The Gospel According to The Gospel According to

JohnJohn

The Gospel and its purposeThis is the gospel that identifies Jesus as the Word of GodIt was written for the readers, who did not experience Jesus as the author of the gospel and his community did.

Future generations

The purpose of the gospel is to make the readers believe and find life in Jesus. Jesus is God in the flesh who

reveals the hidden loving God. Jesus is God’s self gift who will

bring salvation. All the readers need to do is open up their hearts to this spiritual reading and they will believe.Jesus is crucial because he is the key to get to God. He leads to God and those who see Jesus see God because Jesus and God are one

Who is John?Traditional attribution: To John, son of

Zebedee, One of the twelve An Essene

Author detectable from content: One who regards

himself in the tradition of the disciple who Jesus loved.

John’s Christology Christology is the branch of theology that studies the meaning of the person of Jesus Christ That is, trying to

understand who he is The church has many

understandings of Jesus Christ.

How do we know? Look at how Jesus is depicted, over time, by different cultures and in different roles…

Themes in John: The Word

The author of this gospel is interested in the theology not the history or the story of Jesus.He stresses Jesus’ identity (unveils Jesus’ true identity) as the revealer God (the word) He is the word of God that has existed foreverThis very Word of God is God himselfThis concept of the Word is a concept that appealed to both Jewish and Gentile audience. In the OT, the Word of God referred to creation and God’s revelation The Greek word for the

Word is Logos Logos was the spiritual

principle or soul that held the world together

It also means knowledge, reason, wisdom

THEMES IN JOHN: THE “I AM” SAYINGS

The multiple times that Jesus uses the word “I am,” is a striking characteristic for many.

In the Synoptics, Jesus refers to himself using the phrase “I Am” only two times in both Mark and Luke and only 5 times in Matthew.… Contrast to John, where

Jesus uses the phrase a total of 46 times.

The purpose of the use of the “I am” is to “’identify Jesus as a historical revelation: He is God in the flesh

The “I am” sayings present Jesus as God.

In the Jewish scripture, God’s name is I AM

They demonstrate that Jesus’ purpose is to reveal the Father and the way to him.

““I AMS” TO OUTSIDERSI AMS” TO OUTSIDERS

It is natural that the Jewish people rejected Jesus’ claims of being One with God

If a person claimed oneness with God, they were seen as making it up, full of deceit and pride.

They were dangerous to

… Judaism

God kicked Adam and Eve out of Eden to remind them that they were creatures, not equal to God

Jesus’ claims were replacing over 1000 of Jewish tradition – this cannot be taken lightly

… and to Rome

Only the Emperor could claim Godliness and he did not take kindly to those making the same claim

THE “I AMS” SEEN BY JESUS’ THE “I AMS” SEEN BY JESUS’ FOLLOWERSFOLLOWERS

But there were those who saw Jesus’ claims differently

… They trusted their experience of him He was humble in every other

way

He healed people “just because”

He fed people miraculously

… Thus, because they trusted Jesus, they saw his words as true.

… Jesus, for them, was as a Divine Revelation occurring through an ordinary man, making him an extraordinary man