In chapter 20, John told us about the resurrection, the giving of the Holy Spirit, and the mission Jesus entrusted to his disciples. He ended that chapter by telling us that he wrote his Gospel so his audience might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and might have eternal life in his name. In chapter 21, John concludes his Gospel by capturing an interaction between Jesus and Peter. In this exchange, I think we’ll find insight into what John meant in chapter 20 in exhorting us to believe in Jesus.
[Read more…] about John 21: Are you willing?John
John 20: Whom are you seeking?
John tells us that Jesus’ female disciples were the first to see the empty tomb, and that one of them, Mary Magdalene, was the first to see the risen Christ. Yet we primarily read about Jesus interacting with his male disciples in the Gospels. Why the women first?
[Read more…] about John 20: Whom are you seeking?John 19: Are you a friend of Caesar?
What is justice? The
man who just a few verses earlier said, “What is truth?” now says,
“Take him yourselves and crucify him, for
I find no guilt in him” (John 19:6). He hands Jesus over to be
crucified despite his fear about Jesus’ claims to be the Son of God (not to
mention his wife’s warning after her own supernatural encounter (Matthew
27:19)). I don’t think Pilate’s confused judgment is a coincidence. Once
someone gives up on the idea of truth, justice isn’t far behind. Compare this
to Jesus’ interest in due process throughout John, including the story of the
woman caught in adultery.
Our culture is wrestling with justice, both
inside and outside the church. A preliminary question is who defines justice. Throughout
John’s gospel, he has distinguished between God’s culture and the world’s
culture. That cultural difference extends to concepts of justice, and Pilate demonstrates
how. If there is no absolute truth, there is no absolute justice. And if there
is no absolute justice, justice is relative. That makes it a lot easier to say,
“I find no guilt in him, so you crucify him.” It makes it a lot
easier for the Jewish leaders to rig Jesus’ trial yet show concern for the
niceties of Sabbath observation after his crucifixion (v. 31).
John 18: What’s my truth?
In John 18, the leaders’ hostility toward Jesus, which has been brewing almost from the outset of John’s gospel, now bubbles over. Even though Jesus has been teaching daily in the temple (v. 20), they come against him under the cover of darkness with soldiers carrying torches and weapons.
When they say they are seeking Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus says, “I am.” At this, they draw back and fall to the ground (v. 6). Why did Jesus’ response force them to the ground?
[Read more…] about John 18: What’s my truth?John 17: Where does Jesus want you?
What would it be like to overhear one person of the Godhead talking to another person of the Godhead? That’s what’s we find in John 17: Jesus, God the Son, speaking to God the Father. And not just on any occasion but in the hours before he goes to the cross. To say that we could dwell in that conversation for some time is an understatement.
[Read more…] about John 17: Where does Jesus want you?John 16: What’s the antidote to being offended by Jesus?
John 16: What’s the antidote to being offended by Jesus?
John 16 begins with Jesus saying, “I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away” (v. 1). The Bible’s chapter breaks (and verse numbers) were not part of the original text, but were added later as a handy organizing tool. In most cases, that works great. But, inevitably, the breaking point sometimes creates an artificial separation between passages that go together. Here, the things Jesus said came in the previous chapters, including chapter 15’s exhortation to dwell in Jesus and his message rather than the world’s.
What does it mean to fall away? Some Bible versions (e.g., the NLT) loosely translate this as abandoning the faith. And that captures the meaning pretty well. But how does someone get to the point of forsaking Jesus?
[Read more…] about John 16: What’s the antidote to being offended by Jesus?John 15: Do you want to be called a friend of Jesus?
John 15 has two main topics: (1) how to follow Jesus; and (2) how the world will react to followers of Jesus.
Jesus uses an analogy to describe how his followers will both abide in his love and glorify the Father: Jesus is the vine, the Father is the farmer (or vinedresser), and Jesus’ disciples are the branches.
What is the purpose of the branches? There are a lot of trees and plants that produce no fruit (at least no edible fruit). Note that Jesus describes himself as “the true vine” (v. 1), suggesting there are false vines. What’s a false vine, and what sort of fruit does its branches bear?
Jesus, however, is a fruit-bearing vine. The vine’s branches are his followers, and their purpose is to produce fruit (v. 5). The Father is glorified when someone is proven to be a follower of Jesus by bearing fruit (v. 8).
[Read more…] about John 15: Do you want to be called a friend of Jesus?John 14: Is Jesus intolerant?
By the time we get to John 14, we’ve already found John making very explicit statements about the deity of Jesus. In chapter 1, John refers to Jesus as “the Only God, who is at the Father’s side” (John 1:18). In John 8, we read Jesus claim to be the “I am,” using the phrase God used to identify himself to Moses in the burning bush. In John 9, we read about Jesus receiving worship from the blind man he healed. Whereas angels and men refuse worship, Jesus accepts it. In John 14, we find more statements from Jesus confirming that the Jews correctly understood that he was claiming to be God in the flesh.