Messianic pretenders? Jesus is the good shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep and takes it back up. This is at the command and on the authority of his Father. The crowd doesn't follow this and some say it's useless to even listen. Their blanket retort for everything is "demon possession." Others, however, still stuck on the healing of a blind man, are not so sure.
Theology: At a winter feast some of the establishment challenged him to declare himself as Christ plainly. This led to the now predictable argument that, again, nearly got him stoned. The outline is: I did say so and you didn't believe (my sheep listen to my voice, they get eternal life, no one can take them away from me). Believe the miracles. "I and the Father are one." At this they started to stone him. "For which of these [miracles] do you stone me?" They answered: not for miracles, for blasphemy. Another iteration of the argument had the same result. Finally he escaped, somehow.
History: Jesus went back to the baptizing spot on the Jordan. John never did any miracles himself, but everything he said about Jesus turned up true. Many believed.
John 11:1-44
2004
September 7 for 21st
History: Jesus was good friends with the Lazarus - Mary - Martha family in Judea. Lazarus was sick; it looked like he would die. They sent word to Jesus. On the request, Jesus stayed put two extra days, then got up and said, "Let us go back to Judea." By now the followers had forgotten about Lazarus and were worried that last time they were in Judea Jesus nearly got stoned. He reassures them that he knows what he is doing, he "walks by day [and] will not stumble." Then he got explicit, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going to wake him up." Their reply was, 'that's OK; he will get better.' So Jesus had to get real explicit, "Lazarus is dead" and Jesus was glad that he hadn't been there sooner, "But let us go to him." Funny, Thomas then said, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." As always, they are confused, thinking they are going to some death-for-a-cause event.
Pastoral: When Jesus got to town, Martha met him on the outskirts. A conversation about the resurrection ensued. Martha said, "… he wouldn't have died." Jesus said, "[He] will rise again." Martha said, "I know, … at the last day." Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." These are the words we use at our own funerals today. Martha then went and got Mary with whom Jesus had a much more right brain experience along the same lines. They cried together. Some who followed her out of town wondered if Jesus couldn't have prevented the death if he had just been there.
Extra-natural: The whole scene moved to the tomb where Jesus ordered it opened. Martha (left brain) pointed out that, it having been four days, there would be an … odor. He recapitulated the gist of their earlier conversation about faith, life, and resurrection then prayed out loud so that everybody standing there could hear that he was talking directly to God, thanking God for hearing him and doing this. Then he called Lazarus out of the tomb, and out he came! Jesus ordered the people to take the grave clothes off him and let him go.
John 11:45 - 12:19
2004
September 9 for 22nd
History: This miracle drew the same response as the others, only now more acute. Raising the dead is about the biggest thing anybody ever does. Some believed; others ran off to tell the Jewish leaders, who called an emergency leadership meeting. This leadership meeting quickly became paranoid. "If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."
Wow, heaven forbid that we should have some non-establishment loose canon out there raising dead people! Our institutions are too important to be threatened like that!
This is the first time we meet their leader, Caiaphas, who says that Jesus will need to die to save the nation. Indeed, the narrative jumps in to add, not just the nation, but the "scattered children of God" everywhere.
So a contract was put out on Jesus and he disappeared into the countryside. Then, it got to be time for the Passover, the biggest annual feast of all.
Before the feast, Jesus went back to Bethany where Mary and Martha and Lazarus held a big dinner for him. This drew a crowd. People wanted to see Jesus and the living Lazarus. This put Lazarus on the establishment hit list too since his being alive was inciting a lot of new belief in this Jesus. In addition, this was the scene of another interesting incident, the one where Mary poured very expensive perfume on Jesus feet. This set off Judas, the thieving treasurer of the group, who would rather have sold the perfume and pocketed the money. Cracks are now forming even on the inside.
A big crowd in Jerusalem heard that Jesus was on the way into town and worshipped him as he rode in on a donkey throwing their coats and palm branches in front of him on the road to pave the way. Quotes from the prophets are given here with a note that even the disciples did not understand until later what this was all about. The King arrives in town and nobody knows what is going on. The establishment sees this and descends into even greater despair. "Look how the whole world has gone after him!"
Foreigners: Some Greeks approached Philip about seeing Jesus. Philip went to Andrew about it; Andrew and Philip went to Jesus. Jesus answered by saying it was time for him go be glorified. It is not obvious how this is relevant to the Greek request. Like a seed that must fall into the ground before it can produce so he must be "lifted up from the earth [to] draw all men to myself." Perhaps the 'all men' is the Greek reference. Jesus called on God to glorify his name and God replied, "I have glorified it." Some thought it thundered. The crowd thought that the Bible said that Christ would remain forever so what is this "lifted up" business? His reply, "You are going to have the light just a little while longer…. Put your trust in the light while you have it." Then he "hid himself from them." Was this supposed to be a direct answer? If it is, he is saying, 'Not like you think; make the move now."
If the people were having trouble, the religious leaders had even more trouble. The narrator quotes Isaiah, "He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts." No touchy-feely theology here. Some of the leaders wanted to believe, but were afraid of the Pharisees. Jesus tried again, shouting about his commands from heaven and his father. No one needs to stay in darkness, he said.
The Passover: Jesus, "[knowing] that it was time to leave the world and go to the Father," held the Passover with his disciples. He got up and acted like a servant, washing each of their feet. This was such a lowly act that (as usual) the disciples didn't know what to make of it. Peter (as usual) started an argument with him. He started out saying that he wasn't worthy of this but Jesus countered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me," to which Peter said, 'well, then my hands and head too.' Jesus, now probably humoring him wryly, said, 'No, you don't need an entire bath.'
He then declared that they were clean, but not everyone (an allusion that one of them would shortly betray him) and instructed that if he, their leader, would do such a thing then they should do this for each other. Denominations are based on a literal reading of this instruction ("foot washers"), but the more general intent is clearly that followers of Jesus are to be servants of one another, even when the tasks are demeaning or disgusting.
History: As the Passover continues, Jesus becomes troubled. One of the disciples will betray him. Peter asks which one, semi-privately. Jesus sets up a sign and indicates that it is Judas. At that moment, "Satan entered into [Judas]" and Jesus told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly." As usual, no one else understood this; they thought it might have to do with a charitable donation. Indeed, I don't understand this either. Did Jesus tell him this so that he would be sure and follow through? It is troubling.
The narrative when Judas leaves is not insignificant or accidental, "And it was night."
Preaching: With the remaining eleven, Jesus predicts his glorification, and that he is about to leave them for somewhere they cannot follow. Peter, as usual, challenges this, and when he presses the point, Jesus retorts, "… before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!" Jesus then comforts the disciples with language from the wedding ceremony, "… I go and prepare a place for you, [and] I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way…"
I had never before seen, "You know the way to the place where I am going." Surely he is speaking of heaven. How can they then "know the way"?
Discussion: Interesting that Thomas then asks that precise question. The answer is, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Phillip said, "Show us the Father." Jesus answered, "Don't you know me?" "[I]t is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work." Believe at least because of the miracles, in fact, you will do more than I have, he concludes.
Preaching on the Holy Spirit or Counselor: Jesus now introduces and discusses the Spirit of God, which the world doesn't see and can't accept. Soon, he himself will be like that, but those who know and believe Jesus will still see him and will be guided and comforted by the Holy Spirit. This Spirit will replace Jesus as their leader when he is "gone." They will be at peace.
The end nears: Jesus then says he is pretty much finished talking with them, the "prince of this world" is coming. Jesus doesn't have to submit to this prince, but he will so that the world can see that he does exactly what the Father commands.
John 15:1-16:16
2004
September 16 for 27th
Theology: "I am the vine; you are the branches." He discourses quit a bit about this, how the disciples must remain in the tree and will be very fruitful through Jesus, but will be pruned and burned if not, as useless. And what does it take to "…remain in my love."? "Obey my commands," in particular this new one, "Love one another."
Joy: He says that there is no greater joy than to lay down his life for his friends, which he is now doing and, by the way, they are no longer servants but friends, because they know everything about the Father's business.
The flip side to all this is that the world generally hates it all and is therefore disobedient and guilty. Expect to be persecuted. Expect to be thrown out of society. He quotes the law, "They hated me without reason." He tells them all this so they will know it is because of him when it happens.
Though they are grieved because he is talking of leaving, it is necessary since that is how the Counselor comes. He will tell the truth and bring glory. He will "convict the world of…" guilt in regard to sin because of unbelief, righteousness because he goes to the invisible Father, and judgment because "the prince of this world now stands condemned.
So what are we to make of all this? Everything has been said. Choices have been made. Joy and condemnation are in play. The devil is condemned.
John 16:17-17:26
2004
September 18 for 28th
Discussion: The disciples still didn't understand all this about Jesus leaving and coming back and all but after more conversation they understand that he was leaving this world and going to the Father and that they would be able to pray directly to the Father in Jesus name. Still, "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
The end: Jesus now turns to pray for himself. "His time" has come at last. He prays to be glorified. He prays for the disciples, for what they know and for their protection by the power of God's name, now that he will be absent from this world. "None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled."
Who has this authority to "doom"? Is it free will? Is it imposed from outside? Are we locked into fulfilling Scripture? Am I asking, "What shape is yellow?"
Jesus prays for their sanctification and announces that he is praying this aloud now while he is here so they will share his joy.
He prays for all who will come to believe through the disciple's message of him, for their complete unity, like the complete unity of God and Jesus, which is a sign to the world of God's love for Jesus and Jesus' love for them. "Complete unity" is an interesting concept.
And then there is this, which I quote because I'm far from qualified to interpret:
"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world."
Is he looking beyond the cross? Not living in the moment? Has he always existed? Are there only a few who are "given … to be … where I am?"
In conclusion: The world does not know God, but now there is a toehold.
John 18:1-40
2004
September 20 for 29th
History: Jesus and the eleven went to a familiar place, an olive grove. Judas knew of it and brought the authorities there to arrest him. A comedy of errors ensued in several phases in which it is clear that Jesus is offering himself up for whatever is to come, not accepting any external coercion, but going voluntarily.
Phase 1: Jesus identifies himself and all of the people there to arrest him fall back. He does it again, then asks that the other disciples be let go, which they are. Peter took out a sword and cut off the ear of a servant named Malchus. Jesus' retort is quick, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"
Phase II: The high council, with Annas, the father-in-law of high priest Caiaphas, was convened in the middle of the night (irregular in itself) to question Jesus. Jesus asks why they are doing this, as he had always spoken publicly where everyone was listening. What is the problem? For this, one of the officials struck him in the face. Jesus asked him why? 'What did I say wrong? Or, if nothing, why did you strike me?' Annas sent Jesus to Caiaphas and then the crowd went up to Pilate, the Roman governor.
In the background while all this is going on, Peter is following from a distance. He is recognized and swears off of even knowing Jesus three separate times, then a rooster crows, fulfilling Jesus' prophecy.
Phase III: While the Jews stood outside, afraid of defiling themselves on the dawn of Passover preparation day, Pilate asked the charges and gets an interesting, evasive, and transparent answer, "If he were not a criminal we would not have handed him over to you." Pilate, seeing through this, told them all to go away and mind their own business. This was a problem because they wanted Jesus put to death, which they could not do under their 'own business.'
Phase IV: Pilate questions Jesus directly: "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answers, in effect, 'who said?' Pilate says, in effect, 'Your leaders were the ones who got me up this early in the morning, what have you done?" Jesus answers that his Kingdom is "not of this world," if it were, there would be fighting in the streets, like Peter was trying to start into earlier.
Phase V: The King of Truth. "So you are a king," Pilate says. "[Yes], and [e]veryone on the side of truth listens to me." And, now the famous question of Pilate: "What is 'truth?'"
Phase VI: There was nothing worth a crucifixion here. Pilate went out and said so, offering to release this Jesus as was the custom at the festival. The sneer in his voice towards the religions leaders, so big in their little world, "Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?", doubtless did not help calm the situation. Everybody screamed for Barabbas, a criminal who had participated in a rebellion.
John 19:1-16
2004
September 21 for 30th
Continuing the comedy of errors:
Phase VII: Pilate, finding no basis for a charge, has Jesus flogged and mocked, then brings him back out, proposing to free him. At this point, the chief priests and officials said he had to be crucified because he had said he was the Son of God. This frightened Pilate.
Phase VIII: Pilate tries another private interview, but Jesus doesn't answer. Pilate says in effect, 'Look, I have the last word here, freedom or crucifixion." Jesus then did answer, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." 'The guys who brought me in are more guilty.'
Here we have a basis for gradations of sin. When Jesus says, "from above," he was doubtless thinking of his Father. Pilate nearly certainly thought of Caesar. Interesting.
Phase IX: Pilate takes the judgment seat and tries again, "Shall I crucify your king?" Their answer, "We have no king but Caesar." Everybody in sight (save Jesus) is now fully guilty. The Jews have denied God; Pilate and his subordinates have tortured and will kill an innocent man in the name of political stability.
History: The crucifixion gets underway. As was the custom, Jesus carried his own cross out to the hill, Golgotha, where he was crucified with two criminals. Pilate had a sign made for Jesus' cross saying "King of the Jews" in three languages. The religious leaders protested, they wanted it to say, "he claimed to be king…" but Pilate, to his credit, said, "What I have written, I have written."
The soldiers at the scene divided up Jesus clothes between them, throwing lots for one piece that they didn't want to tear up, as it was seamless. The narrator shows us that this fulfills a prophesy in the Psalms.
Jesus' mother and some other women (her sister and two other Marys) were standing there, as was the disciple John (who wrote this book). Jesus, from the cross, handed over custody of his mother to his friend John. Since Mary's husband Joseph was already gone and Jesus was the oldest son, he had responsibility for his mother, which he now legally transferred.
When the end came, Jesus asked for a drink. Some think this is so he could speak clearly when he said his last words, "It is finished." He then … "gave up his spirit." In a hurry to get the crucifixion done quickly before the high Sabbath Passover began at sunset, the soldiers were going around breaking the legs of the crucified men and spearing them so they would go ahead and die. When they came to Jesus, they only speared him, as he was already dead. John, the author, testifies that all this was true, and quotes how these actions fulfill more scriptures.
John 19:38 - 20:31
2004
September 25 for October 4th
History: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, both private followers, took the body and wrapped it in strips of linen with 75 pounds of spices, leaving it in a previously unused garden tomb near Golgotha.
More History: Sunday morning, after the Sabbath, Mary of Magdala went to the tomb and found the stone at the entrance missing. She went and told Peter and John who raced back. John got there first and looked in. Peter then arrived and went in. They saw the strips and the burial cloth from Jesus' head in a different place, but no Jesus. John "saw and believed" although no one yet understood about this rising from the dead business.
While the disciples went home, Mary stayed there weeping. She looked into the tomb and saw angels sitting there. They asked her what was the problem. She just wanted to know where the body was so she could take care of it. Jesus then came up behind her, she didn't recognize him, but thinking he was the gardener asked where he had put the body. He spoke her name, "Mary", and she recognized him at once, though startled. He told her to go tell his "brothers" that he was returning to their Father, and she did.
That evening, he appeared in a private room where the disciples had locked themselves in. He spoke peace to them, demonstrated his wounds, and spoke of the forgiveness of sin, which he granted to them. Thomas wasn't there and told the other guys that he had to see and touch the wounds for himself. Big claims need big proof. Thomas was present at a similar lock down a week later when Jesus appeared again and invited Thomas to do just that. Without needing to touch, he believed what he saw. Jesus replied, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
The point of the book of John, verbatim: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name."
There you have it.
John 21
2004
September 27 for October 5th
History: Jesus appeared a third time, post crusifixion/ressurection. The disciples had gone back to their former business of fishing and, having worked all night, had caught nothing. He greeted them from the shore, "Friends…" asking if they had caught anything. When they said no and explained, he told them to throw out the nets on the other side. When they did, they caught so many fish (153) that they couldn't get them all into the boat, although the net didn't tear.
Peter realized it was Jesus and, leaving his colleagues struggling with the boat, the nets and the fish, jumped in and swam to shore. Jesus led breakfast with bread and fish.
Jesus asked Peter three times "Do you love me." Each time Peter answered in the affirmative and was given a command concerning Jesus' 'sheep'. The third time he was hurt, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you." At this Jesus prophesied that Peter would grow old and be led around before dying. When Peter asked about John, Jesus said in effect, "None of your business." By answering "If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?" he started untrue rumors about John's life and his own return.
John then signs the book, identifying himself as author, testifying that it is all true, and claiming that much was left out, for lack of space.
What are we to make of the story of Jesus as told by his disciple John?
The book claims to be an historical account. I see no evidence to the contrary. I wasn't there so I'm not a firsthand corroborative witness, but I do know something about how people behave and all the people described herein are believable. This is particularly true with respect to the problems Jesus had getting people to understand and believe him. Jesus was making huge claims to people who, though expecting a Messiah, expected nothing like this Messiah. The crowd reactions in all their many forms are spot on. For many people, finally understanding him was so threatening that they became bitter enemies and wanted to kill him. For others, particularly the needy (whether spiritually needy like a prostitute or tax collector, or physically needy like a cripple), belief was hard to avoid after they encountered this man who claimed to be God then backed the claim up by fixing something profoundly amiss that he encountered in this world as if he just could.
Yes, by the time of this narrative, Jesus understood himself to be the Son of God, God's equal, or, as I think of it, God's projection into the four dimensional universe of which we are all conscious and whose physics we measure. He was finite in time and space just like us but was able and willing to correct the inevitable wrongs that he found in this subset of reality, at least the ones he encountered in that finite state. Why not everything? Well, a possible reason is that the Son appeared not as the omniscient, omnipresent Spirit, but as a finite human being. All of this is indeed mysterious.
Beginning with his cousin John the Baptist, most of the narrative has to do with what he said and what he did. What he said was that he was God, the only way to God was through him, and the only way to him was to believe what he said. What he did was to heal people in every way that he found them in need, everything from simple daily hunger to death itself. After fulfilling the Passover sacrifice in his own body, he even healed his own death!
Author John is particularly careful to swear the veracity of the resurrection. Some claim that the disciples manufactured it all in order to start this new religion. Ultimately, every person has to decide this (and every other point of fact or belief) on his or her own faith. Everybody has a religion, an un-provable faith at the basis of their belief system. Jesus pleads for us to accept his world-view as Truth, and backs it up with extra-natural acts, acts that, if you believe they occurred, cannot be explained today much better than then. The author certainly believed these claims.
One thing is clear from the text. The resurrection was not fabricated by a bunch of brilliant people trying to form a new religious establishment with themselves at the head. There are countless points against such a claim. First, these guys were not brilliant; they were common fisherman, accountants, and such. Second, although they wanted to be Jesus' top aids in the coming kingdom, what thoughts of this kingdom remained after Jesus straightened them out ("Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?") went down the drain with the crucifixion. They, like all of Jesus other followers, and enemies, really never caught on to what he was talking about, things like, "My Kingdom is not of this world." What? Then who would care? And so forth. Third, they didn't know what to make of the resurrection either. All the first witnesses, and the witnesses of those witnesses spent most of their time babbling incoherently in locked rooms. They went back to their old jobs; they did not go out immediately and start lording anything over anybody or building any buildings or establishing any hierarchy, or preaching in public. They couldn't preach, they didn't even know how to understand these events. Fourth, and this isn't in the text here, but from other history we know that Christianity was not a favored religion for the first few hundred years. Believers in Jesus were out of favor with their old religion, their secular rulers, their families, in short, all forms of the establishment, just as Jesus himself was (and just as he said they would be). Yet, they believed all this with stubborn tenacity, even when to tortured death. This was not the result of someone winning a debate with them over facts or world views, or of succumbing to some sales pitch. There is something much more profound going on here.
Finally, if you were going to make up a story to glorify yourself or convince other people of a world view, this is not what you would make up, but it is a plausible story of an eyewitness to confusing and disturbing events.
John's story is at once very compelling and on the other hand somewhat spotty. He assumes much about what we already know. Like any author, he assumes we trust him on many points and have much shared context, which we do not yet have, the book of John being the first one we've done here.
In my mind, there is no doubt that this is an historical account written by an historical man named John who closely followed Jesus (much like the historical man Plato closely followed the historical man Socrates). The real questions are, do I trust beyond the man John that this is Truth and in what way can I come to believe what John believes?
Yes indeed, what are we to make of the story of Jesus as told by his disciple John?
© Courtney B. Duncan, 2004