CHAPTER NINE
The Gospel according to John
Orientation
Throughout human history clever people have created riddles—paradoxical mysterious sayings that require ingenuity to solve, often with a veiled or double meaning. Consider this riddle: What is shallow enough for a child to wade in yet deep enough for an elephant to swim in?
Answer: the Gospel according to John.
This paradoxical description is one of the main ways the Gospel of John has been described, going back to the church’s earliest centuries. This riddle suits John well. On the surface the Fourth Gospel seems simple and straightforward. Compared to the Synoptic Gospels, John has fewer stories, and they are told more dramatically; the language (in Greek and in English) is simpler grammatically, using a smaller vocabulary; Jesus makes the clearest identity statements, saying things like “I and the Father are one.” This is the book we often tell new believers to read, and rightly so. John is easy and engaging to read. Or so it seems.
Figure 9.1. Plaque with John and the symbol of his Gospel, the eagle [The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Cloisters Collection, 1977.]
When you start to pay closer attention and ask deeper questions, John turns out to be mysterious and multilayered. Pastors, theologians, and biblical scholars agree that John’s apparent simplicity is a door into the deepest book of the New Testament. The Gospel according to John truly is shallow enough for a child to wade in while also being deep enough for an elephant to swim in.
Matthew’s influence dominated for many centuries in the church, but eventually John took the lead. Theologians throughout history have distinguished the Fourth Gospel in several ways:
- If the Gospels are the firstfruits of Scripture, then John is the firstfruit of the firstfruits (Origen).
- The Synoptic Gospels address things from a physical perspective; John wrote a spiritual Gospel (Clement; Augustine).
- John is to be preferred to the others because “it will show you Christ and teach you everything you need to know” (Luther).
The Gospel of John soon became associated with the symbol of the eagle, king of birds, soaring high above the rest of Scripture and revealing deep theological truths from the heights.
The Historical Origins of John
Who Is the Beloved Disciple?
Like the other Gospels, John is a biography and thus primarily consists of stories about the main subject, Jesus. While few specific stories overlap between John and the Synoptic Gospels (see chap. 5), the four Gospels are clearly describing the same Jesus and broadly telling the same story:
- Jesus, the Son of God, came into the world.
- He proclaimed that God was doing something new through him.
- This proclamation evoked two main responses: people believed and followed him, while the Jewish leadership opposed him.
- This opposition peaked in Jerusalem, where Jesus was arrested, tried, and crucified by the Roman government.
- But then Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to his disciples, emboldening them to form a new group of believers, calling others to believe in Jesus.
Inside and beyond this general story, each Gospel highlights certain theological themes to call believers to understand Jesus in a particular way and follow him accordingly. John makes his own purpose especially clear by telling us at the end of his story exactly why he wrote his Gospel: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:30–31).
So the Gospel of John gives us a series of stories, teachings, and signs recorded so that readers may truly believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Not everyone will believe, but those who do will enter into abundant life now and in the age to come.
John’s purpose is that simple and that profound. Toward this goal, John highlights several key theological themes, including the fatherhood of God, the sonship of Jesus, and the role of the Holy Spirit. John is thoroughly trinitarian. The theme of eternal life also dominates John’s Gospel, which is another expression of the Synoptic Gospels’ language of the “kingdom of God/heaven.” To enter into the kingdom is to enter into true and lasting life, and vice versa.
In all of this, the Gospel of John is simultaneously accessible and inscrutable. As the New Testament scholar N. T. Wright has been heard to describe it, “The Gospel of John is very much like my wife—I love her very much but I do not profess to understand her.”
The Structure of John
Exploration—Reading John
The Word Enters the World
READ JOHN 1:1–2:25
Unlike the other Gospels, John begins with a highly theological prologue (1:1–18) that sets the tone for the whole book. John’s introduction describes Jesus as eternal and divine (1:1–2), the agent of creation (1:3), the means by which people become God’s children (1:12), truly human (1:14), the manifestation of grace and truth (1:17), and the only being who has ever seen God and made him fully known (1:18).
After this introduction we meet John the Baptizer, the forerunner who points to Jesus in all four Gospels. The prologue mentions the Baptizer as one sent from God “to bear witness about the light” (1:6–8). This Gospel’s first story is about the Jewish leaders questioning John the Baptizer, and they receive a clear, if undesired, response: John is neither Elijah nor the Christ, but the powerful Christ is coming (1:19–28)! This Christ will be identified by the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove; he will be the Son of God and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (1:29–34).
These details are nearly identical in all four of the Gospel accounts, but most similarities between John and the Synoptics end here, right at the beginning. What follows is a series of stories consistent with the tone of Jesus’s ministry in the other Gospels but unique to John. First, we learn how the first four of Jesus’s disciples—two brothers and two friends—began to follow him. Jesus shows supernatural knowledge that amazes these first disciples. They leave everything to follow him, perceiving that he is the Son of God, the true king of Israel (1:49), a rabbi/teacher (1:38, 49), and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets (1:45). Jesus calls these disciples to come and follow so that they will be able to truly see and understand (1:39). This is an invitation to all readers of John to come and learn from the rest of the book.
Two shocking stories follow—shocking for different reasons. First, in a very typical domestic scene, at a wedding ceremony with his family and disciples, Jesus performs a stunning miracle by turning vats of water into fine wine. John tells us that this sign unveiled Jesus’s glory and bolstered the disciples’ faith in him (2:11). We also learn that while Jesus is glorious, he is aware that his “hour has not yet come,” hinting that he has work to do before he completes his mission (2:4).
Figure 9.2. Marriage at Cana (1304–6) by Giotto di Bondone, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy [Gallerix]
Two Temple Cleansings?
The second shocking story overlaps with an event that we find in the Synoptics: Jesus disrupting the activities in the Jerusalem temple court (2:13–22; cf. Matt. 21:12–13; Mark 11:15–19; Luke 19:45–48). The crucial issue in this story is what John tells us about its meaning. The people who heard Jesus talk about destroying the temple assumed that he meant the physical temple building, but after Jesus’s resurrection his disciples understood the far deeper meaning: Jesus was describing his own body, his own person, as the true temple of God (2:21–22).
The Prologue as Table of Contents
Varied Reactions to Jesus
READ JOHN 3:1–4:54
The next section contains four stories that teach specific truths about Jesus and show varied reactions to him. In each story there is a dialogue between characters followed by John’s interpretive comments.
In the first story a Jewish Pharisee leader, Nicodemus, approaches Jesus to question him about his actions and speech (3:1–15). This is a reasonable challenge because, after all, Jesus is not a trained rabbi, yet he is calling disciples to follow him (1:35–51), he is reportedly performing miracles (2:1–12), and he is causing disruption and boldly challenging the authorities (2:13–22). Jesus answers, but not in the way Nicodemus anticipated. Instead, Jesus speaks with profound metaphor—about the Spirit and being born again and the Son of Man being exalted—and then turns the tables on Nicodemus, asking him why he doesn’t understand heavenly things even though he is a teacher in Israel (3:10). John then comments on this story by explaining that God sent Jesus not to condemn but to save the world but that those who love darkness will not come to the light (3:16–21).
Life Everlasting / Eternal Life
In the second story John the Baptizer is also questioned, but by his own disciples. Compared to Jesus, John is being surpassed (3:22–36). The Baptizer sees himself clearly and knows his role is not being the light of the world but rather witnessing to the light of the world (1:8). He points to Jesus, the bridegroom and the Christ, and John finds his joy in Jesus increasing while he himself is decreasing in power and popularity. John the Gospel writer then comments on this story by describing Jesus as coming from heaven and being the authoritative agent of God on earth (3:31–36).
In the third story Jesus interacts with a person on the opposite end of the spectrum from Nicodemus the Pharisee: a sexually promiscuous Samaritan woman (4:1–38). Once again Jesus speaks of deep heavenly matters, and he challenges the woman’s self-perception and heart-level desires. But unlike Nicodemus, this woman goes from skepticism to belief that Jesus is indeed a prophet. Her testimony leads her townspeople to welcome Jesus and eventually believe he is the Savior of the world (4:29, 42). In the commentary on this story, Jesus explains that his mission is to gather disciples from all over (4:31–38), and John reports that two groups of non-Jerusalemites had now welcomed Jesus, the Samaritans (4:39–42) and the Galileans (4:43–45).
Figure 9.3. Glass panel showing Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well [The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917.]
In the fourth story in this section Jesus returns to Cana in Galilee, where he performed his first miracle of wedding winemaking (2:1–12). Here he heals an official’s son. John tells his readers that this is the second miracle that served as a witness to who Jesus is (4:54), thus tying together the events of chapters 2–4.
Challenge and Riposte, Shame and Honor
Amphibology in John’s Story
The Unveiling of Jesus as the Messiah
READ JOHN 5:1–10:42
John 1–4 focused on Jesus’s actions and interactions with people, framed with reference to his first and second signs (2:11; 4:54). John 5–10 provides a series of stories that show Jesus going in and out of Jerusalem in connection with Jewish holidays and festivals. The section of chapters 5–10 ends with Jesus returning to where the story began, with John’s baptisms in the Jordan River (10:40–42; 3:22–24).
The first story (5:1–17) takes place on a Sabbath day, when Jews were forbidden from working. Jesus heals a paralyzed man, sparking greater conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders (5:16), a common theme in the Synoptic Gospels (e.g., Matt. 12:1–14). Most important is John’s lengthy exploration of the theological implications of this, mostly coming in the form of Jesus’s direct teaching (5:18–47). With powerful language Jesus makes two things clear: (1) as the Son of God, Jesus has a special relationship with God the Father such that they share honor, authority, and mission (5:18–29); (2) all the world witnesses to Jesus’s greatness—Moses in the past (5:39–47) and John the Baptizer now (5:32–38).
Cyril of Alexandria and the Internal Connections of Scripture
The second story (6:1–71) takes place during Passover, the most important Jewish festival and one of the three Passover celebrations occurring during Jesus’s ministry (beginning with 2:13–25 and ending with 13:1–38), thus placing this story at the midpoint of Jesus’s ministry. This story parallels the miraculous feedings in the wilderness and the walking on water in the other Gospels (Mark 6:31–52 and parallels), but, in typical Johannine fashion, it makes grand-scale theological statements. Once again Jesus challenges his hearers by making claims that are difficult to understand and hard to accept. He claims to be greater than Moses, that he has come directly from heaven as the true bread of life, and that to enter into life people must feed on his flesh and drink his blood! The result, not surprisingly, is that many people choose to stop following and believing in Jesus (6:60–66), to which he simply responds, “No one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the Father” (6:65).
The third movement in this section (7:1–52) revolves around another important Jewish festival, the Feast of Booths, in which the Jewish people celebrated the harvest and remembered the booths/tents they lived in after their escape from Egypt. The events of chapter 7 follow the tension that Jesus caused in chapter 6 by making such bold claims about himself. Here Jesus returns to Jerusalem, knowing that his work there is unfinished, but he does so secretly because the Jewish leaders are plotting his murder (7:1–13). Then, suddenly, he stands up in the temple and begins preaching (7:14–24), challenging the leaders for trying to kill him because he healed a man on the Sabbath (cf. 5:1–17). John shows that the response to Jesus was deeply divided: some people in the crowd believed that he was a prophet or the Christ (7:31, 40–41), while others were confused (7:25–27, 35–36, 41–43), while the leaders were angry and frustrated that they could not arrest him (7:32, 45–52). In an interesting turn, even Nicodemus, who previously had challenged Jesus (3:1–15), was beginning to wonder about Jesus (7:50–52).
Jesus’s bold claims about himself continue in 8:12–59. He is the light of the world (8:12); his father is God himself (8:19), whereas the Jewish leaders have the devil as their father (8:44), even though they claim to be Abraham’s children (8:39); and he is greater than Abraham because he existed before Abraham did (8:56–58). From a Jewish perspective, Jesus’s words are confusing (8:21–22) and then deemed downright blasphemous. As a result, the Jewish leaders decide he is demonic and try to kill him by stoning (8:52, 59), but he slips away.
The next story takes place once again on a Sabbath day, when Jesus performed a remarkable and rare kind of miracle: the healing of someone blind from birth (9:1–7). This striking miracle raised questions and commotion (9:8–12). So the neighbors took the formerly blind beggar to the Pharisees for investigation. The result was a great dispute: some said that Jesus must be wrong because he did (healing) work on a Sabbath; others reasoned that God must be behind such a miracle; while the Pharisees, feeling the pinch of these arguments, desperately claimed that the man was never actually blind (9:13–18). So the Pharisees called in the man’s parents and questioned him again, still not getting the results they wanted. The healed man turned the tables on their argument and challenged their lack of understanding and belief. They cast him out of the synagogue completely (9:18–34). Jesus finds the healed man and invites him to believe fully in him (9:35–38). Jesus goes on to explain that he—not the Pharisees—is the good shepherd, the one who cares for God’s people, providing for them, protecting them, and even laying down his own life for them (10:1–18). In this Jesus claims once again that he uniquely shares God’s identity and mission in the world.
Figure 9.4. Panel with Christ and the woman taken in adultery [The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Cloisters Collection, 1950 ]
This long section of chapters 5–10 ends with the Feast of Dedication (today called Hanukkah), during which the Jews celebrated their recapturing of the temple during the Maccabean period. The Jewish people were divided about whether Jesus was from God or demonic (10:19–21)—the only two real options—and so when he shows up in Jerusalem for this festival, they ask him plainly if he is the Christ (10:24). His response is once again clear and bold: “I and the Father are one” (10:30) and “The Father is in me and I in the Father” (10:38). Those who heard him understood the depth of his claim, that he was making himself divine, which in their eyes was nothing short of blasphemy (10:33). Such claims could create only two choices: either believe in Jesus (10:42) or try to arrest and kill him for his blasphemy (10:31, 39). Jesus again withdrew north to the wilderness.
God Sent from God
Resurrection and Opposition
READ JOHN 11:1–12:50
These two chapters conclude the first part of John’s Gospel (the Book of Signs, 1:19–12:50) and prepare readers for the second half (the Book of Glory, 13:1–20:31). John chooses to conclude this section with one of the most important miracles of Jesus’s ministry: the raising of Lazarus from the dead (11:1–44). This story is intimate and complex, full of deeper meaning, while also being the final catalyst that causes Jesus’s own death.
Jesus was not an aloof celebrity; he was loved by many people, and he loved many in a close and personal way. John tells us of two sisters and a brother (Mary, Martha, and Lazarus) in the village of Bethany with whom Jesus had a special relationship. Lazarus became ill and died, causing great grief and putting Mary and Martha in a precarious social situation. Jesus delayed his arrival in Bethany, because he knew that God was going to do something amazing and beautiful. When Jesus finally got near the village, Martha and Mary came to Jesus separately, both confused and grieving, wondering why Jesus did not come earlier and heal Lazarus (11:21, 32). Filled with compassion and grief himself, Jesus went to the tomb and, in front of everyone, raised Lazarus from the dead by calling him to walk out of his cave tomb (11:43–44). In response to this undeniable wonder, the Pharisees and Jerusalem priests convene and decide that Jesus must be killed. Otherwise, they fear, there may be an uprising of belief in Jesus that causes the Roman rulers to crush the Jews completely (11:45–57). Theologically, the resurrection of Lazarus points toward Jesus’s own resurrection (20:1–29) and makes clear that Jesus himself is the source of resurrection and life for everyone who believes and follows him (5:25–29; 11:25–26).
John 12 transitions the story from Jesus’s ministry to his last week of life. The time of year is the Passover, the third Passover festival recorded by John and used to frame Jesus’s activities (2:13; 6:4; 12:1). Once again Jesus speaks and acts boldly, and once again this causes a very mixed reaction. Jesus claims to have the same authority and honor as God the Father (12:26–36, 44–50). Lazarus’s sister Mary humbly washes Jesus’s feet with expensive ointment as a sign of love and gratitude, while Judas gets angry at this supposed waste of money (12:1–8). Many Jews, both from Judea and Greek Jews from afar, both lowly people and even some priests, understand Jesus as the king of Israel, the Christ who is worthy of praise and honor (12:12–21, 42). But the chief priests are furious and plan to kill Lazarus in addition to Jesus (12:9–11).
Figure 9.5. The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt [Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons]
Mary and Martha
The Knowledge of God
The Seven Signs in John
READ JOHN 13:1–17:26
Jesus chose to come to Jerusalem for the last time during the Passover festival, the foremost Jewish holiday, commemorating the exodus from Egypt through Moses. At the heart of this festival is a family meal that symbolically retells the significance of the exodus. The weighty chapters of John 13–17 are known as the Upper Room Discourse. Jesus used this Passover meal to teach his disciples core truths of the Christian faith.
The first noticeable thing about this last night of teachings from Jesus is that John does not record the most influential part of this event: the bread-breaking and wine-sharing that became known as the Lord’s Supper. John’s method instead is to assume that his readers are familiar with this widespread practice. This frees John to emphasize a complementary theme central to following Christ: sacrificial love for one another.
Figure 9.6. Fragment of the top of a column depicting the mourning Mary and Martha [Cleveland Museum of Art / Wikimedia Commons]
The theme of sacrificial love and relational unity dominates the Upper Room Discourse. It begins with Jesus’s model of servanthood in washing his disciples’ feet (13:2–20), which he explains clearly as the example that his disciples should follow (13:14–15). Jesus continues by giving what he calls a new commandment—new but rooted in God’s law—that his people love one another in the same way that he has loved them (13:34), which is how the world will recognize Christians (13:35). This sacrificial love for others is the ultimate love (15:12–17). The Upper Room Discourse concludes with the same theme in what is referred to as Jesus’s High Priestly Prayer (17:1–26). In this prayer Jesus asks his Father to protect his disciples and to create among them a unity mirroring that of the Father and Son (17:20–26).
I Believe in the Holy Catholic Church
Inside this bookended emphasis on love and unity among believers, Jesus gives instructions on two other themes: overcoming the hateful world, and the Holy Spirit’s role in the new age. Jesus foretells his betrayal (13:21–30) and teaches his disciples to expect hatred from the world, just like the world hated him (15:18–16:4). Christians should not be disheartened, however, because Jesus has overcome the world (16:33). This emphasis on suffering in the present age intersects with the theme of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promises his disciples that he will not leave them alone in the world, but that the Father will send the Spirit of truth (14:15–18). The Holy Spirit will teach and remind Jesus’s disciples what Jesus has said (14:26; 16:13) and also testify to and convict the world because of its rejection of Jesus (16:8–11).
John’s Metaphors and Jesus’s Parables
Love One Another
And the Son? The Filioque Debate
Jesus’s Death and Resurrection
READ JOHN 18:1–20:31
Every Gospel emphasizes Jesus’s death and resurrection as central to its message, and John is no exception. Yet each Gospel relays different details and highlights diverse theological themes. John’s story in chapters 18–20 is particularly marked by conflict and violence.
Under Roman rule, the Jewish people were not allowed to exercise capital punishment, and so after the priests questioned Jesus (18:19–24) they handed him off in hopes that Pilate would execute him. But when Pilate questioned Jesus he found him innocent according to Roman law, and in fact he was daunted by the claims that Jesus was the Son of God (19:8). Pilate attempted to release Jesus, but the Jewish leadership pressured him into executing Jesus for treason (19:12–16). So Jesus is crucified with a mocking accusation above his head: “King of the Jews” (19:17–22). He died and was buried, attended to by a couple of wealthy men who had become disciples: Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus (19:38–42), the teacher who had first questioned Jesus (3:1–15).
John 18–20 alternates between locations to tell its story. A garden frames the beginning and ending of this section. At this time, gardens were walled and curated spaces that only the wealthy and royalty could maintain. In the privacy of such a garden Jesus was betrayed and arrested (18:1–14), and later was buried, resurrected, and first appeared to Mary Magdalene (19:38–20:18), who initially mistook him for the gardener (20:15). It is also outside the high priest’s house where Peter follows Jesus but then denies being a follower (18:15–18, 25–27).
The dialogues occurring indoors are also important, especially Jesus’s interaction with the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate (18:28–19:11). In this exchange Jesus acknowledges that he is truly a king, but his kingdom is from above (18:33–38). After his resurrection Jesus suddenly appears to the disciples who have locked themselves in a room for fear of being killed (20:19–29). In this final interchange before John’s epilogue (21:1–25) Jesus speaks peace to his frightened disciples and, as promised, breathes the Holy Spirit on them, empowering them as the agents of God’s forgiveness in the world (20:19–23; cf. Matt. 28:16–20). Jesus welcomes his disciples to confirm his embodied resurrection, pronouncing a blessing on those who in generations to come will believe and follow him without this physical witness (20:24–29).
John concludes his Gospel story with a clear statement about why he has written this lengthy and elaborate Gospel biography: to provide a record of some of the many signs Jesus performed so that his readers may believe that Jesus really is the risen Christ (Messiah), and that through this belief they might experience true and full life (20:30–31). Aware of this purpose statement, we can reread the Gospel and see John’s emphasis on Jesus’s authority and unity with the Father, along with Jesus’s revelation of God’s true nature.
Jesus’s “I Am” Statements
The Relationship of the Gospel of John to the Letters of John and the Book of Revelation
READ JOHN 21:1–25
John 20:30–31 feels like an appropriate ending to this Gospel story, with its clear statement of the purpose for writing. The Gospel of John concludes, however, with an epilogue (21:1–25) consisting of three little stories that tie up loose ends and prepare the reader for the rest of the New Testament. This epilogue is separate from the rest of the story yet continues with the narrative and two key characters, Peter and the Beloved Disciple.
The epilogue’s first story is set where the story began (1:35–51), outside Jerusalem, with the disciples engaged in their lifelong occupation of fishing (21:1–14). After an unsuccessful night on the water, the disciples see Jesus—though they do not recognize him—and he causes a miraculous catch of fish (153 large fish, to be precise). Through this event the disciples realize they are with the risen Jesus. They get to shore, and he shares bread and fish with them. This whole story is intentionally ripe with allusions to the other Gospels. The calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John in Luke 5:1–11 is clearly being referenced in John’s story, as are the wilderness feedings of bread and fish (Matt. 14:13–21; 15:32–39; Mark 8:1–10; Luke 9:10–17; John 6:1–15), and Luke 24:13–49, where Jesus’s identity becomes clear only when he reveals himself through reminiscent actions.
John’s next epilogue story (21:15–19) flows from the previous one and focuses on Jesus’s restoration of Peter. Three times Peter denied Jesus by a charcoal fire (18:15–18, 25–27), and now three times by the fire Jesus presses Peter with the vision of being a loving shepherd of God’s people. This is a painful and potentially shameful situation for Peter, but Jesus graciously reinstates him to his place of leadership, ending with the same call that Peter first received: “Follow me.”
The third and final story (21:20–23) deals with the two key characters, Peter and the Beloved Disciple. This story is, frankly, a little odd. It concerns a misunderstanding of words between Peter and Jesus that was later misinterpreted by the other disciples. Specifically, the issue seemed to be that some Christians came to believe that Jesus had promised that the Beloved Disciple would not die before Jesus returned to the earth. But this little vignette clarifies that Jesus did not promise this. Why has John included this story here? One possibility is that this last story was added by John’s faithful disciples as the conclusion of his book shortly after he died. This could explain why the story is included—to correct a wrong rumor—and this would also make sense of 21:24, which refers to the faithful testimony of the Beloved Disciple in the third person. This would make this section comparable to the reports of Moses’s death at the end of the Pentateuch (Deut. 34:1–12). We cannot know for certain. What is clear, however, is how the final verse of this beautiful Gospel story serves as a great summary of the whole Fourfold Gospel Book: “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written” (21:25).
153 Fish?
Implementation—Reading John as Christian Scripture Today
We don’t need to wonder how John would want us to implement his Gospel. He makes clear at the end of his story and then again in the final words of the epilogue that he has written his Gospel biography “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). The proper response to the Gospel of John is to engage in honest self-reflection, to let the weight of Jesus’s claims work in our lives. The true and eternal life that all humans long for is offered by Jesus (see 10:10), the only one through whom we can know God. All other desires, pursuits, and loves pale in comparison to the eternal life that Jesus offers.
Jesus declares a blessing on his disciples for believing when they saw his pierced side and punctured hands, but he was already thinking of you and me: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (20:29). The invitation that Jesus gave to his first believing disciples he now gives to all the hearers of John’s Gospel: “What are you seeking? Follow me. Come and see! You will see greater things than these!” (see 1:35–51).
The Gospel of John is to the Fourfold Gospel Book what Deuteronomy is to the Pentateuch—the volume in the collection that is the summary, the apex, the culminating and clarifying book. John’s traditional association with the symbol of the eagle is clear in light of the high-flying theology and Christology of this Gospel. The use of John as the starting place for many Christians and seekers also makes sense: John’s stories are engaging and entertaining, and there is no question that Jesus is being presented to readers as the incarnation of God himself on the earth.
John and the Synoptics, DC and Marvel
Christian Reading Questions
- Read John’s prologue (1:1–18) several times, noting its major themes. Trace these themes throughout the rest of John’s Gospel.
- Read through each of the seven signs in John. How do you think each of these signs reveals different aspects of Jesus’s character and divine power?
- Read through 1 John. What themes are prevalent throughout the letter? How do these themes compare and contrast with the themes in John’s Gospel?
- Why do you think John’s Gospel is so different from the Synoptics? What value does it add to the Fourfold Gospel Book?