What is the Gospel of John all about, in a nutshell?  It’s worth knowing:  John continues to be one of the favorite books of the Bible and is the (only) source of many of the well-known sayings of Jesus:

  • For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16)
  • I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep (John 10:11)
  • I am the Way the Truth and the Life: No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)

It is also the Gospel that gives us some of the most memorable miracles of Jesus:

  • Turning water into wine (ch. 2) (the favorite miracle of college students everywhere)
  • Raising Lazarus from the dead (ch. 11)

 

Have you read John’s Gospel all the way through, or even studied it?  If so, try to summarize it in one sentence of fifty words.  If you don’t know the Gospel well (or at all): keep reading!  In fact, keep reading regardless…

Here’s a possible 50-word sentence summary:

 

Unlike the other Gospels, John portrays Jesus as a pre-existent divine being who was with God in the beginning, created the world, and then became a human to provide eternal life to all who believe he was sent by God for salvation, doing miraculous signs to prove his divine claims.

 

It is difficult to summarize such a rich and theologically dense Gospel so briefly.  Now I’ll take about twelve hundred words more to unpack it a bit, the John in a nutshell.

The Gospel of John has roughly the same narrative outline as the Synoptics: Jesus begins his ministry by associating with John the Baptist, he attracts disciples, he spends his ministry preaching his message of salvation, he does a number of miracles, in the end he makes a trip to Jerusalem for the Passover feast where he is acclaimed and then rejected, betrayed by one of his disciples, denied by another, arrested by Jewish authorities, handed over to the Roman governor Pilate for trial, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead on the third day.

Despite the broad similarities, this Gospel is very different from the others.  Most of the stories about Jesus’ ministry – his encounters, his miracles, his confrontations with Jewish leaders – are different here; what he teaches is different; and when roughly the same stories are told, they are told very differently.

For starters: much of what we find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke is not in John.  Here Jesus is not said baptized by John the Baptist; there is no account of his temptations or transfiguration; he never casts out a demon; most of they Synoptic miracles are missing; he does not institute the Lord’s Supper; he does not preach about the coming kingdom of God; he never tells a parable; and he does not urge anyone to repent.

On the other hand, lots of stories in John are not in the others: most of the seven miracles John recounts (e.g., wine! Lazarus!) and none of the confrontations and conversations during his public ministry (Nicodemus ch. 3; the Samaritan woman ch. 4).

Moreover, the lengthy discourses (and sayings) in John are found only here: for example ch. 3: you must be born again; ch. 6, I am the Bread of Life; ch. 8, the truth will make you free; ch. 9, I am the light of the world; ch 10; I am the good Shepherd; ch. 11 I am the resurrection and the Life; the farewell discourse five entire chapters (chs. 13-17) of Jesus final discussion with his disciples found nowhere else!  He also makes explicit divine claims for himself here found in none of the other Gospels (where he scarcely says anything about his identity):  “Before Abraham was, I am” (8:58); “I and the Father are one” (10:30); “The one who has seen me has seen the Father” (14:7).

It is also striking that the stories that John has in common with the other Gospels are told very differently, in order to emphasize John’s unique perspective (simply look at the trial before Pilate!).  What is that perspective?

 

The Prologue

The Gospel begins in a highly unusual way, not with the birth of Jesus (Matthew and Luke) or the baptism of Jesus (Mark), but with a poetic description of the “Word of God” who was in the beginning with God, who was also himself (in some sense) God, who created the world, who became a human, who came to his own people to reveal his glory, but who was rejected by them (1:1-18).

This is by far the most elevated portrayal of Jesus’ identity in the Gospels, or arguably in the entire New Testament.  Jesus is not merely a human prophet, not merely a righteous man God elevated to divine status after his death, and not merely a “son” of God who did God’s will.  He existed before all else with God and was God, alongside God.  The poem appears to be alluding to the creation story in Genesis 1 where God created the world by speaking his “word” (And God SAID: “Let there be light.”).  The author of this poem appears to think that the word of God was not just what God spoke but was some kind of divine being, its own entity through whom God created all things.

That pre-existent Word of God who was somehow also God became a human in order to reveal the truth (the “word” of truth) that could bring eternal life to anyone who believes.  This prologue sets the stage for the understanding of Jesus found throughout the Gospel.

 

The Discourses

As I indicated, Jesus does not deliver the same teachings in John as in the other Gospels.  He does not preach about the coming kingdom of God, he does not urge people to repent, he does not tell parables, he does not deliver astounding one-line statements.  His discourses are lengthy here, and they are almost entirely all about who he himself is, the one who has come from God in heaven above to reveal his identity.  And his identity is (I know, this sounds ironic) that he is the one who has come from God in heaven in order to reveal his identity.

Anyone who believes in him “has eternal life.”  Note: they already “have” eternal life.  Jesus in this Gospel does not proclaim the end is near and God will soon send a judge of the earth, the Son of Man, to destroy the powers of evil and set up a new kingdom for those who have repented and turned to his ways (Jesus’ main message in the Synoptics). Eternal life is not future but present, not to those who repent of their sins but to those who believe he is the one who has come from a above.  Those who refuse to believe who he really is are (already) condemned.

As in the other Gospels, Jesus is widely rejected.  It is not simply that his message is rejected.  He himself is rejected, since his message is about himself.  When people don’t believe what he says, they also don’t believe in him, and that leads to their condemnation.  These “people” are sometimes simply called “the Jews” (as if John were blaming all Jews, and as if Jesus himself were not a Jew).  The Jews disbelieve, they think his divine claims are blasphemy, and several times they try to stone him for it.  The dislike is mutual:  here Jesus’ opposition to Jews is heightened even more than in the Synoptics: at one point Jesus says that “the Jews” are not children of Abraham or children of God but children of the devil (8:31-48, esp. v. 44).  The respond by calling him a demon-possessed Samaritan (8:48).  So much for ecumenical relations.

 

The Signs

As in the other Gospels, Jesus does miracles in John, but they are not called “miracles” (the Greek word literally means “act of power”) but “signs.”  That is significant.  Jesus’ mighty acts “signify” who he is, they reveal his identity, they show that what he says about himself as a divine being come from heaven must be true.  That is especially interesting because in the in the other Gospels Jesus explicitly refuses to do “signs” – that is, miraculous deeds in order to prove who he is (Matthew 12:39-42).  Here he precisely does do signs.  John states that no one can believe unless they see the signs Jesus does (John 4:48); and the signs are done only so people can believe (20:30-31).

This creates an additional irony in relation to the other Gospels.  In the Synoptics, people experience miracles because they believe (“your faith has made you well” Mark 5:34 and elsewhere); in John they believe because they have seen miracles.

 

In Sum

In rough outline, John’s narrative ends like others, with Jesus’s trip to Jerusalem, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.  But these stories too are told very differently here, and the ultimate point is not that the message of God’s salvation Gospel can now go to the gentiles.  The point is that Jesus really is God, as shown by the greatest sign of all, the resurrection (20:27-28).  Anyone who believes in him by learning about his signs will have eternal life (20:30-31).