On Line Bible Study - For the Week October 22-28, 2012

John 14:15-24

Lesson 559

Two things - Love, and Spirit.

If you love me, says Jesus, keep my commands.  It is really simple, isn't it?  Later in John's Gospel Jesus will ask Peter the question three times: Do you love me?  In the passage we are considering, love is the bookend at either end of the section - and it is also the heart of the matter. 

Do I love God?  Do I love with the same intensity as I am loved?  The quality of my love can be easily and immediately measured.  When my spouse asks me to do something, the question is not only how long does it take me to respond to her request; the attitude with which I comply is every bit as important.

"Love" for Jesus has to do with our actions.  Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching.  Obedience is a side of love many would rather ignore.

Is there a connection between love and our capacity to recognize the presence of the "Spirit of truth"?  How visible is this "Spirit"?  This is a power - a presence - that is both with us and in us.  That the Spirit is "in" us is affirming and comforting, but it is not a possession.  It is not something we control.  That same Spirit is "with" us - outside of us - means it can guide, inspire, correct us.

I will not leave you orphans... The sense of the passage is that the Spirit is 'Christ with us' until his return.

Many times in John's Gospel we are encouraged to 'believe', to 'have faith' in Jesus, or told about those who did.  (See, for example, John 1:12, 30; 2:11, 22; 3:12, 16 etc.)  In this passage, we are told to love him.  Can we 'believe' in him and not love him?  Can we 'love' him and not obey his teachings?

On Line Bible Study - For the Week October 15-21, 2012

Lesson 558

I want to spend a bit of time on this passage –

John 14:  ⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

This is often cited as an exclusive claim for Jesus and, by association, for Christianity.  There is only one way – no detours, no options.  Without dismissing that claim, it is important to see this text in a broader context.  The Hebrew Bible has references which link the “way” with faithfulness or truth.  Consider for example:

Psalm 86:  ¹¹Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness. (Today’s NIV)

                     Teach me your way, O Lord; I will walk in your truth.  (New American Standard)

                     Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth.  (King James)

Psalm 16:  ¹¹You make known to me the path of life; you will fill ne with joy in your presence.

Psalm 119 tells us they do no wrong but follow [God’s] way.

God reveals the “way” to us.  The community at Qunran (Dead Sea Scrolls) designated itself in an absolute manner as “The Way”.  And we read in Acts 9:2 a reference to the Christian Church is called ‘the Way’.  (See also Acts 19:9, 23; 22:4.)

Father Raymond Brown reminds us of the several occasions in which the Gospel of John uses imagery applied to Israel and layers it onto the message of Jesus or those who follow him.  Several examples:

·         The Temple – God’s physical presence in the midst of the people of Israel.

o   Jesus is the “Temple” - John 2:19.

·         Imagery of sheep and shepherd – Psalm 23; Isaiah 53:6.

o   Jesus is both Sheepgate and Good Shepherd – John 10:7-13.

·         Israel is God’s vineyard – Isaiah 5.

o   Jesus is the vine, and the Father is the gardener – John 15

This provides us with a broader context for Jesus’ word – I am the way, the truth and the life… And it is interesting that early Christians thought of their relationship to Jesus and to each other is constituting The Way.  As Saul of Tarsus went out to find and imprison men and women who belonged to the Way, he encountered a blinding light and a voice claiming to be that of Jesus.  Saul learned his persecution of the Way was a persecution of Jesus.

Perhaps John wants us to realize that acknowledging Jesus as “the way, truth and life” is only half of the project.  We must align ourselves to Christ, even as Christ is one with the Father.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week October 8-14, 2012

Lesson 557

John 14: ¹“Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God;  trust also in me. ² My Father’s house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  ⁴ You know the way to the place where I am going.”

A "troubled heart" is the same emotion Jesus felt in John 11:33 when Mary, Lazarus' sister, came to him grieving the death of her brother.  Jesus was "deeply moved in spirit and troubled".  It is also the same emotion Jesus felt in John 13:21 as he spoke of his betrayal.  Jesus understands existentially what it means to be "troubled".  (Compare with John 14:27, and with John 16:6.)
He recognizes this emotion in his disciples as they face the fact of his departure.  (John 13:36  Where I am going, you cannot follow now...)

Plenty of room...  Some translations refer to "mansions" (New King James; American Standard Version).  Raymond Brown attributes the use of this word to William Tyndale.  Brown reminds us that "mansion" in Old English simply meant 'dwelling'; it didn't carry with it the palatial connotation we think of today.

Did Jesus' disciples understand him to mean he would return immediately following his death and bring them to 'heaven'?  But there are other references to My Father's house in John - recall John 2:16 when Jesus encounters people selling and changing money in the temple courts.  In that context My Father's house referred to the temple.  Immediately following that scene, Jesus refers to the "temple" like this: Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.  From the physical structure of the Jerusalem temple to his body and being as "temple", John offers some variety in what the is meant by "My Father's house". John 14:  ⁵ Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”  (Compare John 16:5.)
⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Augustine thought this passage suggested Jesus prepared the dwelling places by preparing those who would dwell with him.  Jesus makes the connection between himself and the "Father".  This 'connection' is intimate and ultimate.  To truly know God is also to know Jesus.
Something to think about ...  We often spend time in prayer explaining to God what we want or need.  How much time do we spend asking God for a change of heart within ourselves?  It is interesting to think of Jesus preparing a place for us by preparing us!

On Line Bible Study - For the Week October 1-7, 2012

Lesson 556

We have been comparing the four gospels with regard to their treatment of the ‘Last Supper’ – the meal Jesus shared with his disciples just prior to his arrest.  Now we will look at the Gospel of John with regard to what Jesus says to his disciples and in their hearing at this meal.  As noted in the previous lesson, John spends considerably more time ‘at the table’ than the other gospels.

Father Raymond Brown calls this section of John’s Gospel the Book of Glory.  There is a sense of intimacy to this meal:

John 13:1  …Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

This is how the section begins.  Jesus knows that the Father had put all things under his power (13:3), and he is filled with love for his disciples.  Once John has brought us through the supper itself – Judas has taken the bread (…and it was night), we read these words:

John 13:  ³¹When he was gone, Jesus said: “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him.  ³²If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

Herein begins the manifestation of Jesus’ “glory”.  There are many redundancies in chapters 13-17, and some things seem disconnected from others.  But Fr. Brown makes this sweeping statement about this section of the Gospel: The Last Discourse is one of the greatest compositions in religious literature.  The one who speaks here speaks as no man has spoken.

There are many interesting comparisons that can be made between John 13:31-14:31 and John 16:4-33.  We will begin to look at some of those in our next lesson.  In the mean time … John 14:  ¹Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in Christ.