John 1-3

The leap from Matthew to John is a big one in content and style, due to a totally different agenda. Matthew tries to justify Jesus with the Hebrew scriptures, while John tries to communicate in terms the Gentiles will understand (by the time of his writing the Christian movement has become largely Gentile). John describes just a few events at length, describing the effect on key individuals and also the conflict with the religious leadership. It's worth remembering that John was one of the "sons of Thunder" (along with brother James), so they were known for being ambitious and competitive. Even though John writes much later than the other gospels and at a late time in his life, you can still see some fight in the old guy. His goal is to bring people to believe in Jesus (20:31). John will major on the significance of Jesus and what he said and did more than just the facts.

The gospel opens with a prologue (1:1-18), one that would have spoken strongly to a Greek audience, "In the beginning was the logos..." While it is translated "Word" in the New Testament, it really was a concept that referred to the basic reason or essence of life. The language "in the beginning" comes straight from the book of Genesis. John's point is that what people experienced through believing in Jesus was there from the beginning of creation. Verse 14 brings it to a climax saying, "And the Word became flesh and made his tent among us (literal rendering)." This will be the story of how God's communication of himself in love became flesh in Jesus and gave people life abundant and life everlasting.

Like Matthew, the relationship of Jesus and John the Baptist is important. John claims not to be Elijah. Jesus, in the other gospels certainly sees him in that "role." John's baptism is preparatory for the greater baptism from Jesus, with the Holy Spirit. In John 1:35-39 we have the evidence that some of the disciples were first disciples of John the Baptist. The call of the disciples shows that many of these disciples knew each other before they followed Jesus. I have always enjoyed the call of Nathanael, "Behold an Israelite in whom there is no guile." A lot of United Methodists fit that description! More importantly, you start to get a personality picture of these disciples - rugged fisherman, seekers of meaning, open doubters, tax collectors. They are plain spoken and common enough that we can put ourselves in their place quite easily.

The first miracle of John's gospel is not mentioned anywhere else. The relationship between Mary and Jesus is interesting in this miracle. Mary is not the gentle sweet woman we see in the paintings. She knows what she wants and gets it. The miracle is not only that water was turned into wine, but that the wine was better than the special kind that was bought for the early part of the wedding reception. Through Jesus, God has saved the best till last (a life lesson there?).

John places the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of his gospel rather than after the Palm Sunday ride. The role of Jesus the reformer of legalistic religion is huge for John, so it is no surprise at his ordering of the events of Jesus' ministry. The temple as the metaphor of his body is told here. It, of course, goes right over the heads of the temple leaders.

John 3, one of the most famous chapters in all the Bible gives the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus (a Pharisee and fellow rabbi). They meet at night which was the common time for rabbis to get together. Twentieth century revivalism made being "born again" into an experience more than a total reorientation of life (as Jesus did with Nicodemus). Nicodemus must get beyond his confidence in what he knows to an openness for God to work freely and even unpredictably in his life. I fear at times that many "born again" Christians have the experience, but not the long term work of God. Jesus re-interprets Numbers 21, making himself the healer of the diseases of the people. John 3:16 is told in that concept. I really think we need to require people to memorize 3:17 as well. The closing verdict is a commentary on the many who reject Jesus - that people choose darkness over light. How is that still true of those outside the church and of people like you and me on the inside?

The third chapter finishes with a concluding statement on John the Baptist and the superiority of Christ. It makes you wonder if there weren't a whole lot of John's disciples who ended up "getting a better offer."