St. John's Gospel

The First week (Continued) (1:19-51).The second day:John the Baptist gives witness to Jesus(1:29-34)

Posted on March 14th 2010 in St. John's Gospel

The witness that John the Baptist gives of Jesus is as ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world’ and demonstrates that, from the very beginning of Jesus’ public life, the element of sacrifice is present. Indeed, this sacrifice becomes the means by which He is identified. The description of Jesus as the ‘Lamb of God’ brings together a number of Old Testament themes, that of the Suffering Servant of Isaiah (taking on the sins of the many), and the Paschal Lamb of the Passover sacrifice. The symbolism of the Passover runs through the whole Gospel, and the details of the Crucifixion have strong Pascal Lamb connotations – the date of the crucifixion, the use of the hyssop stick, and the fact that no bones are broken.

The Baptist’s witness to Jesus echoes the themes of the Prologue when St John states that Jesus existed before me (the same use of the imperfect tense, was, to denote eternity). The pre-existent Word will become flesh in Jesus Christ, thus the Word pre-exists the historical birth of the Baptist. Jesus enters a world scarred by sin, a place of darkness.

John the Baptist’s divinely appointed task is to point towards the source of light even if he did not know beforehand that Jesus was either the Lamb of God or the Chosen one of God. The use of the perfect tense, ‘I have seen and I have witnessed’, emphasises both the historic nature of John’s mission and its present force. The revelation of the Trinitarian identity of Jesus at His Baptism sets the scene for the public life of Jesus. The descent of the Holy Spirit inaugurates the new age since neither Judaism nor John the Baptist possessed the Holy Spirit as of right. The ability for the believer to grasp the full identity of Jesus Christ as the one on whom the Holy Spirit has descended requires the baptism of water, of conversion, in order to grasp that previously the believer has been living in darkness.

The First week (1:19-51) Day one (1:19-28) The testimony of John the Baptist

Posted on March 7th 2010 in St. John's Gospel

After the Prologue, St John describes the first week of Jesus’ public life which concludes with the Marriage Feast of Cana, symbolically echoing the seventh day of creation. There will be a cosmic reconciliation  in Jesus Christ at the end of time Another abiding theme throughout this Gospel is the imagery of a court trial and the vocabulary used by the Evangelist of confession, interrogation, testimony, all carrying legal connotations.

The first day belongs to John the Baptist who acts as a witness to Jesus. The expression used by the Evangelist in answer to ‘the Jews’ from Jerusalem was, ‘He confessed and did not deny but confessed’ that ‘I am not the Christ’. The emphasis on the correct understanding is central to St John. Jesus Christ, the Word, gives meaning to John the Baptist, the voice. The expression is also a conscious echo of Jesus’ own usage of ‘I am’ with its own allusion to the name of God revealed to Moses in the burning bush, ‘I am who I am’. The Baptist must act as a witness who prepares for the coming of the Messiah, and so applies the quote from Isaiah to himself. His ministry is essential otherwise the arrival of the Messiah will pass unrecognised. ‘The heart has to be opened, levelling their pride and filling their emptiness’.

When confronted with further questioning from ‘the Jews’, John the Baptist makes the distinction between his baptism of water, and the Baptism of Jesus Christ which will involve the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Holy Spirit marks the beginning of the eschatological age, and thus a break from Judaism. ‘The Jews’ are looking for continuity and are unable to venture beyond their own categories. Here is something new.

Though St John reports the Baptists’ denial of being another Elijah, the final remark concerning the location of John the Baptist’s ministry echoes that of Elijah who, according to pious Jewish legend, was thought to have been assumed into heaven near Bethany beyond the Jordan.

St John’s Gospel: Introduction: The Prologue 1:7-14 (Third Part)

Posted on February 14th 2010 in St. John's Gospel

The prologue which began with the identification of God and the Word, the implied incarnation of this word, and the historic mission of John the Baptist is now reaching its conclusion in the transformation of the relationship between God and Word into that of Father and Son (1:14). This process is first indicated in v9 when St John writes that the Word, literally ‘this man’ was coming into the world and implying a future Incarnation. The Word is again described as the organisational principle of creation, thus placing reason at the heart of all that is created (v10). The Incarnation will take place in an uncomprehending world, where the lack of light is considered normal. This will not be an abstract rejection but will take place amongst God’s chosen people who should have been made aware of the light through the ministry of John the Baptist.

The situation is reversed for those who do receive the Word, both as a gift from God and through a positive human disposition. Faith in the Word, Jesus Christ is both an action of God, and an action of the believer. These two dimensions come together at the Washing of the Feet, when the Evangelist writes, ‘he had always loved those who were His own in the world’ (13:1). The careful use by St John of the verb tense is key. The aorist participle, ‘became’ indicates a past event, but with current effect. This gift is not just promised for the future but is an achieved fact that demands present commitment.

This exact moment of this coming into the world will be at God’s behest, and this divine initiative points towards the Virgin Birth, as explained in St Matthew and St Luke. The lack of an active human element precludes all concupiscence or stain of original sin. The highpoint of the Prologue is now reached, the identity of Jesus Christ, the Word becoming flesh. He draws us towards Himself by living amongst us. The ‘glory’ is what the believer can grasp of God, since the Word was with God from the beginning. In other words there is nothing to know about God that cannot be found in the Son, Jesus Christ, since He is full of ‘the grace of the truth’. Jesus Christ embodies everything that may be said about God.