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Verses 1-9
The chapter opens in Jerusalem at the
pool of Bethesda; Bethesda means “house of mercy” and this descriptor could not
be truer. This pool is the embodiment
of a broken world, a place where the crippled, sick, and dying lie waiting for
the hope of mercy to arrive. It was
said that the pool was a mystical place of healing where the water was stirred
up by angels, and the first person in the pool after such a stirring would be
healed. Jesus approaches a crippled man
who had lain by the pool for thirty-eight years and asks the man if he wants to
get well. This man had made a life out
of waiting by the pool; Jesus must ask him if he really wants the new life
(full of both freedom and responsibility) that He can offer. We who are crippled by sin can be healed by
Jesus, but we are thence set on a path much harder than lying by a pool though
also much more fulfilling. We are
thrust into a new life that is our first taste of reality as we were meant to
experience it. In still more ways we
are much like the kinds of people who were lying by the pool: the blind who
could never have seen if the waters were stirred, the cripples who could see
the stirring but had no way of benefiting from it. We (like them) cannot move ourselves to healing, but Jesus is
able to do what the pool of Bethesda promised but could not deliver on. And as Jesus heals this man, his full
strength returns immediately. One would
think that after thirty-eight years, the man would have to strengthen his
muscles or re-learn the technique of walking, but he is instead able to
immediately able to walk and carry of his own ability. So Jesus lifts us up out of our infirmity to
full ability and new life.
Verses 10-18
The man arises, and Christ tells the man to carry his mat, knowing well that
doing so would draw attention. This
miracle takes place on the Sabbath, and there is to be no work done on the
Sabbath; in fact, there are specific laws describing exactly what work is so
that the law may be followed precisely.
The man had probably not been inside the temple in his thirty-eight
years of waiting, so his natural inclination would be to go to the temple and
give thanks for his healing. There, he
is stopped by the Pharisees and chided for breaking the law of Sabbath
work. The Pharisees’ zeal for the Law
is commendable, though if taken to its logical end, zeal for the Law is nothing
more than zeal for death. The formerly
crippled man saw the authority that the sign of his healing pointed to, and he
recognized that this authority was higher than the authority of Pharasaic
Law. Thus, when the higher authority
says to carry a mat in spite of the Law’s authority, the man rightly follows
the higher authority. It is interesting
to note that the Pharisees cannot see past the implied transgression to the
wondrous sign; there is no mention of the paralytic’s healing, only a stern
rebuke for an infraction of the Law.
The Pharisees demand to know who encouraged the man’s infraction,
and after some time, the man identifies Jesus as the One who made him well
(note the difference in their respective emphases). It is clear that Jesus both commanded the infraction and
identified Himself afterward that He might confront the Pharisees. When confronted, Jesus both justifies
Himself and again connects Himself intimately in nature with the Father. Jesus is putting to test the notion that the
Pharisees can accuse the Maker and Sustainer of the Law of breaking it. In fact, Colossians 1 describes Jesus as the
sustainer of creation; should He rest from His work, it would prove disastrous
for all who are under both His Law and His sustenance. Thus, the Pharisees seek to kill Jesus on
the basis of His lawbreaking and His blasphemy. Their zeal effectively blinds them from the Truth.
Verses 19-29
Jesus continues His self-explanation by again comparing Himself with the
Father. Their relationship is a true
father-son relationship; the Father loves the son and shows Him how to live
while the Son mimics the Father’s example.
Thus, to charge Jesus with doing wrong is to charge Jehovah with doing
wrong, and to rob Jesus of honor is to rob the Father of honor. Indeed, the relationship is so intimate that
the Son is the embodiment of everything the Father wants to do with His
creation: to restore it. The Son will
do far greater works than merely healing a paralytic; He will heal the world of
sin and death. The Father has given
Jesus the authority over life and death, and He will dispense life (as well as
restore quality of life) to the dead and helpless who cannot bring themselves
back to life.
The Jewish people were already familiar with thoughts of restoration and
resurrection through judgment. Christ
had also already called Himself by the name of the judge they are expecting:
the Son of Man (Daniel 7). He is
letting them know that He is the judge Whom they are expecting, and He wishes
to bring life and reconciliation to all who would believe in Him. The time is indeed coming when the quick and
the dead will be judged for what they have done—what is yet to be revealed in
this passage is that those who hear the voice of Christ and follow will be
judged in His righteousness and not their own.
Verses 30-38
Jesus next proclaims that His judgment is just because He does not judge
subjectively, but judges however the true Lord wants Him to. The truth is true without anyone recognizing
it, but the Lord is going to prove Himself to mankind anyway (even in its
limited understanding). However, Jesus
is not going to try to prove His authority to judge by Himself. Already, John the Baptizer (who was a
beloved prophet) was a witness to Jesus’ identity as Lamb and Light. Now, Jesus is proclaiming that there is more
evidence as to His identity. The Father
gives Him signs to perform as further evidence, along with the many signs and
words that the Lord gave the prophets concerning Jesus (not to mention the
audible recognition made at Jesus’ baptism).
If the Judeans had the word abiding in them, they would have recognized
the signs and understood Whom they pointed to; unfortunately, the Word was
among them, but not in them.
Verses 39-47
Jesus furthers that these Pharisees expect to find life in fulfilling the Law
of the Torah, but they are already dead in their inability to do so. It is not the scriptures that will bring
life, but the One to Whom the scriptures point: Jesus. The Law is meant to point toward our need
for a Savior; the Jewish people, however, were using it as a measurement for
spiritual ranking, trying not to know God but to have a higher place than their
peers on the scale of religion. Jesus
here proclaims that they have put all of their hope in the Law of Moses, but it
is actually their condemnation rather than their salvation. If these men do not recognize the reason for
the Law and Prophets, then how will they ever understand the One to Whom they
point?
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Verses 1-15
Jesus was having his disciples baptize in His name, though not baptizing people
Himself perhaps so that no one could later claim any kind of superior
baptism. When the Pharisees take note
of Jesus, however, he leaves Judea because it is not the time for Him to meet
their confrontation. Instead, Jesus
travels with His disciples toward Galilee, but to do so, He would pass through
Samaria. Samaritans and Jews had a
longstanding feud over land and worship.
The Jewish people had once been enslaved to Babylon; when their slavery
was over, they returned to the Promised Land and found a people living in the
middle of their former territory. These
people, the Samaritans, claimed to be the true descendents of Abraham and
opposed the return of the Jewish people.
The Samaritans had also intermarried several backgrounds, forging a
strange mix of Judaism and paganism.
When the Jewish people began to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem,
however, the Samarians offered to help and professed their faithfulness to the
God of Israel. The Jewish people
refused their help, so the Samarians built a temple of their own on Mount
Gerizim. The bad blood between the two
peoples encouraged the Samaritans to attack Jews who would travel between Judea
and Galilee.
Nonetheless, Jesus and His disciples make the dangerous trek through Samaria
and stop at noon to get food and rest.
Jesus finds Himself alone at Jacob’s well when a Samaritan woman
approaches. Because of the enmity
between the two ethnic groups, Jews and Samaritans were not supposed to
converse with each other. Still, Jesus
strikes up a conversation with the Samaritan woman. This is not the only social stigma Jesus breaks; Jewish men had
strict customs about how they could talk with women, but Jesus is also a
rabbi—for a rabbi to be alone with a woman not his wife was discouraged, but to
then talk to her was prohibited. The
situation is made even more complex by the time of day in which this
conversation takes place. The normal
time for women to come and draw water was early morning or early evening; for a
woman to come a midday would mean that she was a social outcast, wanting to
neither see nor be seen by anyone else.
Despite the taboo, Jesus (a Jewish rabbi) speaks to a Samaritan woman of
questionable reputation, asking her for a drink. R.C.H. Lenski describes the situations thus: “Here the Fountain
asks for water, and He who bids all that thirst come to Him Himself asks to
have His thirst quenched.”
After a questionable response from the woman, Jesus replies that if she knew
Who was making the request, she would realize her need to ask Him for
water…living water. The term “living
water” had definite meaning in the ancient world; it referred to running water
like a stream as opposed to stagnant water like what was found in Jacob’s
well. The living water moves and turns
and bubbles (much like the way Jesus compared the Spirit with the wind a mere
chapter ago). The woman knows not where
He would find this living water and questions His dismissal of the great gift
to her people that was Jacob’s well.
Jacob’s well is indeed a gift, but it is a “transient gift”
(Henry). This living water is eternal;
it is satisfying and indwelling and it only has one Source. She wants this kind of water.
Verses 16-26
When the woman asks Jesus for living water, His first response is to address
the stale, stagnant water that has been sustaining her for so long (which He
wishes to replace). He asks her to go
and get her husband; He asks her to do something which she cannot do (much like
the Law). She replies that she has no
husband, which is a shameful confession in and of itself even if it is not the
entire truth. Jesus’ response is
pregnant with wisdom. In it, He shows
that He knows her, He shows His power, and He shows His compassion. He also goes straight to the root of her
painful past, the reason why she is so obviously a social outcast among her
peers. At this, she immediately
recognizes Jesus as a prophet and turns the conversation to the matters of
religious difference between Jews and Samaritans. Perhaps she is changing the conversation so that she will not
have to address her past. Perhaps she
really wants cleansing and must find out which group is right about God; thus,
having found a prophet who could answer such questions, she poses the problem
to Him. She wants to know if she should
worship the Lord at the temple on Mount Zion (like the Jews) or on Mount
Gerizim (like the Samaritans), which was clearly visible to them from the
well. Jesus makes the argument
irrelevant by saying that salvation is from the Jews, not the Samaritans, and
it is Him. There will be no more
arguments about mountains and temples for the dwelling place of the Lord’s Holy
Spirit will be inside mankind. In fact,
in Jesus the Lord is already intersecting with mankind outside of the
temple. The woman disregards Jesus
again, claiming that the Messiah will come and make everything clear. Jesus tells her that the Messiah just had
made things clear. This is one of the
few times in which He was so forthright about Who He was; He entrusts Himself
not to the high and mighty, but to the poor, despised outcasts. It is interesting that the Samaritans had a
different word that “Messiah” for the Coming One. They called Him “Taheb,” meaning “One Who restores.” It is true that Jesus would be the One Who
would begin the restoration of His own creation that it might one day return to
its original fully glorified intention.
Verses 27-42
At this point, Jesus’ disciples return and interrupt His conversation; they are
shocked by whom their rabbi is talking to.
The woman excitedly returns to her village, and despite being an
outcast, she calls to whoever may hear her that a man Who may be the Christ is
nearby. Meanwhile, Jesus is declining
food because of the great joy He is taking in what is happening. Fulfilling the will of the Father is the
only sustenance He needs. Jesus then
speaks a metaphor about the arrival of harvest; For thousands of years,
prophets up to John the Baptizer have been sowing seeds of the Messiah and
salvation to come. Now is the harvest,
the fruition of the seeds sown by the prophets, and the work of salvation will
require tireless toil. The Samaritans
believe Jesus to be the Christ and urge Him to stay with Him. It is interesting that His own Jewish people
would force Him to depart while the Samaritans would have Him stay. Jesus complies, staying with and preaching
to a people who were supposed to hate Him (and He them); He is already loving
His enemies. The Samaritans of the
village give Jesus a title similar to the one the Baptizer gave Him. They call Him not the savior of the Jews,
but the “Savior of the world,” an honor previously given only to Caesar. These people are recognizing Jesus for Who
He really is.
Verses 43-54
Jesus returns to His homeland, but upon His arrival He meets His greatest point
of tension. The people of Galilee
welcome Him back, but not because they recognize Him as the Word; they only see
the flesh part of Him doing miracles that dazzle their eyes. An official from Capernaum, however, makes
the long trek to Cana to ask Jesus to come and heal his son. Jesus remarks that a sign done in the flesh
will necessary to make the man believe in the Word. Thus, requiring the man’s faith, Jesus heals his son from a great
distance; the man’s faith proved well-founded as Jesus does indeed heal the
son. The sign done in the flesh points
to the Word, and when the sign proved true, the man’s entire family put their
belief in the Word.
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Verses 1-13
Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a leader in the Sanhedrin,
meaning he is well-educated and politically important in the Jewish
culture. He comes to Jesus at night
most likely because he does not want to be seen with Jesus after the Temple
incident. It is interesting that in
later accounts, Jesus discerns what certain conniving Pharisees are thinking
when they question Him (and He responds accordingly), so one may assume that He
can also discern Nicodemus’ sincerity.
This is the first place where we find Jesus talking about the Kingdom of God
and using foreign descriptions like “born again.” Jesus tells Nicodemus that in order to see the Kingdom of God
(the Kingdom which Jesus is ushering in) he must be born again. This is an understandably confusing command
for Nicodemus who asks for clarification.
During the conversation, Jesus will infer that Nicodemus should, as a
teacher of Israel, already know about such ideas (Ezekiel 11:19), but He
continues His explanation anyway. Jesus
again says that in order to see this true Kingdom, one must be born of water
and Spirit. This reference to baptism
is interesting in that it combines something earthly (water) with something
divine (the Spirit), an intersection that beautifully reflects who Jesus
is. At the same time, Jesus is saying
that flesh can only birth flesh, and Spirit births spirit; even if Nicodemus
could actually go back to his mother’s womb and be born again, he would still
only be born in flesh again, carrying with him the same bent toward depravity
that he had before. No, Nicodemus needs
to be born again in a much more powerful way—he needs to be reborn
spiritually.
Jesus is describing the coming process by which we must die
and rise with Him. The nature of our
humans hearts is none but sin and rebellion, and in order to see the universe
in the way it is meant to be seen (through the lens of mercy, restoration, and
Godly glory), we must have a spiritual rebirth. We, in all of our iniquity and guilt, must join ourselves to Him
in His crucifixion so that our iniquity and guilt can die with Him (Romans
6). Then, just as He was raised in new
life, so shall we be raised in a new life, spiritually reborn with a new holy
nature; we are to be brand new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). This is surely unsettling news for
Nicodemus, a chief among Jews and a scholar of the Law. He had always put his hope in the fact that
his first birth as a son of God’s chosen Israelites would save Him. Now Jesus is telling him that neither his
birthright nor his adherence to the Law will ultimately make him right with the
Lord. Only Jesus Himself can do
that.
After this, Jesus compares the Spirit and the wind, telling how neither one can
be visually seen, but their effects are very observable. It is interesting to note that there is only
one word in both Hebrew and Greek for the words Spirit and wind: Hebrew is ruach
and Greek is pneuma. Like the
wind, the Spirit can do powerful, even tumultuous things, without showing Himself
to us visibly, though the effects of transformed lives and new Kingdom mindsets
can be seen by all. After this Jesus
says, “No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the
Son of Man, Who is in heaven.” Many
modern translations exclude the last phrase “Who is in heaven,” but it is
definitely present in the earliest Greek manuscripts. This has a mind-boggling effect on how we view Jesus the man: not
only was He fully human and fully God at the same time, but this phrase seems to
infer that He was on earth and in Heaven at the same time. This is plausible in the sense that we see
Jesus in light of John 1 and Colossians 1 as the sustainer of all life (which
infers that He held all creation together and sustained it even as He dwelled
inside it). At the very least, the
phrase is yet another instance of Jesus claiming divinity in its fullness.
Verses 14-15
At this point, Jesus alludes to a story recounted in Numbers 21:5-8:
And the people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why
have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no
food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food." Then the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.
And the people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned, for we have spoken
against the Lord and against you. Pray
to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for
the people. And the Lord said to Moses, "Make a fiery serpent and set it on
a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."
Just as there were serpents slithering at the feet of the Israelites, there is
a serpent called Satan who has long slithered at the feet of humanity. And just as the serpents’ deadly bites
afflicted the Israelites, so sin’s bite sends us on a path toward certain
death. Moses lifted a bronze snake on a
staff that whoever should turn to it and trust in God was saved from the
serpents’ bite. In the same way, the
Lord lifted His Son on a cross that whoever should turn to Him and trust will
also be saved from the serpent’s bite.
The metaphor seems to have a flaw, however: in the story of Moses, the
people turned and fixed their eyes on a serpent, the embodiment of sin, while
we are called to fix our eyes on Jesus.
This is no flaw; on the cross, our Savior was indeed the embodiment of
all sin, iniquity, and depravity.
Jesus, Who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf so that we might become
His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus again refers to the purpose He knows He is coming to fulfill.
Verses 16-21
Here we find the most famous verse in the Bible, likely
because it sums up much of the faith’s central components very succinctly. Jesus’ purpose is to restore and set right
His creation and His beloved humanity, two things that have long been marred
and wayward. In restoring them, He is
saving them from the condemnation that will one day befall all that is
imperfect. St. John then takes us back
to the metaphor of dark and light. The
Light longs to expose the darkness for what it is so that it may die. Then, the Light will restore the world
through being “lifted up,” thus making a way for all who were in darkness to be
born again, darkness replaced by Light.
Verses 22-36
John the Baptizer still had hearts and minds to prepare for
the Gospel, so he was traveling and baptizing those who would repent. Jesus also begins baptizing, and when this
news reaches the Baptizer’s disciples, they question why John would let
everyone be baptized by Jesus instead of himself. Perhaps they think that John was baptizing first, and now Jesus
is simply stealing John’s idea. Perhaps
they think that Jesus has taken on baptizing because John has done something
wrong. Perhaps they feel as if Jesus
owes His fame and character to John since John’s proclamation was what elevated
Him to His identity as the Christ.
Perhaps they selfishly (and commonly) wanted to be associated with the
kind of fame that John had acquired through his baptisms, and they resented
Jesus for transferring that fame to Himself.
John’s brilliant response: “A man can receive only what is given him
from heaven.” Everyone is going to
Jesus because they are, in essence, His (Ephesians 1:22, Matthew 11:27, John
3:35), so why should John’s disciples mind if Jesus draws to Himself what is
already His? John is also saying that
the Lord has given Jesus (not John) the role of Messiah, so He deserves every
bit of attention, fame, and sovereignty that can be attributed to Him. The Baptizer repeats his earlier declaration
as if his disciples had not heard: Jesus is the Christ, the One Who is the
Savior of the world. Indeed, He must
become greater as John becomes less.
John furthers his point by making a wedding analogy. Jesus will transform the hearts of many, making them His own
righteous bride (Revelation 19:7-9).
Jesus is the groom, and John, the best man, could never imagine trying
to step in and steal the joy of the groom at the last second. The best man’s part is to be the friend of
the groom, and he should find great joy in seeing the groom unite Himself with
His bride, just as it should be. John
is content in his role as a groomsman; as C.S. Lewis writes, “What but to thank
God for the ‘excellent absurdity’ which enables us to play great parts without
pride and little ones without dejection…”
John has a great role as the best man, the forerunner and friend of the
Jesus; he does not, however, have the lead part of Messiah. Yet for the Messiah, he can only rejoice.
The chapter ends with another reassurance of Jesus’ divinity and the salvation
found in believing Him. Jesus testifies
to what He has seen, and He has seen the perfection of the Kingdom of God. Whoever believes what He says about how to
see that Kingdom (faithfully follow the One to Whom the Father has given all
things, including the Spirit) will find eternal life.
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| Verses 1-12
Jesus begins fulfilling His promise to Nathanael a mere three days after
making it by performing His first of many signs. It is important to note that Jesus calls these events “signs”
rather than “miracles.” A sign points
to something else; these events are pointing toward Jesus’ identity as Messiah
and often foreshadow His ultimate purpose.
N.T. Wright asserts, “The whole point of signs is that they are moments
when heaven and earth intersect with each other” (which is exactly what Jesus
proclaimed Himself to be, the intersection of heaven and earth). In this passage, Jesus and His disciples
attend a local wedding of which He was an honored guest. Jewish weddings lasted several days and were
epic feasts that involved the whole community (and often neighboring
communities as well). It is in this
context that Jesus performs His first sign, which also points toward His last
sign. Jesus’ mother is likely a
volunteer serving at the wedding feast, and she comes bearing news that the
wine is running out. Since the town was
foreign to Jesus and there would have been many servants whom Mary would have
spoken to had she wanted someone to go and get more wine, it is clear that she
expected Jesus to do something miraculous.
It would have been a great disgrace for the newlywed hosts if their
feast were to run out of wine, so despite His reluctance, Jesus agrees to
help. He tells His mother that “His
time has not yet come,” a reference to the cross which He will repeat several
times throughout John’s gospel; it seems He is continually looking toward the
cross. Still, Jesus has compassion on
the wedding couple, a trait which is a factor in many of Jesus’ signs. Mary gives some advice to the servants which
is still good advice to us: “Do whatever He tells you.” The vessels into which the water was drawn
were used for stringent purification rites as prescribed by the Law. In retrospect, we now often view wine as a
metaphor for Jesus’ blood (especially since the next story in John’s Gospel is
about the Passover): Jesus’ blood will purify in a much more holistic way than
the water prescribed by the Law ever could.
Verses 13-25
Jesus is celebrating His first Passover after beginning His public
ministry. The Passover is a seven-day
feast which Jewish men over age 12 were expected to celebrate in
Jerusalem. The Temple in Jerusalem was
the center of culture and power; it was the place where teaching and art
happened; it was the place where God met man and sacrifices were made. On the surface, Jesus is angry at people
using the Lord for selfish gain, but what Jesus does is also an immense
foreshadowing of what was the come, as well as a declaration of His identity. First, by ridding the temple of its
sacrifices, Jesus is hinting that these sacrifices will soon be unnecessary, as
will the Temple itself. Jesus will be the
sacrifice for the sins of man; in fact, the Passover that they are celebrating
is all about Him. The Temple will also
soon be unnecessary as God will no longer meet mankind there; instead, He will
dwell in their hearts. And even at that
moment, the Temple was no longer the intersection of God and man – Jesus was
that intersection of divinity and flesh.
And just as Jesus will cleanse us in order that we might be dwelling
places for the Holy Spirit, He cleanses the Temple of all that is unholy and
unfit for the dwelling place of the Lord.
As He is clearing the outer courts, He calls the Temple His “Father’s
house” - the Jewish people were accustomed to referring to “the Lord,” but to
speak His name was forbidden among them because it was so revered. For Jesus to call the Lord His Father (and
thus calling Himself the Son of God) was a huge step toward blasphemy. However, we see a further sign of Jesus’
divinity at the end of the chapter as He shows Himself to know the hearts of
all whom He encounters. Also, we find
here the first allusion to His coming death and resurrection, as Jesus is still
looking to the cross and His subsequent triumph of death. Thus, in bold fashion, Jesus begins storming
the dominions of darkness with the trumpeted proclamation of His arrival and
intention. | | |
| Verses 19-28
John the Baptizer was a man who cried aloud in the wilderness, always speaking
the truth and calling the nation of Israel to repentance. He was a prophet to be sure, but was
different than the prophets who came before him. Matthew Henry writes that “The Old Testament prophets cried aloud
to show the people their sins; this New Testament prophet cried aloud to show
the people their Savior.” And this
herald was a quite imposing figure, walking around in camel hair clothes while
eating locusts and wild honey. John was
a descendant of Aaron, meaning he was a priest whose status made him above
questioning. The Pharisees did not feel
they had any need for repentance, yet here was a wild prophet telling them that
repentance was, in fact, exactly what they needed. The frustrated and curious Pharisees decide to send a few people
to question him in spite of his priestly standing. They first ask if he is the Messiah, and he quickly tells them
no. They then ask if he is Elijah, whom
the Jewish people have long considered to be the herald of the Messiah since he
never died a natural death (2 Kings 2:10-12).
He tells them no, although Luke 1:17 says that the Baptizer came in the
power and spirit of Elijah. Then they
ask if he is the Prophet, a leader of liberation whom the Israelites had been
expecting to come in the spirit of Deuteronomy 18:15. John again says no. This
is confusing—Israel has been in a period of long silence from the Lord (one
might even call it a spiritual “desert”), and they are expecting a messiah or
prophet to lead them back to prosperity.
So who is the camel-hide covered man?
“I am the voice of one crying in the desert ‘make straight the way for
the Lord,’” he says, explaining his identity as foretold in Isaiah 40:3. He is only the forerunner to One who is
greater, One who must increase as John decreases. The questioners, reacting to the notion that John is none of the
things they expected, ask why he is baptizing.
The Jewish people were extremely familiar with ritual cleansings, so a
powerful spiritual cleansing of baptism would not have been outside their realm
of thought. John says that he baptizes with
only water; there is no grace in what he is doing. But One is coming who will bring grace; His baptism will bring
you a feast not of locusts and honey, but bread and wine (flesh and blood); His
baptism will offer no camel-hair coat, but a robe of righteousness (Cwirla).
Verses 29-34
John the Baptizer had never met Jesus,
but he knew what sign would show the Messiah.
When that sign, the Holy Spirit descending as a dove, pointed to Jesus,
John was quick to make the all-important proclamation: Jesus is the Son of
God. John’s comments are also already
alluding to Christ’s impending sacrificial death. He is the sacrificial lamb so crucial to Israel’s independence
from Egypt in the first Passover, but He is greater. His blood frees not just Israel, but the entire world. He frees us from a bondage far more cruel
than Egypt—he frees us from the bondage of sin and death. Jesus is the atonement sacrifice of
Leviticus 16. He is both the goat who
is killed to atone for the sins of Israel and the one upon whom the nation’s
sins are laid to be carried away, never to return. He, the Lamb, will indeed take away the sins of the world that
they may never return, and He will cover us with His righteous blood that death
may not consume us. In just this short
beginning of St. John’s Gospel, we have seen Jesus as Light, the Creator, the
Sustainer, the Atonement for the sins of the world, the Son of God, and God
Himself.
Verses 25-42
John the Baptizer has accumulated some disciples as he preaches and baptizes,
so it is natural that when John tells his disciples that Jesus is the Messiah
whose sandals he is unworthy to untie, they would leave and follow the “Son of
God” instead. It is also natural for
someone who is being followed to turn and confront his stalkers; this is what
Jesus does. He turns and asks what they
want from Him, and they reply that they want to see where He is staying (read:
hang out and talk). Who wouldn’t want
to spend the afternoon with the Son of God?
Before going with Jesus, one of the followers named Andrew goes to bring
his brother to the gathering. Jesus
looks at Andrew’s brother and immediately renames him: “Simon, we will now call
you Cephas.” Cephas is the Aramaic for
“rock”; the Greek translation of the word is “petros” or “peter” (which is
where words like “petrify,” meaning to turn into stone, came from). Thus, one might say the Jesus petrified
Simon. Perhaps this is a mere friendly
nickname, but name changes have been historically significant in Jewish
culture. God changes Abram’s name to
Abraham when He chooses the man from whom the nation of Israel shall be birthed
(Genesis 17). At the same time,
Abraham’s wife, Sarai, is given the new name Sarah. Jacob was renamed Israel after wrestling with the Lord and then
setting himself toward making amends with his past wrongs so that his sons may
become the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 32). Some say that Simon’s new name implies that he is the rock upon
which Christ will build his church (while others imply that it is because he
sometimes seems as dumb as a rock).
Verses 43-51
Jesus’ disciple-collecting continues as Philip decides to follow him. Philip then finds his friend Nathanael,
telling him that they had found the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael humorously wonders if anything
good can come from Nazareth, let alone the world’s Savior. When Jesus sees Nathanael, He calls him a
Jew in whom there is no deceit.
Nathanael rightfully asks how Jesus would know that about him; Jesus
replies that He could see Nathanael sitting under a fig tree earlier. When this leads to Nathanael’s belief in
Jesus as the Christ, Jesus seems to say, “Really, is that all it takes?” He then promises that they will see much
greater things, “the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and
descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus’
reference to Himself as “the Son of Man” is an allusion to Daniel’s vision of
the coming Savior, Whom he calls “one like a son of man” (Daniel 7:13-14). This allusion would have been familiar to
the Jewish people, and Jesus seems to prefer it to “Messiah” because of the
military connotation that his cultural contemporaries associated with the word
“messiah.” At the same time, Jesus is
making another allusion; He seems to be referencing the vision of Jacob’s
ladder as told in Genesis 28. In this
dream, a ladder linked heaven and earth, and angels were ascending and
descending it. The Lord was present at
the top of the ladder, promising Jacob that he would not be forsaken. When he awoke, Jacob declared that Lord was
present in that place, called it the gate of heaven, and built an altar
there. By making this allusion, Jesus
is saying that where He goes, the Lord is truly present. Jesus Himself is the link between heaven and
earth, and He is the gate of heaven, the entrance through which all may pass
and become citizens of the Kingdom of God.
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