John #4

As well as the Gospel and letters of John this Bible study uses the book “Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel” by Sandra M. Schneiders (2003) Crossroad Publishing Co. New York, NY.

Background reading to study #4- Written That You May Believe chapter 3.

Revelation in John 04/29/10

Revelation has traditionally been associated with the communication of knowledge. In the Roman Catholic tradition the focus of this knowledge is the sacred mystery of the trinity and the incarnation. The Protestant take on revelation is centered on the knowledge that we are saved and the acceptance of this truth.

In contrast, John’s Gospel understands revelation as an invitation to enter a relationship, a shared life. The revelation is exclusively of the person Jesus. It is not about information. Like falling in love, we get to know Jesus as we enter into a relationship with him. Once the physical Jesus and the first-hand witnesses to his life had gone, the Gospel became the way in which the person of Jesus was revealed. The written Gospel itself has the real effect of facilitating a relationship between the reader and Jesus.

John’s gospel does not begin with the words “in the beginning was God”. Instead John begins with the Word, with communication. God’s very nature is communication, and when we communicate in love – that is the start of everything. Language has always been more about relationship than communication of dogma or knowledge.

Language is human. It separates us from the primates. In Girardian thought the transition from primate to human is a moment of sacrificial violence, and from it emerges self-awareness and the birth of language. Humans have always been violent. God entered the world to reveal this violence, and to show us a different way of communication through the witness of the cross.

Jesus’ works of power, or miracles, are called “signs” in John’s Gospel. They are, therefore, understood as another form of communication, as a form of language. In parallel the long discourses in John contrast with the short pithy sayings by Jesus found in the Synoptics. These discourses are theological constructions by John to communicate the love of God for the world and to invite the reader to connect with God through Jesus. Anyone who has truly come to know Jesus knows the Father. Jesus communicates that God so loved the world that he poured himself into the world to save it. Salvation in John does not come through expiatory sacrifice--through exchange value by means of violence--but rather through relationship with God. It comes from connecting directly with God thru’ the absolute self-giving of Jesus.

Salvation takes place not by what we do but by plugging in and understanding the heart of God. It is not an intellectual idea, but a change that comes over us in the face of the cross. The crucifixion is Christ’s glory, the place where he is fully revealed and shown by God and as God. In the Synoptics this glory is displayed in the triumph or vindication of the resurrection. For John the resurrection is the not the vindication, but the point where we begin to see and to understand. It returns us to the meaning of the Word, to the cross as divine communication beginning right now.

The Spirit is the living presence of Jesus breathed out on the cross. Through the Spirit we enter into intimacy with God through Jesus. There is no need for ritual or sacrifice to enter into this relationship. In fact John’s Gospel does not even have a Eucharist (instead Jesus washes his disciples’ feet the night before he dies). This is perhaps a recognition by the Evangelist that the Eucharist had already become ritualized by the time he wrote his Gospel. For John, salvation is all about our relationship with the Father through Jesus, and his Gospel is the living revelation of this.