The Gospel according to John is the favourite Gospel for many, written perhaps by the favourite Apostle – but why is it different from the three synoptic gospels and what is really so special about it. In this short essay I will introduce the Gospel and highlight a few reasons why this Gospel should stand out from the others.
The three earlier Gospels according to Matthew, Mark and Luke which are called synoptic, were written as a result of eyewitness accounts; in other words from seeing or witnessing, which brings us close to the meaning of synoptic. Derived from the Greek via Latin, synopsis means seeing all together – from the similar point of view. The synoptic Gospels were, according to recent scholarship, mostly written at about the same time from the earliest Mark in around 70 AD to Luke and Matthew written in around 80-85AD. John’s version of the Gospel was written around about 90-100 AD well after the synoptics and forty or fifty years after the letters of Paul.
We know that the mind and memory of this Gospel, known as the spiritual Gospel comes from John the Apostle who would be by the time of the writing very elderly and it is almost certain that it was written down by another John who lived in Ephesus at the same time. He was younger than John the apostle but was known as John the elder. Both Johns were renowned and from the historian Eusebius we learn that there are two famous tombs in Ephesus one for John the apostle and one for John the elder who incidentally wrote the three later letters from John.
This gospel was written for the Greek market and unlike the earlier gospels instead of trying to write down what Jesus said the writer of this Gospel tried to write down what Jesus meant. The elder John who if he was indeed the actual writer would probably have been a mystic concerned not as CK Barrett puts it ‘with the historical truth but transcendental truth and interested in the narrative only for the allegorical significance it conveyed.’ The Gospel opens with that famous Christmas reading in the beginning was the Word – the Logos. The Logos, the Word, the mind of God, would immediately relate to the Greeks who in their philosophy would be familiar with the concept of the Logos being the creating power of God – the power which, in the words of William Barclay ‘made the Universe and kept it going’. In other words, for centuries the Greeks will have had the Logos as the power which made the world, keeps the order of the world, and is the power by which people think and reason and come into contact with God.
But now as John says the word has become flesh – the mind of God has become a person in the shape of Jesus. But the Jews would be able to relate to this approach as well, being familiar with the power of the word in their Hebrew literature – especially the psalms and the wisdom literature. So we have this concept of the Logos, the mind of God becoming personified in the person of Jesus – a theme which runs all through the Gospel according to John – the spiritual Gospel.
After this brief introduction, I will jump ahead to Chapter 6.:35 – I am the bread of life. Now there are seven, or, according to some scholars eight ‘I am’ statements in John’s Gospel. Whilst I rarely use the internet when writing essays or preparing sermons, I did come across a very good sermon preached by the chaplain of Worcester College Oxford some years ago which I will quote from shortly. But first, as you are probably beginning to realise, the intention of this Gospel is to show that Jesus is the mind of God come to earth for a while. This mind existed before creation, came to earth for a while and then returned; or if you prefer the imagery, became reabsorbed in, the Godhead – the Trinitarian God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To return to the I am sayings, as the chaplain I referred to earlier said:
“it’s important to clarify that there are three different types of “I am” sayings. Firstly, the metaphorical (“I am the bread of life, light of the world” etc.), ….. where Jesus identifies himself in comparison to something else, often following an action or miracle, which becomes a sign, an identification, of who Jesus is and an explanation of Jesus’s actions.
Secondly, we have the self-identification sayings (“I am he, I and the Father are one, I am from above”, and so on). These sayings identify Christ in relation to his Father and usually follow some kind of inquiry, when Jesus is in discussion and his identity is called into question or needs verifying, either for the person with Jesus, or for us the reader.”
I am the bread of Life is the first of these sayings and the only one I am considering in this essay First, we are not talking about physical existence – life in this sense refers to spiritual life. A life in Christ as Paul refers to it, a life which relates to one’s relationship with God through Jesus. In this way we can refer to Jesus being essential to a fulfilled life, a life beyond mere existence. This is in effect an invitation from Jesus to achieve, through him, that life of total fulfilment. It is an invitation that many of us perhaps try to accept but are only able to go part way – we can only continue to work at trying fully to accept that invitation.
Without getting too bogged down in metaphysics, let me begin to bring this essay to a conclusion by quoting from William Barclay; If we manage to accept this invitation then, as Barclay says:
First, into life enters a new satisfaction. The hunger and the thirst are gone. The human heart finds what it is searching for and life ceases to be mere existence and becomes a thing at once of thrill and of peace.
Second, even beyond life we are safe. Even on the last day when all things end we are still secure. As a great commentator said “Christ brings us to the haven beyond which there is no danger.
The offer of Christ is life in time and life in eternity.
The question for us all is – do we sufficient faith to accept that invitation in all its fullness?
The other six or as some scholars would have it seven ‘I am’ statements will have to wait for another day, but I hope the little I have written today may inspire you to read and study this Gospel afresh.
So, just to summarise, the Gospel according to John is the spiritual Gospel – it is concerned with what Jesus meant rather than what he said. In the first of the I am expressions we have a tremendous invitation to a life in Christ, with the question remaining for us to decide – do we have faith enough to accept that invitation.
Bibliography:
Barclay, William The Gospel of John volume one. Edinburgh. Saint Andrew Press. 1990 (first published 1975)
Barrett, C.K. The Gospel according to St. John including commentary and notes on the Greek text. London. SPCK 1960
Brislington Community News 