I love the way the beginning of the Gospel of John contrasts with the three preceding Gospels: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In his introduction to Jesus’ teachings John spends a lot of time referencing how we need to be born again and born of the Spirit. He then revisits that in his account of Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus. One part of what John tells us hear is easy to miss because we tend to not associate water baptism with washing. John links baptism with the Holy Spirit with water baptism in order to convey an idea which the other Gospels touch on when Jesus speaks about ritual hand-washing. We need internal cleansing of our spirits more than we need external cleansing of our bodies. Even John’s account about Jesus’ clearing the merchant’s out of the Temple relates to John’s theme about spiritual cleansing.
When the leading priests declared that they have no king but Caesar they were making a blasphemous statement. They intended it as a political statement to force Pilate’s hand, but it was also a repudiation of God. By making this statement, they were declaring that their highest allegiance was to Caesar when it should have been to God. This should be a warning to us. We can get so caught up in promoting our political ideas that we place government above God.
I love thinking about what was happening when Peter went fishing again after Jesus’ resurrection. Peter did not know what else to do, so he went fishing. The other Apostles joined him because they did not know what else to do either. All of them had been spending all of their time for the last three years following Jesus around. Now He had died and while He had risen from the dead and appeared to them, He wasn’t around all of the time. So, Peter went back to what he knew, fishing. I was going to focus on the fact that Jesus got Peter to declare that he loved Him once for each of the times Peter had denied Him, but I realized there is another point to this story.
Peter went back to fishing because, now that his days of being a disciple of a famous rabbi were over, he needed to support himself. However, he spent all night fishing and caught nothing. Jesus showed up as he was giving up and told him to throw the nets back into the water. They did as He said, even though they were too close to shore to reasonably expect to catch anything and as a result they caught an extraordinarily large haul. Then Jesus tells Peter that he needs to focus on building up those who chose to follow Jesus going forward. God would take care of his needs.
In His prayer at the end of the Last Supper, Jesus makes a point which applies the promises and instructions which Jesus gave to His disciples to us today who believe in Him because of their message. I fully believe that John intended for us to read it that way. In addition to what He prayed for and taught His disciples, Jesus prayed for something specifically for those of us who came to Him through their message. He prayed that we would have unity with each other and with Him and the Father. The unity which Jesus prays for His followers only happens if those followers are in God and have God in them. He does not pray for unity for unity’s sake. Rather He prays for us to be united in Him, as He is united with the Father.
The world will hate us, just as it hated Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus sends us out into the world, just as the Father sent Him into the world. Jesus gave Himself as a sacrifice so that we might be made holy by God’s truth. Therefore, we should give ourselves as a sacrifice to bring glory to God’s name and so that others might be made holy by God’s truth. Jesus teaches us that there is objective truth and that we can know that truth. However, we must continually listen to the Holy Spirit as it reveals that truth to us. Just because there is objective truth and we can know that truth does not mean that we do know that truth. Or, to put it more exactly, just because we know some of the truth does not mean that everything we know is the truth.
In my opinion, everything in today’s passage, and for that matter most of the Gospel of John, revolves around Jesus’ statement that He is the way, the truth, and the life, followed by Him saying that no one can come to the Father but through Him. Every time I read this I think about those who argue that there are many ways to God. They are correct, but all of those ways lead to Jesus. Some argue that God will not deny those who have been so hurt by people claiming to speak on behalf of Jesus that they cannot approach Jesus. There is some truth to that as well. However, what that argument fails to recognize is that what God offers people is healing. Part of that healing is to once more be able to approach Jesus. God accepts and loves us as we are, but we must allow Him to transform us from what we were when we came to Him into what He intends for us to be.
Which brings me to Jesus’ promise that He will do anything we ask in His name. This promise applies to those who believe in Him and have become His disciples. This promise applies to us if we love Jesus. Those who love Him will do as He says and will strive to avoid being the cause for others are unwilling to approach Jesus. When we become one of those to whom Jesus’ promise applies, the world will hate us. Those to whom this promise applies will wish to use it for those things which Jesus desires, not those things which the world desires. Which brings us to Jesus’ description of Himself as a grape vine. We are branches on that grape vine, if we do not bear fruit appropriate to the Vine we will be cut off. Even if we bear fruit we can expect God to prune us so that we produce more, and better, fruit. Jesus’ promise to do anything we ask in His name is conditioned on us being connected to Him.
John’s account of Mary anointing Jesus’ feet in Bethany differs in some significant ways from the accounts of an anonymous woman anointing Jesus which appears in the other Gospels. This leads me to believe that there were two or more such events. The overlapping details suggest that some of the Gospel writers combined details from these multiple events (either on purpose because they thought the stories all conveyed the same lesson, or by accident because human memory is unreliable. In either case, the stories teach us about dealing with others). This account tells us that it is OK to spend some of our surplus on luxuries. We do not have to give all of it to help the poor. It contains the side note that some of the most vocal about giving to aid the poor do so in order to skim off the top of those gifts.
Jesus uses a mixed metaphor here that can be slightly confusing. Perhaps in writing this John combined things which Jesus said at different times, but I think the passage can be understood as written. First, Jesus is the gate to the sheepfold through which honest shepherds will come. Anyone who presents themselves as a spiritual leader who does not direct us to Jesus is a thief and a liar. But Jesus is also The Shepherd. We should listen to His voice and follow Him. Any leader who does not speak with Jesus’ voice and direct us to Him is a false prophet, who does not have our best interests at heart.
The story of the woman caught in adultery is not in the oldest manuscripts which we have of the Gospel of John, which suggests that it was not in the original. However, it has been in the Bible since the Fourth Century, which leads me to believe that the Holy Spirit approves of the lessons we can learn from it. So, what lessons can we learn. First, only those who are free from sin may condemn others for sin. This does not mean that I cannot point out that something is a sin, but I cannot claim to be any better than the person to whom I am pointing it out. Instead of condemning them we should help them overcome the consequences of their sin. Which brings us to the second lesson. When we have helped the sinner back up our message to them is, “Go, and sin no more.” When people are in need we help them, even if their need is the result of their own actions. However, once we have helped them we should show them how they can avoid returning to the same bad place.
I love the story of Jesus healing the man born blind. My initial love for this story comes from a point my Dad made about it. When the Pharisees were questioning the man they told him that Jesus was a sinner. The man born blind responded (paraphrasing), “I don’t know about your complex theology. But I do know that I was blind and now I see.” When faced with questions regarding complex issues our faith should boil down to that one statement. At some point you will face (or have already faced) a point where you have to choose whether or not you believe Christ. I can tell you from experience that if you choose to believe Christ ever after you will face things which you do not understand saying, “One thing I know, I was blind, but now I see.”
I also love this story for what it tells us about suffering, a message which is important to remember in light of the messages we learn from the story of the woman caught in adultery. People do not necessarily suffer because of their own sin, or even the sins of others. Sometimes people suffer in order to give us an opportunity to demonstrate God’s love. In fact, when we see someone suffering we should not see it as an opportunity to provide someone else with an object lesson on the danger of sinning. Instead we should view it as an opportunity to bring glory to God by demonstrating His love.
After Jesus fed the five thousand, the crowd began to think He was the Messiah and about to lead a revolt against Rome. In fact, they were prepared to begin that revolt immediately. Even after Jesus had cooled their blood by withdrawing from them and crossing the lake, the people sought what Jesus could do for them rather than what they could do for God. In a similar manner to which Jesus had told His disciples that doing God’s will was nourishment for Him, He told people that they should eat His flesh and drink His blood. That is, He told them that they needed to internalize His teachings and allow them to transform their lives.
After this, Jesus stayed out of Judea, because He knew that His preaching there at this time would have set off a rebellion against Rome. When it was time for the Festival of Shelters, Jesus delayed going up to Jerusalem. As best I can tell from what is written here this was to avoid leading a large group into Jerusalem. Jesus then went up to Jerusalem secretly, only beginning to teach openly in the Temple after He arrived. As He taught, there was much debate among the people. Some thought He was the Messiah, while others were convinced that He could not be. When the Jewish leaders began to sense that the crowd thought He was the Messiah, they sought to arrest Him, but refrained from doing so because they feared that doing so would set off riots.
I wrote all of the above hoping it would come together to express the meaning I feel from this passage. It did not, largely because I was not quite sure how to express that meaning. Ultimately, Jesus refuses to meet our expectations. Rather, He insists that we strive to meet His.
After Jesus told the crippled man to take up his mat and walk, the Jewish religious leaders began to harass Him for not following their interpretation of properly keeping the Sabbath. Jesus’ responded that He was only doing what He saw the Father doing. The implication being that we should do as we see Jesus doing. Jesus went on to say that He needed neither human testimony, nor His own words to show people who He was. No, the Jesus’ works and how He taught people to live testified to the fact that He was the Messiah.
Which brings me around to the story of the Samaritan woman. At the end of that story, her fellow Samaritans testified that they initially believed in Jesus because of the testimony of the woman at the well. However, they said that, in the end, they believed Jesus because they heard what He said (and saw what He did). This should be a model for how we bring people to the Lord. They should become believers because they see the testimony of what we say and do, but should come to know Jesus for themselves and believe because of that knowledge.
I prefer the NIV and KJV translation of John 1:1. It is much more poetic. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word was made flesh and made His dwelling among us.” I added that latter bit from verse 14 because it makes clear the next point. The Word was Jesus and Jesus was the Word. By this means, John also tells us that Jesus was God. The Greek word which translates as “The Word” is Logos. Logos is the root from which we get the word logic. So, John tells us that Jesus is God’s logic. Further, John tells us that the Word is light shining in the darkness. God’s logic illuminates the world, revealing things which many would prefer remain hidden. Verse 5 reads:
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.[b]”
Note that footnote reference to the translators’ notes. The footnote tells us that the Greek literally means “the darkness has not understood it.” In other words, the darkness cannot understand the logic of God.
