John's Creation (18)
A Model for Understanding the Gospel of John
And Last
(Bible Study - July/August 2002)
A 20th century philosopher once wrote:
When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
These are not divinely inspired words, yet experience with handling God’s word corroborates their accuracy: God’s patterns, when discerned are always of the most delicate beauty. This is not a surprise of course, given the infinite beauty we see in creation all around us: from the most awesome interactions, such as a mighty ocean storm pounding against a granite coastline, to the most delicate structures, such as the diffraction of morning sunlight through dewdrops on the fragile silk of a spider’s web. It is evidence of the veracity of any Bible study to observe an intense beauty pervading its structure. Thus if the reader is able to witness beauty in the creation structure proposed to inhabit John’s gospel, then it acts as ratification of that model, and evidence of the presence of God’s hand at work. We also repair to the concept: “By their fruits you shall know them,” (Matt. 7:15-20) a directive of the Lord’s specifically designed to test those broadcasting new ideas. If this study has been considered to yield any fruits which the reader can find valuable, in terms of the understanding and appreciation of the scriptural message, then this suggests veracity to the study that bore them. The fruits of this study have, at least for the author, brought a wealth of new appreciation of the intricacy and power of both the gospel of John, and the broader scripture as a whole.
The creation model we perceive applies across a whole breadth of scales. It exists on the largest scale: declaring the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ in the plans of the Almighty as the conduit (and creator) of the new creation (Article 16, May, 2002). It also exists on the smallest scale, reflected in the detail of the gospel: we find out why Jesus sits at the top of the well when speaking to the Samaritan woman (Article 7, August, 2001); why he instructs his disciples to collect together the fragments of bread that had fallen to the ground after the multitude had eaten (Article 9, October, 2001); and why it is appropriate for Thomas to cry: “My Lord and my God!” when regarding Jesus after his resurrection (Article 14, March, 2002).
Scripture with Understanding
Perceiving the presence of a divine pattern in
scripture is a wonderful thing: it allows the reader to correctly anticipate
the unfolding narrative as he reads it. To know that the creation pattern
is present in John allows the reader to make certain predictions about the
flavour of the gospel as it unfolds: and enjoy the wonder of seeing them
realised as he reads on.
We can predict that John’s gospel will open with some equivalent to the idea of “Let there be light,” (i.e. Day 1) and indeed it does. We know that after this principle is expanded we will enter Day 2, the drawing up of life-giving water. Sure enough follows the explanation of baptism to Nicodemus, and the events at Jacob’s well and the pool at Bethesda, all within the context of men being “drawn up” from death to life in Christ with water as a vehicle.
The reader is able to correctly predict that following this must come Day 3: events of feeding and sustenance. Sure enough the feeding of the 5000, and the teaching of Jesus as the bread of heaven directly follows.
After this, the reader surmises that the element of light must return to the gospel, and in an authoritative capacity for judgment (Day 4). This is indeed what happens throughout chapters 7-13: Jesus declares himself the light of the world, and shows how the living Pharisees are dead in their beliefs, whilst he holds God’s power to call dead Lazarus back to the land of the living.
Day 5 follows, we return to the waters to see the waters of death beneath the waters of life. We are told Jesus is hated by the world, betrayed by Judas Iscariot, denied by Peter, and brutally killed by flagellation and crucifixion.
Finally come Day 6: the elevation of man above all creation. Jesus returns in the final chapters in a new form: the Lord resurrected immortal, bearing his newly elevated titles of ‘Rabboni’ and ‘God.’ Such is the power of pattern perception in scripture: for the selection and sequence of stories in the gospel of John is otherwise quite mysterious.
Feeling the hand of God
Our primary response when uncovering gems
mined from the scriptural store must be excitement – to imagine that we have
been blessed to glimpse the system by which the hand of God has been working
from the foundation of the world! Doubtless we have done no more than peek
a hair’s breadth beneath scripture’s surface at the beautiful patterns
swirling within. Yet still what gratitude must be ours toward our heavenly
Father for this blessing of scripture, to realise the depth of the provision
of love made for us, who are unlovely, by the One who loved us first. What
pause it gives us to reflect upon the myriad ways God is working in our
lives: although the slightest dullness in our senses can render so many of
them unobserved. How well we are exhorted to the degree to which God’s name
should be exalted in this earth.
Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth (Psa. 46:10).
The revelation of scripture by God before our eyes is also a provocation to draw our thoughts kingdom-ward, and we conclude appropriately directing our thoughts toward this kingdom that will certainly arrive. We always struggle to imagine what the kingdom will be like: perhaps that is why it does not appear in our literature as often as it might, because we always like to be so sure of what we are writing. But although it is genuinely difficult to imagine the Kingdom as we stand on these present shores gazing so myopically towards it, it is nonetheless a thrilling prospect to behold! How incredible it will be to read the Bible with eyes that finally are opened! What remarkable set of feelings will be unleashed as we are able to turn the pages of the book we may have read hundreds of times, and see for the very first time the deeper meanings and messages that were in front of our faces the whole time!
How will we feel when we do this? Will we feel foolish; that we never saw such things before? Will we feel exhilarated, by the staggering increase in knowledge of the interplay that God had structured between Himself and His children through the ages? Or will we feel utterly humiliated by sensing the extent of love that was shown toward us that we never took the trouble to properly discern or respond to? Maybe all of the above. But doubtless we will obtain a greater understanding of the one who made us, and, in so doing, a greater love for Him.
From a distance
But for now, we must conclude. We have
presented the gospel of John according to the creation model around which it
seems so carefully crafted: ‘John’s Creation,’ as we have termed it. And
regardless of whether we are able to find agreement on every facet of the
structure, we can be sure to have gained from sharpening our mind’s
perceptions on those things above, rather than allowing them to be further
cluttered and blunted by the clamour of things below. We know, even though
the feeble intellects we have at our disposal will often derail our thoughts
from the road of truth into the ditch, by studying God’s word, the Bible, we
learn to see more clearly the real world God has made that lies behind the
mask of those things that evidently appear. Every time we take the effort
to walk that path that points upwards toward knowing God better we learn to
plant slightly surer footsteps than the time before – it is, as all things,
a learning experience after all.
And with every step we take we pull further away from the land where we began: the human world in which we were conceived and born: not in order to patronise or despise its inhabitants, for they are but ourselves, and our own sons for whom we must now take care. But little by little we learn to become aliens and strangers there, in pursuit of the land beyond, just as the faithful who walked before us many years before have already done.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them (Heb. 11:13-16).
This, then, is His promise. And in it we trust, knowing that as long as we walk therein we will always both bear and be borne those good fruits; the like of which we have been served so delicately and handled so intimately through that most extraordinary book we know as the gospel of John. May these fruits sustain us until the Lord returns.
Come Lord Jesus, quickly come. Amen.
John Pople