Wednesday Evening Bible Study

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church of Flatbush

Gospel of St. John

Introduction

John’s Gospel is the last of the four gospels of the New Testament cannon. The date of authorship is estimated to be about 100 AD. In perspective that is about 67 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. What was happening at that time of Christian History? Roman Emperors of that time are Nero known for his insane burning of Rome. He is said to have played the violin while Rome burned using burning Christians as light for his music. The burning of Rome is factual as is the implication of Nero’s complicity in the activity is factual, and the imperial persecution of Christians is factual. Whether this actual event happened is not confirmed. Domitian is another of emperors of the era also ascribed the great involvement in Christian persecution. Christians were target of blame for the burning of Rome and for many other economic and social consequence of the time and were the target of genocide to rid the world of these Christians, both on the part of Rome and Judaism.

What becomes apparent in the reading of the gospel is that it is not like the three synoptic gospels. Though John’s gospel tells the story of Jesus the Christ, it does it from a totally new perspective. John’s gospel goes far beyond the telling of the story to much that is interpretative of the life of Jesus as that life has become relevant to the lives and times of the 1^st century Christians.

The first indication of the difference is that John’s Gospel has no Christmas story. This gospel begins with the creation of the world which is attributed to Word that was “with God, and was”. All things came into being through the Word who then “became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth.” John seeks (like all other gospels) to trace the divine origin of Jesus. For John, the virgin birth is absent, while the incarnation of Christ who became flesh is very real and present. Throughout the breadth of John’s Gospel the incarnate Word make a journey from being with to becoming a human and then returns to the Father after his resurrection from the dead.

Several keys are helpful.

1. The name John needs first to be addressed. John is the name of the evangelist to whom this gospel is attributed. We will call him John the Evangelist. The second John that comes into play in the beginning of the gospel, in fact in the first chapter, is John the Baptist. The evangelist tells us that this John bore testimony to Jesus at the river Jordan. This will be addressed more fully in the text of the gospel.

2. Testimony: Yet, the entire content of John’s gospel is the bearing of testimony. Witness or testimony becomes a critical factor in the telling of John’s gospel. Thos who knew Jesus personally and intimately are long gone. None of the disciples (the twelve) are alive yet. That means that the only ones who can tell the story and spread the gospel are those who have come to faith through the testimony of others. The testimony of the Baptist led others to Jesus and the purpose of the Evangelists telling of the story was to b ear whitness to Jesus and to draw others to the messiah. Testimony will be a critical factor in understanding the gospel narrative. It therefore becomes imperative that disciples bear witness in the present.

3. Jesus is God and human. This lies at the heart and core of the gospel narrative. Though it is present in the synoptic gospels as well, John’s brings a sense of mystery in his centrality of the phenomenon.

4. John uses everyday words and concepts to develop the telling of the mystery of God in human form and work of Jesus on his earthly journey. Important terms: Bread, water, light, life, word, shepherd, door, way – are used by the evangelism to open to the listeners the work that Jesus is bringing to their lives. These are used in connection to unity with God. We hear Jesus say, “I am . . .” I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the way the truth and the life. I am the resurrection and the life. His use of the first person singular nominative, “I am” is a direct connection to the name of God. When Moses stood before the burning bush he asked God for his name and God said, “My name is Yahweh.” In Hebrew this is the first person singular nominative of the verb to be. “Tell them that I AM has sent you.” In the use of this expression, Jesus is saying, I am the great I am. Let there be no mistake about it. Jesus is pronouncing himself to be God.

5. Signs: The concept of sign is a difficult though powerful concept. The other gospels speak of miracles while John uses the expression “Sign” throughout. The first sign, for instance is the water to wine episode at Cana in Galilee. In addressing the importance of signs we need to grasp what Jesus was doing through the signs. The first is that he was through the signs bearing testimony to who he was (the God in flesh Messiah); but, Jesus was also bringing the future fulfillment of the kingdom of God to the present. The theological term is prolepsis. In the sign Jesus is saying that fullness of God from the final kingdom is proleptically in the present for those who can apprehend it by faith. Therefore, the signs themselves become testimony to the work that God is already brought to fulfillment in the presence of Jesus. Wolfhart Pannenberg describes the sacraments as signs in so far as the communion is the banquet of God’s kingdom which is being brought from the future fullness to the present. It is no representative of the future, but actual banquet brought to bear in our time. These are the place of the signs in telling of John’s Gospel.