Reading the Gospels Together The Jerusalem Controversy – Part 2 So what might this have to do with John? As we begin to read the sections of John’s gospel I have suggested, we discover that a debate is also raging between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem in John’s gospel as well. The events and episodes are different but the content is similar. Let’s take a look at how John unfolds this debate. We begin with the story of Jesus and Nicodemus. Actually this debate is much more civil than all the rest. The words are not harsh but the fact that it is a debate is important. Nicodemus cannot understand Jesus. Jesus speaks of one thing and Nicodemus hears another. And in the end John uses this debate to declare his primary understanding of just who Jesus is – he is the one who came from above, from God and will return above, to God. Jesus has come to save the world. But not all will welcome the savior because they love darkness rather than light. Only those born from above will believe. This debate with Nicodemus happens in Jerusalem at an unspecified time fairly early in the public ministry of Jesus. After a journey through Samaria into Galilee where Jesus heals the official’s son as the second of his signs, John brings Jesus back to Jerusalem because there was an unnamed festival happening there. John does not specify the time of this festival. During the festival Jesus heals a paralytic man on the Sabbath and immediately a debate begins to rage between Jesus and the religious leaders in Jerusalem. The debate is about the authority of Jesus. What right does Jesus have to break the Sabbath and, more pointedly, what right does he have to claim to be the Son of God thus making himself equal with God? Strong words are exchanged between Jesus and the religious authorities. Again, after a brief journey to Galilee where Jesus celebrates the second Passover and multiplies the bread and fish, John brings Jesus back to Jerusalem. This time John identifies the festival that brings Jesus back as the Feast of Booths which would have taken place in late October or early November. In John’s storyline, from this time on Jesus will remain in Jerusalem or in Judean territory near Jerusalem. This is now about five months before the final Passover during which Jesus will be crucified. The important thing to notice in this visit, which seems to extend over a lengthy period of time in John’s storyline, is that Jesus is in a continual debate with the religious leaders of Jerusalem. Again the debate is about the authority of Jesus, his identity, and most pointedly, that he claims God to be his Father and thus that he is the Son of God. This time the words exchanged are incredibly harsh. Jesus calls the religious leaders children of the devil. They wonder if he is possessed by a demon. The exchange is very polemical and difficult to read. One cannot overstate the harshness of this exchange. In the midst of this debate John tells the story of the healing of the man born blind. The story, as John tells it, serves mostly as a metaphor of how the religious leaders are the ones who are truly blind. Though one need not doubt that Jesus healed the blind man, this story is more about the obstinate rejection of the religious leaders. They are truly blind. The harsh debate is softened a bit by John’s inclusion of the story of Jesus as the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep, but soon the debate rages on. John tells his readers that it is now the time of the Feast of Dedication – a feast that would have taken place in late December or early January to commemorate the rededication of the Jerusalem Temple following the Maccabean revolt of 165BC. Again at the center of this debate is the authority of Jesus. In response to Jesus’ words the religious leaders take up stones to kill him, but Jesus escapes because his “hour” has not yet come. In less than three months the Passover will come and with it the “hour” of Jesus “lifting up” in order to draw all people to himself. The point of all of this is to notice that John does speak of a Jerusalem Controversy! He does not use any of the stories that Mark used in his version of that controversy but the cause of the controversy is the same – Jesus’ authority and identity as the Son of God. Mark will still disguise that identity until the death of Jesus has occurred and human beings can finally know that the Crucified Messiah is indeed the Son of God, but underlying this debate is the question of Jesus’ identity.