JOHN’S GOSPEL IS DIFFERENT from the others, in numerous ways. His gospel begins with a link back to the creation account, rather than the Jesus birth-narrative or cultural context. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) His language is heavily dualistic throughout, using the tension of comparisons such as light/dark representing good/evil. “Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19)
Certain key passages of Christian theology are found clearly only in John. In the story of Jesus and Nicodemus, we find that “You must be born again.” (cf. John 3:1-10) Only John contains Jesus’ seven “I am” statements indicating his divine nature. Only in John does Jesus promise and expound upon the gift of the paraclete. “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.” (John 14:15-16; cf. Chs. 14-16) Only John has Jesus coming to Jerusalem multiple times during his ministry, and those times tied to the Jewish feast days, especially the Pesach, or Passover. And while all the gospels tell of the Passion Week, only John spends such extensive time telling of those events. The synoptic gospels have a combined ten chapters that tell of this story, while John spends a total of eleven chapters (Chs. 11-21), over half of his gospel, on this singular week. And it is most clearly in John’s gospel that we get an ominous and foreboding sense of time—a very specific time.
In John we learn that the first of Jesus’ miracles was that of changing water into wine at a wedding feast. At the celebration, the wine is running low, and Mary, Jesus’ mother, mentions this to him. “They have no more wine,” she says. (John 2:3b) He responds, “Woman, why do you involve me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2:4) It is not recorded in scripture in these following words, but we get the sense of a mother’s steady and expectant gaze, and a son who is dutiful. Mary turns and speaks directly to the servants. “Do whatever he tells you.” (John 2:5) And they fill water jars, which miraculously change to wine. Of this incident, John records, “What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory.” (John 2:11) There will be many more miraculous signs to follow, but it is not to a lower level of the alteration of the laws of physic that we give our attention. Instead, it is to John’s stressing of a particular time when the glory of God will be revealed in Jesus.
The woman at the well hears twice that “a time is coming.” (John 4:21, 23) After Jesus heals the invalid at the Bethesda pool, the Pharisees question Jesus’ authority. He answers, again twice, “a time is coming when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, when all who are in their graves will hear his voice.” (John 5:25, 28) Two different times Jesus teaches in the temple courts, subject to arrest, but he remains free “because his hour had not yet come.” (John 7:30, 8:20)
But when John’s gospel begins the description of the Passion Week starting with Ch. 11, Jesus’ statements about this mysterious time begin to change. Greeks come seeking the Messiah, and Jesus’ response through his disciples is “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John 12:23) John tells us that Jesus acknowledges this again. “It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come.” (John 13:1) The impending sense of the compression of time mounts. In Ch. 16, Jesus refers to time in this way over and over again. “A time is coming, a time is coming and in fact has come.” (John 16:2, 4, 21, 25, 32) And then, the night before he is arrested, Jesus announces that the time is now: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.” (John 17:1)
It is the night we call the Last Supper. The events quickly unfold. Judas leaves to betray. Jesus and the disciples walk to the Garden at Gethsemane, where he sweats drops of blood in prayer. He is arrested, after a physical scuffle where Peter has to be restrained after cutting off an ear of one of the temple guard slaves. Multiple trials and torture lead inevitably to the cross at the top of Golgotha, where from 9 am to 3 pm on that which we call “Good Friday,” Jesus endures crucifixion, and then death. Mark and Matthew say that at this moment “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:38, Matt. 27:51), and Matthew adds that “the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.” (Matt. 27:52-53)
These events attest to the glory of the dying Lord, but they are not the signal and unique event. That event, the true glory of the Lord, is found in the resurrection account, told in all four gospels, but here from John. Peter and John, stirred by Mary Magdalene’s account from the tomb, run there themselves. Peter enters, then John, who after seeing the empty tomb and the linens, says that “He saw and believed.” (John 20:8: cf. John 11:44)
John then adds this reason for his testimony: “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) The hour, the time, and the glory ascend to a crescendo throughout the Passion Week. Time is compressed to a density akin to that of a black hole, but released in a burst of creative energy that changes time and destiny for mankind. It reaches the zenith of God’s purposes at sunrise at the empty tomb, with the rock rolled away, and light falling across the linens. We are mindful that John began his gospel with this observation of Jesus: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:4)
We are not quite finished with these contemplations; we turn back to the night of the Last Supper and Jesus’ prayers. We find there, in a burst of insight and gratitude, that we, too, are included with the disciples. “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” (John 17:17, 20, 24)
Q. What is my greatest truth?