Category: john

Daily Readings in John, Day Twelve

John 4:27-42 (NRSV)

27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.

31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. 36 The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Jesus: Crossing long-hostile cultural and gender and religious barriers to bring spiritual uplift to an entire community. Chooses an outcast woman to start this all, so in the process brings her dignity, uplift, and hope. Doesn’t worry about where his lunch is coming from, but is satisfied by participating in the work that his unseen God is doing on earth. Trying to inspire more people to live this way, because it’s a joy and because the earth needs people to join God in the beautiful things God is doing.

The Samaritan Woman: Suddenly surrounded by a bunch of speechless men she doesn’t know, she drops her water jar and runs back home. She doesn’t take a nap or open up her facebook, though. No, she tells her neighbors, “You have got to come with me to the well and meet this man Jesus! He just might be God’s messenger to us!” She becomes Jesus’ first “harvester”, his first ambassador to her own community, and a good one at that.

The disciples: Um, they interrupt a powerful one on one conversation Jesus is having, just at its most dramatic moment. But do they apologize for intruding and back away from the well? Do they make some gracious small talk and introduce themselves? Do they even say what’s on their mind, wondering why he’s talking to this woman?

No, no, and no. They start talking about food, and they take metaphor-spinning Jesus literally and ask dumb questions about his lunch money.

Some days we’re enlightened, and we are the hands and feet and voice of God into a world that needs good work, good ideas, healing touch, or encouraging words.

Some days enlightenment comes to us, as we are aware God is with us and we praise God, or we notice the kindness of friends or colleagues or strangers, and we have gratitude. Or, I don’t know, a business does right by us, and we post a glowy yelp review.

And then some days we’re just useless. We can’t get our head out of our rears, and we say and do awkward things, and we slip into the worst proclivities our genes or culture or bad habits or whatever have made available to us.

Strikes me that days like this, the disciples in this story are encouraging. Jesus still invites them to taste the food of doing God’s work. Jesus doesn’t shame them for their clueless bumbling, just as he doesn’t shame the woman for her marital history. He invites them to good work that will satisfy.

What kind of day are you having so far today? Ask God if there is food for you to eat today in the form of joining God in something God is doing.

Daily Readings in John, Day Eleven

John 4:16-26 (NRSV)

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

What, fundamentally, is going on in this interaction?

Is Jesus shaming her into belief? From the way this passage gets discussed in religious circles, you’d think so. The Samaritan woman – with her five husbands plus one – becomes a picture of a harlot or a serial adulterer whom Jesus needs to call to account before their conversation can proceed.

I think this view says more about the people who hold it than the text. It’s easier to shame a woman than to do a small bit of historical research. And some of us believe in a God that really can’t stand the bad things people do, especially the bad things that have to do with sex, and needs people to feel awful about that before anything good can happen for them.

This woman, though, is an outcast, not a criminal. In 1st century Mediterranean cultures, men held all the cards in relationships with women. Most likely, this is a woman who’d had the men in her life die and had been passed on to the next relative often enough that she was no longer viewed as marriageable. Or, less likely but possible, a woman who’d been divorced and abandoned often enough that again, she wasn’t seen as marriage material.

To the extent that Jesus exposes her, it’s not to shame her but to move forward with his offer – from yesterday’s text – to give her living water, to have her not be thirsty any more.

Their conversation moves through interesting theology – what is worship? what’s the meaning of some Jewish and Samaritan disputes about who holds claim to Jacob’s lineage? – but in the end it’s existential, not theoretical.

Can even the emptiest person become full and satisfied? Can even the most rejected, cast off human be the kind of child of God who belongs, who worships?

Jesus says yes, they can, and I can do it. I’m the one from God to restore you and fill you and to proclaim all things to you.

Who do you know that is in need of restoration and filling? If it’s you, sit with your hands open and invite Jesus to sit with you. If it’s someone else, stand with your hands facing outward and ask Jesus for their blessing.

Daily Readings, Day 9

John 3:22-36 (NRSV)

22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. 23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized 24 —John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

25 Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” 27 John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.”

31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. 32 He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. 33 Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. 34 He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

So I’m irritated with John’s language today. The same writer who says so many profound and beautiful things about God and life keeps up this “Jew/the Jews” language here. Reminder: John’s disciples are all Jewish, so is the baptizer John (different than the disciple/alleged author John); in fact, here they call him rabbi, a Jewish teacher. These conversations and encounters are being written down decades later from the perspective of inter-Jewish disputes, and those labelled “the Jews” by John are the ones who didn’t follow Jesus – part of the “no one (who) accepts his testimony.”

What is the testimony?

That Jesus has the goods. He’s better than John. He has all God’s stuff. Spirit-wind has blown on him, and Spirit-wind flows from him to us. He is the source of life.

Walk with me for a minute.

I listened today for the first time to John Legend’s live cover of “Like a Bridge over Troubled Waters.”

If you want to listen, I’ll wait.

If you don’t think Legend has the goods, we don’t have a conversation we can have. I mean, that man plays the keys so perfectly, he sings like a god, and he looks like one too. How can you not be moved? That’s my testimony. Believe me, and you’ll have life. Don’t believe me, and… well, I’m sad for you. You’re left to a soulless, musically impoverished, sad existence.

Many theologians think “life” and “wrath” on John’s terms means something like this.

Jesus has the goods – what we need to find God and all that God has to give, in this life and the next. Turn toward him, and get the goods. Turn away, and miss out on the goods. That soul impoverishment is captured by the metaphor of wrath.

Is anything testifying to you about the goodness of God? Any voice that you trust? What would listening to that voice look like today?

 

Daily Readings, Day Five

John 2:1-12 (NRSV)

2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days.

Once upon a time, there was a god named Dionysus. Child of a human mother and born again of a god-father, he leads a procession of mad, dancing females, followed by hungry, bearded satyrs with erect phalluses. Should life prove too violent or discouraging or merely too mundane, he represents the wine and the sex and the religious rituals that can give you a few moments of ecstasy to escape for a spell.

Into this Dinosyian world, John says there is another god-man who talks about being born again. He too it seems can be present in moments associated with fertility – in this case a wedding – and he too can make the best of wine. Jesus, though, is modest in his entry. He doesn’t thrill, but serves; in fact, he lays down his life for his friends.

The wine of Jesus also goes down smooth, without the usual day-after regret. In fact, Jesus is stirred to action to remove and prevent the shame this family would have experienced had they run out of wine at such an important family event.

And the world that Jesus inhabits isn’t mundane or ordinary in the least. In fact, this world is becoming something new entirely. This moment at the wedding is just the first signpost. More and more, with Jesus around, we will see the light and beauty and renewal that will make us say, “Glory!”

Have you run out of wine in any space in your life? What does that lack feel like? Invite Jesus to bring the very best there.

Daily Readings, Day Four

John 1:29-51 (NRSV)

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where he was staying, and they remained with him that day. It was about four o’clock in the afternoon. 40 One of the two who heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas” (which is translated Peter).

43 The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.” 46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” 49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Jesus hits the ground in John. There’s been a formal philosophical introduction but no regular backstory. Who is this man? Where did he grow up? Where has he come from? John eschews regular biographical function and answers those questions like this. He is the Lamb of God. He grew up in the stars. He comes from God.

These three days begin with John’s highly religious, mystical introduction. There is priestly imagery – Spirit descending, baptism which has its roots in Jewish cleansing ritual, and this symbol of Lamb – which could reference the temple sacrifices, the scapegoat that takes blame into the wilderness, or the Passover meal.

And the days end with a nod to an ancient story from these men’s cultural and religious founding fathers. Before Jacob knew God for himself, he had a dream, and in that dream there was a ladder to heaven, and Jacob woke up and said, “God is here and I didn’t know it.”

God is here, and I didn’t know it.

That’s more or less what is happening all around Jesus, as people walk around with him, listen to his little cryptic stories and comments, and come and see what he’s about for himself.

God is here, and I didn’t know it.

Ask Jesus, if you like, to help you come and see today where God is in or around you.

Daily Readings, Day 3

John 1:19-28 (NRSV)

19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”

as the prophet Isaiah said.

24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, “Why then are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water. Among you stands one whom you do not know, 27 the one who is coming after me; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandal.” 28 This took place in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing.

Today, we go for a minute from the sublime to the arcane. From mystical poetry on God-with-us new creation to an old argument about names and John.

All the names here – Isaiah, Elijah, Messiah, Pharisees, John, priests, Levites, Bethany, and the Jordan River. We’re in a real time and place that is really far from us. And we’re watching a set of real arguments play out. I’ll write more another day about this unfortunate phrase “The Jews” in John. Later, it will be one of many things that makes it easier for Christians to be anti-Semites, to devastating effect. Almost every single person in John is a first-century Jew, Jesus included, but John often uses this phrase – long before it turned toxic – as code for Jewish leaders or as code for the majority of Jews who don’t follow Jesus. In the first century, the intra-Jewish debates and tensions stirred up by Jesus and the Romans and so many other things were fierce.

Of all the names and jobs, the most important here is one nobody will claim for themselves and everyone’s talking about – Messiah, Christ, “the oily one”, or more formally, “the anointed one.” God’s person, set aside for great and special things.

John says, “Not me.” I’m just an old Bible verse. I’m a road-builder, a way-maker. And he goes back to baptizing, performing this Jewish rite called “mikveh” – the body doused in water for cleansing, for purity, for conversion. No matter how much he is inspected or misunderstood, John will keep preparing people for God-with-us, cleaning them, re-converting them for the big thing his gut tells him is coming.

Ask yourself today, “What am I preparing for?” What am I anticipating in the future, perhaps excited for, perhaps dreading? How do you feel about that?

If you are up for talking to Jesus, ask Jesus if he is doing anything new in or around you? Is there anything else Jesus is inviting you to be ready for?

John 1:10-18

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. 15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

This is the second half of John’s opening prologue. It’s linked to the first half by a literary device called chiasm, where words fold and unfold like an accordion – with the beginning and ending having something in common, the second part and second to last part having something in common, and so on, drawing attention the the center.

We won’t talk about this again and again, even though some people think every single episode in John is written in this form. Perhaps it’s enough to know that all through this book, John is essentially writing poetry. Perhaps it helps to know that he’s stating and restating phrases and ideas, helping them lodge in our memories. Perhaps it helps to know that he’s often drawing our attention to the middle of things.

At the center of this prologue is a shocking thought – that God is speaking God’s word into the world through a God-person living with us, full of grace and truth, and most people missed it. Generally, we don’t recognize God.

Does that match your experience of the world? That we often miss what’s clear before our eyes, what’s most important and most full of light? John thinks this is so, that God can be living with us and speaking to us and we can miss it still.

Take just a single phrase from today, perhaps one of these:

-the world did not know him

-the power to become children of God

-the Word became flesh and lived among us

-full of grace and truth

-From his fullness we have all received

Meditate on it. Let it sit in your mind for a few minutes, continue to look at it, repeat it. Where does it take you? Open yourself to the possibility of God speaking to you through it. What do you “hear”? What would God love for you to not miss but to see today?

John 1:1-8

John 1:1-8 (NRSV)

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

Light, Word, Life, the Grounds of all Being, the Beginning.

All that ultimately is, the Source of all that is… John calls that God.

The opening of John calls back to the first line of the whole Bible…. that first verse of Genesis, with its “In the beginning.” John is writing what the rabbis call midrash. This is improvisational riffing on an ancient scripture, interrogating it, examining it, elucidating it, doing what the poet Billy Collins calls “holding it up to the light,” in his great poem on reading and poetry.

When John holds Genesis and creation and God up to the light, he sees Jesus. Or maybe it’s the other way around, the second paragraph says. John looks at Jesus and he sees light, life… everything.

We dive from the mysteries of the divine to a particular man, this second John. He’s nothing special – a witness, a dude who offers testimony for a moment. He’s not the light – that’s about to come. But I can’t help but think he’s a little bit aflame.

What does it mean for you to see all this – to, in that sense, be a witness?

How can you stop and “see the light” today?