About the Gospel of John

I thought I'd take a few moments to write a little about The Gospel According to John.
It will serve as a bit of an introduction to the 21 days that begin on Sunday.

John's gospel is a little different from the other three gospels. More than just recording the teachings and the activities of Jesus, John's writing is more focused on making clear that Jesus is God in the flesh. I have to say that as a new reader of the Bible (many years ago), I didn't care for John's story. I said that John was a women's writer -- too much flowery, poetic kind of stuff:

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

I was more a fan of Mark's writing; the kind of writing that gets right to the point. Mark has no birth story, no back story. You are reading to find out about the life and teaching of Jesus -- here it is!
But as I followed the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, I realized something. In their writings you can learn what Jesus taught. You can see that Jesus felt the pain and suffering of the crowds. You can begin to love others as yourself. You can end up believing that Jesus is a really wise man that teaches truth and harmony, but something is missing.

John's focus on Jesus as God gives power to all of the gospels. Understanding that God became man is almost unbelievable. How could there be that much love for us lowly humans? Later (in one of his letters) it's John that tells us that God is love.

Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's love for us.
He is both man and God.
As we read through the gospel of John, keep this in mind -- God became man (Jesus) so that we might know Him. Jesus (as a man) became the lawful sacrifice for all of mankind.
God didn't die.

Sunday morning -- John 1

John <><
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