According to John

I'm starting to read through the gospels (again). It's a pretty good idea for a follower of Jesus to read about the life and teachings of Jesus every now and then. Although I've read through The Gospel According to John and posted daily thoughts in the past, I will not be referring to those thoughts or posts this time around. I hope that my perspectives have evolved a bit over the years, and certainly my life today is a little different from what is was at that time. 

I've chosen to begin with John's gospel instead of one of the other three for a reason. John's perspective is that Jesus is God. The emphasis on the divinity of Jesus is almost absent in the other three stories of the life of Jesus, but John addresses it from the very beginning. While Matthew, Mark, and Luke write that Jesus comes from God, John writes that Jesus is God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
ESV

I used to not care for John's writing much. I said he was a women's writer. All of that poetic crap was too much for my younger macho self. But life's experiences, a little bit of age, and some hard earned wisdom have changed my perspective on his style of writing. I still have a difficult time trying to figure out what he's saying, but I am more appreciative of the perspective that this Jesus is God.
Christianity is weird in the way it claims that there is only One God, but refers to three persons as the Trinity and this Trinity as a single God. Clearly John is referring to more than one person when he writes that the Word (or the Christ/Jesus) was both with God and is God. And then towards the end of chapter 1, the Spirit of God (or Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity) shows up and descends upon Jesus and remains with him. 

I don't pretend to understand all that John is saying, and I certainly don't pretend to understand God. Sometimes I think that God is so big that we simply can't understand nor imagine how big or how grand God is. Looking at the God above us (God the Father), the God among us (Jesus, God in the flesh), and the God within us (the Holy Spirit) might be the only way we can begin to understand that God completely envelops all of creation.

John (the gospel writer) talks about another John (the baptizer) and his encounter with Jesus. John's (the writer) account of the calling of the first disciples is a little different than the other gospel writers' accounts. I don't have a problem with that. We all remember events a little differently as we all have our own perspectives. 

In chapter 2 John writes about the first public miracle of turning water into wine (or grape juice for my well meaning but ignorant evangelical friends) at the wedding in Cana.
John also writes about Jesus clearing the temple of the profiteers and admonishing them for turning the temple into a market place where they cheat those that are coming to sacrifice and worship. Jesus also makes his first prophesy about his death and resurrection -- "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."

I can't come up with anything definitive about heaven and hell, or salvation vs eternal condemnation from these first two chapters. Part of that is that I'm just not very smart. Another part is that I don't think that John meant for us to understand those things just yet. I think he wants us to know that Jesus is not only from God, but is God. That is the perspective we need to have for the rest of his story to make sense.

Chapters 3 & 4 tomorrow.

John