Reading the Gospels Together The Storyline of John’s Gospel – Part 7 At this point we run into another of the glaring “seams” in John’s gospel. Almost from “out of the blue” John tells his readers “after this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee.” The action had just been in Jerusalem. Now Jesus is said to return from one side of the Sea of Galilee to the other. How did he get to Galilee? When did he come? What does “after this” refer to? All of these issues reveal a “seam” in the story. John will now tell the only Galilean story that he shares with Mark, Matthew, and Luke. And he will tell it in the very same order and with almost the same words. Clearly this is a story that was told in this way long before either Mark or John worked with it. The story is of Jesus feeding the 5000 and then walking on the water. John does add a time reference to the story. He tells his readers that once again Passover is approaching. This is the second Passover John mentions in his storyline. Once the details of the story have been told, John expands greatly upon the story by having Jesus explain the breaking of the bread. Jesus is the bread of life. Just as the bread fell in the wilderness so Jesus has come down from heaven to give life to the world. Much of John’s argument is once again couched in theological language. In the story John makes clear allusion to the sacrament of Holy Communion. John will not tell a story of Jesus celebrating Passover with his disciples at the end of his life when he takes the bread and breaks it and tells his disciples that it is his body and then takes the cup and blesses it giving it to them with the words that this is his blood. Here Jesus speaks of the bread as his flesh and adds mention of the drinking of his blood even though there is no drinking of anything in the original story of the feeding of the 5000. Though John does not tell the story of Jesus transforming Passover into what Christians will come to know as Holy Communion at the last Passover, he does allude to it in the telling of this second Passover. We will need to talk about why John omits the story of Jesus actually celebrating Passover at the end of his life later, but this material is helpful for us to know that John is also aware of the bread/flesh wine/blood connection that Jesus makes. The whole event ends with a crisis for followers of Jesus. John tells his readers that many leave him and that even the twelve are troubled. This is the only time that John refers to the Twelve. He has told us only of the call of five disciples so far. He is aware of the Twelve but makes nothing of them. In the end they are the ones who remain with Jesus in this story. Following the story of the feeding of the 5000 with its long interpretation John tells his readers that Jesus went about Galilee. He provides no details of what happened. Readers of John’s gospel might well be surprised that so much of Mark’s storyline is simply missing from John. And after an indefinite period of time once again John tells his readers that Jesus returns to Jerusalem. This time the reason for his going is to celebrate the Feast of Booths which would have happened in the fall of the year in either late October or early November. Mark had told his readers of the tragic conflict between Jesus and his family. John does not tell the same story but he does clearly tell his readers that Jesus’ own brothers do not believe in him and almost taunt him to go to Jerusalem and do his mighty works there. They are pictured by John as tempters and testers of Jesus. As we have seen before John tells his readers that at first Jesus refuses to do what they ask and then does it. It’s as if Jesus will act on his own terms and not at the whim of anyone else. John also has told his readers that Jesus is avoiding Jerusalem because of the danger that lurked there – the religious leaders are looking for an opportunity to kill him! Jesus appears to go to Jerusalem incognito; however, in the middle of the festival he reveals himself and the conflict begins to rage on. In John’s storyline this is the beginning of what we might call the Temple Controversy. Mark had restricted that controversy to a single day or at most two. Luke had made it at least somewhat more extended to an indefinite time. John extends the controversy for about five months – from November to March.