On Line Bible Study - For the Week July 1 - 7, 2013

Lesson 565
John 17:1-26

This is our last "Pre-Passion" lesson, concluding the portion of John's Gospel that is specific to John and not found in Mark, Matthew and Luke.  John 17 is sometimes referred to as Jesus' "High Priestly Prayer".  Father Raymond Brown calls it one of the "most majestic moments in the Fourth Gospel, the climax of the Last Discourse where Jesus turns to his Father in prayer."  It is different in the prayer a priest would offer in that Jesus IS the sacrifice, constantly interceding for us. (Romans 8:  ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.)  Jesus assumes the role of "heavenly intercessor".

Consider the connection between this familiar phrase: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name and John 17:1  Father ... glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  Wherever it is that Jesus is headed, it is to a place of glory.  "Glory" is dramatically redefined in the dying and rising of Jesus.

That Jesus' prayer is not bound by time or space becomes evident when we read:  John 17:²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message ...

I confess to a certain experience of chills up my spine to think of a vision so expansive, so inclusive, so universal in its scope that it washes over all of creation like a gentle tide of grace.  Is his prayer for believers only - ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  For believers only?  Yes, and no!  For believers at first, but for the purpose of a global affirmation emanating from the expression within the Christian Community of unity.  This is not to be misconstrued as "conformity".  

John 17 moves back and forth between the vision of unity and the reality of resistance, even hatred of the truth of the message Jesus shares.  John 17:  ¹⁴ I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  There is a struggle to see which vision is going to win - the world's tendency toward injustice, greed, violence; or Christ's vision of unity - the shared life lived with forgiveness at the center and acceptance of each other as our modus operandi.

Consider the final line from this prayer:  John 17:  ²⁶ I have made you (the Father) known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

What is the intensity in Jesus' prayer at this point?  What does he long for?  He longs not only for his own unity with his Father.  He yearns to be in all of us, loving us, and loving his Father through us.  On one hand, it is a vision that makes no sense.  Who is "Jesus" anyway?  Do we believe he has the authority to express such a claim?  Whatever our assessment of him, Jesus was willing not only to speak the prayer; he was willing to put his life on the line in the hope that God would not only hear it, but that God would answer it.

Following that prayer, we turn to a new chapter ... one that begins with what must have seemed like a long walk across the Kidron Valley.  With our next lesson, we head into the garden.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 24-30, 2013

Lesson 564 

Let’s look at two passages from John 16.

John 16:  ¹² “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.

Remember in the previous lesson we pondered the question: How much of the future do we want to know in advance?  Is this line from John 16 suggesting that the Holy Spirit is going to open our eyes to some new revelation?  And are we going to know the future?

Scholars are more inclined to take Jesus’ words to mean that the experience of the truth of his message is going to be more clearly understood in the future – perhaps after the resurrection.  If Jesus is the fullness of God’s revelation to us, it is a fullness that we can only ingest in small increments.  “What is yet to come” refers not to some new information regarding Jesus, but some new and deeper understanding on our part of what following Jesus means in an ever-changing world.

Father Raymond Brown puts it this way: The best Christian preparation for what is coming to pass is not an exact foreknowledge of the future but a deep understanding of what Jesus means for one’s own time. (Raymond Brown – The Gospel According to John – The Anchor Bible.  Volume 29a, Yale University Press.  Page 716.)

John 16:  ¹⁶Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me … ²⁰Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices.  You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

What is the “little while” Jesus is referring to?  In the context of the last supper, it could be a reference to the fact that he would be arrested and executed in a matter of hours.  St. Augustine thought it might refer to the time between the resurrection of Jesus and his second coming.  But what does it mean when Jesus says the disciples will see me?  Is it referring exclusively to seeing him in a physical sense?  Or can we understand it to mean both the physical sighting, the way the disciples say him after he rose from the dead, and spiritual sighting – the way in which the reality and power of Jesus message and presence is conveyed by the Holy Spirit to those who come to believe in him?

There is a worship song that has been popular for a dozen years.  Open the eyes of my heart, Lord; open the eyes of my heart.  I want to see you.  What are the ways you see Jesus every day?  What are the ways others see Jesus in you?

On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 17 - 23, 2013

Lesson 563
John 16:1  All this I have told you so that you will not fall away ...
How much do you want to know about your future?  When I was working to prepare myself to ride my bicycle in L'Etap du Tour in France, I knew that we were going to be climbing some mountains.  My friend who was helping me get ready for the experience gave me some advice.  "When you begin the climb on the mountain, don't look up."  Having done the ride the previous year, he knew from experience how discouraging it would be for me to see just how far I had to go and how high I had to climb.
Is that why we aren't allowed to know what tomorrow holds?
As Jesus teaches his disciples in his final hours with them, he reveals to them what is about to happen.
John 16:  ⁴ I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you, ⁵ but now I am going to him who sent me.
There is a time and place for everything.  As long as Jesus was with them the persecution would be aimed at him.  Once he was gone, he knew the world's anger ("hatred"?  John 15:18.) would be directed at them.  They needed to know this in advance.
John 16:  ⁷ But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate (Paraclete) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Remember in John 14:28 when Jesus told his disciples if they loved him they should be glad he was going away.  In John 16 we learn that it is good for the disciples that Jesus is departing. 

John 16:   ⁸ When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: ⁹ about sin, because people do not believe in me; ¹⁰ about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; ¹¹ and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. 
Father Raymond Brown says these are some of the most challenging verses in the New Testament to understand.  The world was wrong about sin when it refused to believe in Jesus.  Earlier in the Gospel Jesus chastises the world, for light had come into the world, but the world preferred darkness (John 3:19.)  The world was wrong about righteousness because it wrongly condemned Jesus - who was innocent - to death.  Jesus' claim of unity with the Father was not blasphemous; it was true.  And the world was wrong about judgment because, in condemning Jesus, the world had condemned itself.
All of this will be proven when the Advocate (Paraclete) arrives.
Jesus is telling his disciples - and us - that the Holy Spirit will perform a kind of "forensic" work, reminding us of what Christ has taught and foretold, helping us disentangle the truth of God from the lies of the world.  It is serious work.  How is that work being accomplished for you in this season of your life?

On Line Bible Study - for the Week June 10 - 16

Lesson 562

 

Have you ever added sugar to a beverage, and then tried to remove it?

John 15:18     "If the world hates you, bear in mind that it has hated me before you."
The first part of chapter 15 speaks of our relationship with Jesus.  He is the "vine"; he tells of the importance of fruitfulness in the Christian life; and he emphasizes the centrality of love - his love for us and ours for each other.

With verse 18 the emphasis shifts from our relationship with Christ to our relationship with "the world".  There are a number of parallels between this section of John's gospel and the other gospels; however, John is the only one places the material in the context of the last supper.  Some of the parallels:

• John 15:18 - The world hates you ...  Matthew 10:22
• John 15:20 - No servant is more important than their master ...  Matthew 10:24
• John 15:20 - They will persecute you ...  Matthew 10:23
• John 15:26 - When the Paraclete comes ...  Matthew 10:20

It is one of the more challenging aspects of discipleship - what is our relationship with "the world"? 

Jesus says we are salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13ff).  The way of Christ is so very different from what we experience in the world.  Competition; scarcity of resources; accumulation of power; control of others - all of these things characterize the market place.  Even when society attempts to help the poor we are competing, one agency against another, for the notoriety that enables us to raise the most funds that gives us the most power to do the work ...

Raymond Brown emphasizes in his commentary on John that the word "hate" as it is used here is to be taken literally.  There is an animosity between the way of Jesus and the priorities of the world that make it very difficult to combine the two.  But the Christian is called neither to judge the world nor to remove ourselves from it.  We are to accept the animosity that naturally results when diametrically opposed world views confront each other.  Christianity expressing itself in the world is not like adding sugar to coffee; it is more like trying to blend oil and water.

We must not shy away from the task!  The Spirit will come ...  Our work is not resolve the tension; rather, our task is to insure that the message of Jesus is shared - lived, proclaimed,  Do we trust the Spirit to be present with us?

How will your Christian faith encounter the ways of the world this week?  When will be the times you are tempted to shy away, to acquiesce, to cave in to the pressures of the world?  When those moments come, be looking for how the Spirit will step into the scene.

On Line Bible Study - For the Week June 3-9, 2013

Lesson 561

 

The part of gardening I seem to do best is pruning.  But first ...

It has been over six months since last I posted a "weekly" on line Bible Study.  I think I needed an extended break from the discipline, but I have often been aware of this study by virtue of its absence.  I am back now, and determined to continue with it until I see it through to its completion.

When we left off last November we were discussing the section of John's gospel related to the last supper.  You may recall that we are heading into the deep waters of the passion and crucifixion, and before we do a comparison study between the four gospels, we are looking at this section which is exclusive to John.

This week our focus is on John 15:1-17.  You can click on that link for the full section, but we are going to focus on several verses in particular:

1.  “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.

You might recall that Mark has a vineyard story in his gospel (Mark 12:1-11), but the situation is different from the one in John 15.  There is an ominous tone in John - the threat of being cut off if we don't produce fruit, and the promise that we are going to pruned one way or another in order to make us more fruitful.

One summer we had some wonderful tomato plants going.  I happened to read somewhere about the need to remove the "suckers" from where branches joined the vine.  In my enthusiasm for pruning and cleaning up the plants I killed all our tomatoes.  (Jan and I were just talking about this the other day ...)

The fact that the gardener in the allegory Jesus presents us with is one who first looks for fruit prior to cutting off the branch is some consolation; still, the tone carries with it the centrality of our bearing fruit in the garden of God.  We'll come back to this in a moment.

Another verse from this section we want to look at is this, from John 15:12  My commandment is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

There simply is no getting away from the notion that Jesus sees his own death as an act of love.  It is a destiny intimately intertwined with the divine expression of love for the world.  Perhaps we can think of God's garden as a place where love is the fruit borne by every one of its inhabitants.  And just so we don't get too sentimental or superficial about it, we reminded of the fact that love expressed for each other is the litmus test for the presence of true disciples of Jesus.