Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Saturday, April 26, 2014 Read John 21:20-25 Once again we have come to the end of John’s gospel. This time it is the last ending. It’s an ending that tells a peculiar story that is more about the community of John’s gospel than anything else. Once again the beloved disciple plays a crucial role in the story. Peter has just been told that his binding and death lie in the future. Now the attention switches to the beloved disciple. What will his fate be? We learn in the story that a false rumor had been spreading in John’s community. The rumor was that the beloved disciple would not die before the coming of Jesus? Just exactly what the “coming of Jesus” means in this context is a bit ambiguous. In the gospel of John up to this point there has been no talk about a “coming of Jesus” but rather the sending of another advocate, the Holy Spirit. The synoptic gospels do contain the promise that Jesus will come at the close of the age on the clouds of heaven – an event that will be plain for all to see. Likely by the time of the final editing of John’s gospel that claim had spread throughout the communities of followers of Jesus. At any rate, the rumor that the beloved disciple would not die has apparently been smashed. The implication is that he has in fact already died. Clearly the words written are not the words of this eye-witness, beloved disciple, but rather are written about him. And it is at this point that we learn that the one at the core of John’s gospel who prompted the writing and likely editing of this gospel is the beloved disciple we have met in the story and we are told that his testimony is valid – we can trust him. And so the gospel ends once again with the reminder that there is more to say. There are more stories, in fact to many the world cannot contain the books that would be written. Now that we have come to the end of John’s gospel we can revisit a few of the questions we asked at the beginning. Was John aware of Mark, Matthew, or Luke? Likely not, although it is very likely that John shares some earlier traditions that Mark, Matthew, and Luke also used. Was Mark, Matthew, or Luke aware of John’s gospel? Again, likely not, although Luke does seem to share some things in common with John that the others don’t. If there was any awareness it would be Luke’s awareness of John. Who is the author? The answer to that question evades us as we have commented earlier. If Raymond Brown’s hypothesis holds any weight then the author is really a series of people, the first of whom is the beloved disciple. What we can say is that the traditional belief that John, the son of Zebedee was the author is almost certainly not true. Who was the beloved disciple? Again, we cannot determine his identity. As was said above we can likely eliminate some candidates like Lazarus and John, the son of Zebedee, but we cannot find a name. Likely the author of John wanted it that way. In the end we can be very grateful for this gospel. John’s gospel provides us with a new perspective on Jesus and information we cannot find in the synoptic gospels. Our understanding of the story of Jesus is expanded. As we look at the differences between John and the synoptic gospels I don’t think it is a matter of choosing between them but of letting all of them speak together. We can be thankful we have all four.