Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, December 29, 2013 Read John 1:1-18 Welcome to the study of the Gospel of John! Just as the other gospel writers, I believe that the author of John’s gospel was a brilliant writer, used by God to communicate the message that God intended for John’s community to hear and indirectly for all of us to hear. There is a brilliance to these writers that awaits our discovery and that is certainly true about the author of John. Before we begin to look at John’s gospel in detail, there are a few things we need to consider that will be helpful in our study. First of all, John’s gospel is the only one of our four gospels that makes the claim that it is grounded in the eyewitness testimony of one of the followers of Jesus. Neither Mark, nor Matthew, nor Luke makes such a claim and most likely none of those authors witnessed Jesus personally. Luke, in fact, distances himself from personal testimony to Jesus in his introduction (Luke 1:1-4). John is different. The author of John makes the claim that the witness being presented in this gospel is based on the testimony of an eyewitness who was at least present at the foot of the cross (John 19:25) and that, in fact, the whole gospel is somehow connected with the witness of this disciple and that his witness provides testimony to truth (John 21:24). We will need to consider this claim to eyewitness testimony. What does it mean? Just how much of this gospel comes directly from this eyewitness? Who was this eyewitness? At first glance it would seem that the answer to these questions is obvious. Many are tempted to claim that every bit of this gospel comes for an eyewitness – that it is the direct words of this person. However, upon closer examination, it seems that such a claim does not hold up. For one thing, more than with any other gospel, the Gospel of John reveals to its readers that the gospel has been edited somewhere along the way. In fact the very claims that we have been examining about an eyewitness testimony obviously come from a secondary writer. How much has been added to the original eyewitness’ account? When and why did this editing take place? These and other questions like them are impossible for us to answer with any certainty. The point is this: we need to take seriously that an eyewitness undergirds the foundation of the Gospel of John, but the gospel, as we presently have it, most likely has been through a process of editing. We will examine this idea as we proceed through our study. A further question is just who this eyewitness might be. The gospel itself identifies this person as “the beloved disciple” and does not provide a name. Tradition has assigned the name of John, the son of Zebedee, as this “beloved disciple” and that could be the case. But the evidence does not make that certain; and, in fact, leads one to conclude that the “beloved disciple” most likely was not this John. Again we will examine this as we proceed through the gospel. Another observation we need to make as we begin is twofold. On the one hand, there are striking similarities between the Gospel of John and the other three gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke which obviously stem from a common root. John tells some of the same stories as the “synoptic” gospels (synoptic being a shorthand way of referring to Matthew, Mark, and Luke as a unit). What is the connection between these gospels? Did John know about any or all of them? We will need to pay attention to the similarities. On the other hand, there are marked differences between John and the other three. For example, John tells his readers that Jesus was crucified during the day leading to the celebration of Passover that evening while the other three tell of Jesus celebrating the Passover with his disciples and then being crucified during the next day. We will also discover that the Gospel of John tells us that Jesus spent much of his time in Judea and Jerusalem while the synoptic gospels tell of Jesus making only one journey to Jerusalem near the end of his life just prior to his crucifixion. How are we to deal with these marked differences between John and the others? We will need to pay attention to the similarities and the differences between John and the synoptic gospels. Finally, we will discover that John writes in a style markedly different from the other three gospel writers. Rather that linking together short episodes and teachings of Jesus, John writes in larger units. In fact, it will be difficult for us to make divisions in John’s story and often we will be invited to read a longer passage and then to re-read it over the next few days. Not only does John provide much longer units but John also writes in a style that is much more theological than the others. Often we will discover that we are hearing a story about Jesus and even the words of Jesus that merge into the comments of the author with such a smooth delivery that we may have trouble deciding when Jesus stops talking and the author begins. For example, in the well-known story of Jesus visit with Nicodemus, we suddenly discover that we are no longer listening to the dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus and are instead hearing the commentary of the author about the episode. We are in for a delightful time as we journey with John through the gospel story God moved him to tell. Even though I have said above that it is perhaps likely that the name of this author was not John, the son of Zebedee, we will continue to refer to the author as John. That is the name that tradition has attached to this gospel and calling our author John will do well for us. We are now ready to dip into this gospel and let its message flow over us and immerse us in the story that John proclaimed to his first audience. We begin by contemplating the beginning of John’s gospel. We have discovered how important beginnings are and that is no different when it comes to the gospel of John. As we begin reading, we cannot help but notice that John begins in an incredibly lofty way – his opening is poetic in nature, reaching to the heights. His beginning is not really a narrative telling the story of Jesus, but a theological statement about Jesus. We will look more closely at that statement in the coming days. The first words John shares with us remind us of the beginning words of the book of Genesis – “In the beginning …” So before we open John’s gospel we will look at Genesis 1.