Tag: John

Who is John the Baptist (John 1:19-28)?

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Who is John the Baptist? Not only is this our question today but it was the question of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Scribes back in the day.  Everyone wanted to know… but we will get to that.

John’s story begins with his father Zechariah.  He had been chosen to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense (Luk 1:8).  Both he and his wife Elizabeth were righteous before the Lord (Luk 1:6).  John was born into a good Jewish family with parents who were earnest in their desire to obey the Lord and who eagerly awaited God’s next move.  Interestingly, although they were considered righteous before the Lord, they were childless.  “Barrenness was often considered a sign of God’s displeasure and judgment (Stern 1992, Lk 1:7).”

“Everyone would know about John.”

To be chosen to burn incense Zechariah had to be a priest.  The priests serving in the temple had to be descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron and the primary duty for which they were most known was to offer sacrificial animals on the altar (Stern 1992, Mt 2:4).  The priests were organized into twenty-four groups and each served in the Temple for one week (Stern 1992, 1:5).  The duties of the individuals in those groups were then determined by lot and in this case, Zechariah had been chosen to burn the incense (Clarke 1810-1826, 356).  While I find this all interesting none of it is critical to understanding what is going on in the Gospel of John except to answer why John’s testimony would be significant.  “The incense for which Zechariah was responsible symbolized the prayers of the entire nation. At that particular moment Zechariah was thus the focal point of the entire Jewish nation (Walvoord and Zuck 2004, 203).”  Everyone would know about John.

So, Zachariah goes to the altar of Incense and while he is there an angel appears.  Naturally he was afraid, but the angel tells him not to worry, “your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John (Luk 1:13).”  The angel gives some instructions and then prophesies that John will, “go before [the Lord their God] in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luk 1:15-16).”  Zechariah though, he doesn’t really believe the angel and asks, “How shall I know this (Luk 1:18)?”  He wants a sign.  As if an angel by the altar isn’t enough.  That’s about all this angel could take and he responds, “I am Gabriel.  I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news.  And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place (Luk 1:19-20).”  And so, Zechariah did not say another word until John was born.  I am pretty sure, that would have been talked about among the priests… and if it was talked about among the priests it was talked about in all of Israel.

John the Baptist is not The Christ

Now, did you catch that.  The angel said that John the Baptist, would come, “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”  That is the second identity that the priests and Levites asked about, “What then?  Are you Elijah (Joh 1:20)?”  But first, the Christ.  In the Greek, Χριστός or Christŏs, (pronounced khris-tos´) which means anointed, i.e. the Messiah (Strong 1890, 78).”  John’s birth was so extraordinary that it was quite possible he could be the expected Messiah.  While the Messianic expectations of Jesus’ day were probably more diverse than any other part of Jewish thought at the time there was an expectation none the less (Scott 1995, 307).  Before the writer of the Gospel of John can introduce Jesus as the Messiah it must be shown that John the Baptist was not.  And by John’s own testimony he is not the Christ and/or the Messiah.

John the Baptist is not Elijah

Now, back to Elijah.  Not only was there an expectation at the time of a Messiah but there was an expectation that, “the coming of the Messiah and the final age [would] be announced by a prophetic forerunner, frequently identified as Elijah (Scott 1995, 288).”  The expectation was the result of Malachi’s prophecy at the closing of the Old Testament.  “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction (Mal 4:5-6).”  If John weren’t the Messiah, he could be the preliminary Elijah.  But John also says that he is not Elijah.  Now there is a subtle difference here.  While John is not Elijah, because he has come in the power and spirit of Elijah Jesus declares him to be the “Elijah who is to come (Mat 11:14).”

John the Baptist is not The Prophet

They now ask John if he is the Prophet.  This was in reference to the Prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy; another messianic expectation.  “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother—it is to him you shall listen— (Deu 18:15).”  When they separated the identity of the Prophet from the identity of the Messiah the Levites were showing their confusion.  Peter, speaking about Jesus, would later set them straight, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.  You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.  And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people (Act 3:22-23).”

“…the voice of one crying out in the wilderness…”

John 1:23

So, who does John say that he is?  His response is that he is, “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said (Joh 1:23).”  This was a call to repentance but it was also an allusion to the glory of the LORD.  John the Baptist is quoting from Isaiah 40:3 the allusion comes when we read all the way to verse 5.

3    A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4    Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5    And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken (Isaiah 40:3-5).”

John was saying that he was not the Christ, he was not Elijah, and that he was not the Prophet.  But in his response to the Levites he was saying that the, “the glory of the Lord” was about to be revealed in Jesus. The “glory of the Lord” was the expected Messiah. The writer of the Gospel of John was establishing right up front that John the Baptist was not that expected Messiah.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.  Jesus’ Baptism isn’t described in the Gospel of John but if you would like to know my thoughts on baptism I posted them in a blog here. 

Photo by Thomas Vogel on Unsplash

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Scott, J. Julius. Jewish Backgrounds Of The New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1995.

Stern, David H. Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.

Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Abingdon Press, 1890.

Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck. The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Dallas: Cook Communications Ministries, 2004.

These resources are available in the Faith-Hope-Love (Life) Store.

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The Prologue… John Sets the Stage (John 1:1-18)

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Often, I have suggested the Gospel of John as the beginning point in any study of the Bible.  It is a common misconception that the Bible is a book with chapters that details a story in chronological order.  It is closer to the truth to describe the Bible as a collection of writing about the revelation of God.  But what is God trying to reveal?  His primary revelation is His plan of redemption.  The necessity, the requirement, the accomplishment, and ultimately the completion of His plan to redeem mankind and creation is the central thread that ties the entire Bible together.  This is why I suggest starting with the Gospel of John.

“John is setting the stage for his intended purpose.”

The writer of the Gospel of John identifies his purpose in Chapter 20, “…but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Joh 20:31, ESV).”  This is the linchpin of God’s plan of redemption and everything that John writes is intended to support that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you will have life.  But even John, not unlike the Bible as a whole, has to build to that idea.

In the prologue John is going to introduce some foundational concepts; ‘the Word’, ‘the life’, and ‘the light.’  He is setting the stage for his intended purpose.

The Word

The idea of ‘the Word’ is probably one of the most misunderstood because it is perhaps the most abused.  As a result, there are a lot of ideas about ‘the Word’ that can mislead.  There are those who hold that John borrowed the term from Greek philosophy.  “In Stoic thought, logos was reason, the impersonal rational principle governing the universe. Stoics thought this principle pervaded the entire universe; indeed, they recognized no other god (logos was for them roughly equivalent to theos, “God”) (Köstenberger 2013, 40).”  Some hold that the idea is the personification of wisdom as found in the Wisdom literature.  “Wisdom, like John’s logos, claims preexistence and participation in God’s creative activity. Wisdom, like the logos, is depicted as a vehicle of God’s self-revelation, in creation as well as the Law (Köstenberger 2013, 41).”  I do not hold to either of these positions.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.”

Proverbs 25:1

When we look at the other foundational concepts that John is introducing, we find that his understanding of each of these concept is built on a Hebraic understanding.  Additionally, John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ,’ a decidedly Hebraic title and concept.  Why should we understand ‘the Word’ from a Greek understanding?  Now, you can not argue that the wisdom literature is not Hebraic.  The problem I have with associating ‘the Word’ with the personification of wisdom is that the Wisdom Literature is clear, wisdom is not enough for salvation.  There is no thought, there is no idea, there is no secret understanding that can save you.  Your salvation comes from Christ’s atoning work on the cross.  No ‘the Word’ must be more than wisdom personified.  “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe (1Co 1:21).”

The Word is God’s plan for your redemption and the redemption of all creation.  It is what was alluded to but kept hidden in the Old Testament and that which is revealed in the New Testament.  Proverbs reads, “it is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out (Pro 25:1).”  When we go to the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, we find that the Greek word logos is translated into English things in this proverb.  Put another way, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Word’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Word’ out.”

John is saying that this thing that we need, that all creation needs, is ‘the Word’.  And by describing ‘the Word’ as present in the beginning, with God, as being God, he is assigning Hebraic attributes to ‘the Word’ that could only belong to God.  It is John’s first allusion that ‘the Christ’ was God.  Proverbs might have well been saying, “it is the glory of God to conceal ‘the Christ’, but the glory of kings is to search ‘the Christ’ out” and because John’s purpose is to identify Jesus as ‘the Christ’ the Proverb becomes, “it is the glory of God to conceal Jesus, but the glory of kings is to search Jesus out.”

The Life

It is hard to understand life without death.  We are surrounded by death and each of us has an appointment with death.  I know, we like to isolate ourselves and pretend it is not there, but you cannot escape it.  However, it is in our connection to the death of Jesus that He becomes life for us.  A.W. Tozer says it best, “…in Jesus Christ Himself, we became part of Him and He became part of us and took us up into Himself so that in one sense, when He died, as Paul said, we all died. Instead of the law putting one man to death for all, He put all men to death and raised from the dead all who believe in Jesus Christ, so that every man dies for his sins. The sinner dies alone and the Christian dies in Christ. But every man dies for his sins. He either dies by joining his heart to Jesus Christ, and is tucked up under the wings of Jesus and dies in the body of Christ, or else he dies alone in his sins (Tozer 2009, 181).”  By introducing the idea of ‘the Life’ John is beginning to connect ‘the Christ’ to the Hebraic understanding of a resurrection.  “By the time of the New Testament, belief in immortality and some form of resurrection seems to have been accepted by most Jewish groups (except the Sadducees) and the average Jews (Scott 1995, 281).”  They were looking forward to a resurrection and John is alluding to that expectation.

Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die (Joh 11:25-26).”  I’ll let A.W. Tozer conclude this section, “if we had died alone and in ourselves there would have been no resurrection into eternal life. But because we died in Him and with Him, there is a resurrection unto eternal life and the new birth and glory to come (Tozer 2009, 182).”

The Light

Going back to proverbs and those things that God has hidden that it is our glory to search out.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have a search light as we search those things out?  Sometimes I imagine the Old Testament as a cave and often it feels as if I am feeling around in the dark as I read from the Old Testament.  But God has provided a light!  How are we to understand the Old Testament and God’s plan of redemption?  Through the lens and the light of Jesus.  Adam Clarke, quoting Mr. Wakefield explains, “Even in the midst of that darkness of ignorance and idolatry which overspread the world, this light of Divine wisdom was not totally eclipsed (Clarke 1810-1826, 512).”  If you desire to see how you have been redeemed, you need to look to Jesus; you need to understand by the light of Jesus’ teachings.  “Again, Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (Joh 8:12).’”

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.”

John 11:25-26

I have no doubt that John is preaching primarily to a Jewish reader.  He assumes some things about his reader that only a Jew would understand apart from an explanation.  But do not worry, those understandings have not been lost to time and culture and you can understand them to.  The Gospel of John has been handed down to us so that we can understand what it is that God has done for us.  When we understand we become able to explain and give our own reasons for the hope that we have in Christ (1Pe 3:15).  We then become lights for Him (Eph 5:8).

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.  Watch for an upcoming blog in which I introduce John the Baptist, the Christ, Elijah, and the Prophet.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Köstenberger, Andreas J. Encountering John: The Gospel in Historical, Leterary, and Theological Perspective. Edited by Walter A. Elwell. Grand rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.

Scott, J. Julius. Jewish Backgrounds Of The New Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1995.

Tozer, A. W. And He Dwelt among Us: Teachings from the Gospel of John. Edited by James L. Snyder. Ventura, CA: Regal, 2009.

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That you might believe…

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (Joh 20:30-31).”

I am getting ready to begin a course in my seminary on the Gospel of John.  The Gospel of John is my favorite of the gospels and so I am excited about this class.  Eight weeks in the Gospel of John.  Bring it on!

“This Gospel was written by John so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.”

Anyway, in chapter twenty we find the purpose statement for this particular gospel.  This Gospel was written by John so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the Messiah.  The word translated ‘belief’ here is the Greek word pistĕuō (pronounced pist-yoo) which means to have faith and by implication to entrust one’s spiritual well-being to Christ (Strong 1890, 4100).  Pistĕuō comes from another Greek word pistis which is often translated into our English world ‘faith’ (Strong 1890, 4102).  The belief that John is hoping to inspire here comes from faith.

Now, to have faith, at least according to the Greek understanding of the word pistis, is to be persuaded that something is true or to have a conviction that something is true.  Pistis is not blind as our English understanding of faith can often be.  John does not want you to believe for the sake of believing.  He wants you to believe based on your conviction that it is true.  Pistis comes from another Greek word pĕithō.  Pĕithō is a verb which means to convince by argument that something is true or false (Strong 1890, 3982).  According to the Greek understanding of faith it would be wholly appropriate to question someone about their faith.  Why are you convinced that something is true?  Your faith should be a reasonable faith.  You should be able to articulate why you believe what you believe.  John’s Gospel is the articulation of why he believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

“It is as if Jesus is anticipating their unbelief in His power to raise the dead.”

About halfway through the Gospel of John we even find the shortest verse in the Bible, “Jesus wept (Joh 11:35).”  Many people write that Jesus wept because he loved Lazarus; which is no doubt true.  However, I suspect that His love for Lazarus is not the reason He weeps.  In verse four Jesus says that Lazarus will not die and when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he waits two whole days.  To make sure that everyone knew that He was going to raise Lazarus from the dead he has a conversation just to emphasize that Lazarus is not just sleeping.  In verse fourteen He tells the disciples that He is glad that He was not there when Lazarus died.  It is as if Jesus is anticipating their unbelief in His power to raise the dead.

Finally, when He tells Martha that her brother will rise her response is to assure Jesus that Lazarus will rise at the resurrection.  Of course, to the Jewish mind everyone will rise at the resurrection, unless you are a Sadducee who does not believe in that sort of thing.  Martha did not believe that Jesus could or would raise her brother and I suspect the disciples may have shared her reservations and beliefs.

“Would Jesus weep today?”

All of this occurred so that Jesus could tell them, and us, that he is the resurrection and the life and mean it in the most literal of ways.  He who believes in him will never die.  I think Jesus wept because no one was believing Him.  Would Jesus weep today?  The Gospel of John is about believing that Jesus is the Messiah.  The Gospel of John is about a Messiah who dies for your sins. Apart from that belief you remain dead in your transgressions.  That would be worthy of a weeping Messiah.

What is fascinating about the Gospel of John is that you will not find the word ‘faith’ even once.  But you will find ‘believe’ ninety-eight times, twice just in the description of the Gospel of John’s purpose.  John is adamant about this belief because it is in this conviction that we gain eternal life.  Later John would even encourage early Christians by telling them plainly, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life (1Jn 5:13).”  Adam Clarke, commenting on this passage paraphrases John, “I write to show your privileges—to lead you into this holy of holies—to show what believing on the Son of God is, by the glorious effects it produces: it is not a blind reliance for, but an actual enjoyment of, salvation; Christ living, working, and reigning in the heart (Clarke 1810-1826, 925).”

If you are confident that the scriptures you hold in your hand are true and unchanged since they were penned in their original language I would encourage you to open them again and spend some time in the Gospel of John.  Ask a lot of questions, seek a lot of answers, and when you are done, I am confident that your faith will be made stronger so that you can live a belief in a Messiah who lives, works, and reigns in your heart and will produce fruit for His kingdom.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Image by Sang Valte from Pixabay 

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary On The Bible. Public Domain, 1810-1826.

Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance. Abingdon Press, 1890.

These resources can be found in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

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Laboring in Love

On By AaronIn Stuff About MeLeave a comment

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.  This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?  Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Joh 3:1-15, ESV).”

I can’t believe it has already been a month since I watched the miracle of my daughter being born into this world.  It was a difficult delivery, and my wife was most impressive.  Have you ever wondered how you would hold up under adversity?  Have you ever wondered how far you would go under the influence of pain and discomfort?  Have you ever wondered what you would go through for another person?  I now know how far my wife will go for one she loves.  I suspect that she is capable of more but from this moment on I now know how far she went.  Who I see her to be and my understanding of what motivates her has changed in a big way.

I was again reminded of one of my favorite verses.  “…looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb 12:2).”  Women, since the Garden of Eden have endured childbirth for the joy that was set before them.  I witnessed my wife endure and I witnessed, no I shared, in the joy that her endurance produced.

In the Gospel of John, Chapter 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that to see the Kingdom of God you must be born again (Joh 3:4).  Of course, Nicodemus reacts with astonishment.  How can one be born again?  Jesus doubles down in His response, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again (Joh 3:5-7).’”

That got me thinking.  To be born of water, to be born into this world, requires the endurance of an ordeal that is difficult to match short of pointing to an act of intentional torture.  Does being born of the spirit require the endurance of an ordeal and if so, who must endure that ordeal?

The first obvious answer is to point to that which Christ endured on the Cross.  In Isaiah we read, “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities (Isa 53:11).”  John A. Martin commenting on this passage notes, “his suffering, which included His death, led to life (His resurrection). Satisfied that His substitutionary work was completed (“It is finished,” John 19:30), He now can justify (declare righteous) those who believe (Walvoord and Zuck 2004).”  Jesus had to die for you and me to be accounted righteous.  “…as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Joh 3:15).”

But I think there is second sense in which an ordeal must be endured. At the moment of belief, when we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior, it is a very clear fact that we are not whisked away to be at home with Him. We remain until He calls us home. God, for His own reasons, has asked us to participate in His work of salvation. From the moment you are saved, your life is no longer your own and your duty is to bring the Word of God, His good news, to the lost and the dying of this world. I am reminded of Corrie ten Boom, forced to survive a Nazi concentration camp for helping Jews to escape Germany, who came to count flees and lice a blessing. It was the flees and lice that kept the Nazis out of her barracks long enough for the prisoners to hold a small bible study. Is that not a difficult delivery? Was Corrie’s ability to count it a blessing not connected to the joy that was set before her, the joy of being present at the moment her fellow prisoners were born of the Spirit? The moment they accepted Jesus and were born again.

Paul, encouraging the Galatians writes, “…I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Gal 4:19)!” At the time of my daughter’s delivery the labor seemed endless. But it was only for a little while and then our joy was made complete. Our labors for those who are lost are also for only a little while. I would encourage you Christian to continue in the knowledge that one day your joy will be complete. The joy of living in fellowship with your Christian brothers and sisters for eternity.

One last thought, those for who we labor are both the source of our pain and the source of our joy.  The passage in which Jesus tells Nikodemus that he must be born again has a small intro…

“Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.  But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man (Joh 2:23-25).”

It seemed to me to be a strange introduction to the encounter but now from the perspective that men are the source of our pain in labor it seems to me that Jesus is saying that He knows with whom we are struggling. He knew and knows how difficult our labor can be. Again, keep laboring on in humbleness and gentleness of Spirit and always in prayer for those that Jesus loves we must love also.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

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The Anticipation of a Wedding

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

     On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples.  When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”  And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.”  His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it.  When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “ Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now (Joh 2:1-10).”

This passage is so much fun!  There is so much symbolism here.  Jesus’ miraculous ministry begins in the context of the Jewish wedding.

“This context screams messianic prophesy associating the Messiah’s first coming with the purchase of His bride and His second coming with the celebration of the consummation of that which He has purchased.” 

In the days of Jesus, a wedding was a protracted affair.  First, the groom would travel from his father’s house to the house of the bride’s father.  He would pay the purchase price, in order to establish the marriage promise or covenant, and then he would return to his father’s house.  During the next year he would stay at his father’s house making the living arrangements for his bride.  His bride, although she knew he would return, did not know exactly when he would return.  When the groom returned the marriage would be consummated amid a celebratory seven day wedding feast.  This context screams messianic prophesy associating the Messiah’s first coming with the purchase of His bride and His second coming with the celebration of the consummation of that which He has purchased.  Jesus chose this context to point his audience to their own messianic expectations.  They were anticipating a messianic wedding.

“The feast that Jesus is pointing to will be a celebration larger than any other because the cause of the celebration is the eternal end of death and tears, the eternal end of sin.”

In Isaiah (25:6-9) we read,

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

What Jesus’ contemporary readers didn’t know was that feast mentioned here was to be a wedding feast.  They knew that they lived in anticipation of this feast, but they didn’t know it was a wedding feast.  Note the rich food and wine.  Jesus will, over the course of His ministry, associate himself as both the food and wine of this feast.

And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations

That veil, that covering, is the shame that is the result of our own sins; our own failings.

He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.

The feast that Jesus is pointing to will be a celebration larger than any other because the cause of the celebration is the eternal end of death and tears, the eternal end of sin.  This will come at a price, the purchase price of a bride.

It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

Jesus chose the context of a wedding feast to be the context of His very first miracle.  But this wedding, the wedding that Jesus and His disciples had been invited, was about to fall apart.  The wine had run out!  I cannot imagine that even a small version of a Jewish wedding in these times would have been inexpensive.  The very presence of the stone washing jars, associated with the purification rituals of devout Jews, testifies that this was a wedding hosted by a family of devout observing Jews.  They would have had a social interest in maintaining their status before the community and they could not afford the wine at their own wedding.  Oh, the scandal!  And all that scandal would have been captured in Jesus’ mother’s statement, “they have no wine.”

Jesus’ response immediately commands his mother’s attention.  “Woman, what does that have to do with me?”  Now, I do not believe that Jesus was using the condescension that this phrase would have generated in our own generation.  But he has changed the formality of his address for an intentional purpose.

As a leader of soldiers, I have subordinates that I would often address simply by their last name.  In doing so I am denoting a level of familiarity within the context of military protocol.  Conversely, when I address them by their rank such as private, sergeant, or lieutenant I am changing the level of familiarity and thus the tone of the conversation.  This is especially true if I use their rank in the absence of their last name.  Jesus was not referring to his mother as mother nor did he use her proper name.  He addressed her as woman to bring her and those in His audience to a higher level of attention in order to highlight his next statement, “My hour has not yet come.”

“Now that Jesus has their attention, He is declaring that the hour of their Messiah is close.”

John, the author of the Gospel, has already declared Jesus to be “the Word,” “the Light,” and “the Life.”  He narrated how John the Baptist was confronted by the priests and Levites who wanted to know if he was the messiah and recorded that John the Baptist not only denied being the messiah but identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God.”  The earliest disciples recognized that reference as a reference to their expected Messiah and as a result decided to follow Jesus.  Andrew even went and found his brother Simon, later renamed Peter by Jesus, and told him, “we have found the messiah (Joh 1:41).”  Now that Jesus has their attention, He is declaring that the hour of their Messiah is close.

I picture Mary, Jesus’ mother, struck dumb in that moment.  Locked, eye to eye with her son.  She meant to communicate her sympathy for the family that was about to lose standing socially and Jesus responded with, “Woman, the hour of the Messiah has not yet come.”  In that moment she may have recalled the night the angel appeared to her saying, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son… He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High (Luk 1:31-32).”  Perhaps her mind jumped from there to her visit with her cousin Elizabeth who when pregnant and carrying John the Baptist declared as the baby John leapt in her womb, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb (Luk 1:42)!”  She must have considered the shepherds, the star, and the wise men.  How Simeon had declared her son to be the Christ saying, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed (Luk 2:34-35).”  And, when Jesus was twelve, how they had lost Him only to find Him in the temple.  How everyone was amazed by His understanding.  “Do whatever He tells you,” she responds.

What is the hour of the messiah?  In the days of Jesus, the opinions of both the learned and the unlearned were diverse (Scott, 322-323).  “The Messiah was expected to be at the center of the great eschatological drama of the final age… He was to be the inaugurator of that age, the one to bring it into existence (Scott, 322-323).”  The diversity of opinion on the subject comes from the implications each of the titles used of the Messiah in the Old Testament had on contemporary thought in Jesus’ days.  The Suffering Servant, Son of Man, The Prophet like Moses, The Lamb of God; each of these carried with it a messianic task (Scott 322-323).  But rest easy Jesus is about to provide some clarity.

He commands the servants to fill some ceremonial jars with water and then to take that water to the master of the feast.  I mentioned earlier that I could not imagine even a small wedding to be an inexpensive affair.  One of the ways they would reduce the expense was to serve the best wine first so that discerning pallets would discern the high quality of wine.  As those discerning pallets became less discerning or as the evening wore on and the more prominent guests had gone the master of the feast would bring out the lower quality wine.  Usually the best wine precedes the poorer wine but in the case of this wedding the poorer wine preceded the higher quality wine.

“What this miracle is announcing is that the Messiah is going to inaugurate a new covenant that will be better than the old.”

In the context of the wedding covenant celebration Jesus was bringing attention to the wine of that covenant.  What this miracle is announcing is that the Messiah is going to inaugurate a new covenant that will be better than the old.  Jesus was pointing to the prophet Jeremiah’s words.

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (Jer 31:31-34).”

Jesus was pointing to the day in which a better covenant was coming.  His hour would inaugurate that covenant.  And although it was not yet His hour, He took advantage of the context of this Jewish wedding to tell them, with authority, that the hour was almost on them and to provide a little clarity about what that meant.

Today, if you are reading this know that the hour described by Jesus has already come.  It is the hour for which all creation was created and has eternal significance for you and your loved ones.  If you don’t know what Jesus has done, I would encourage you to find a local church and sign up for a Bible study or Sunday school.  Learn about Him.  In earlier blogs I wrote about the morality and sovereignty of time.  They present the reality that time is not eternal and that you are accountable for what you do with it.  Don’t wait.

If you are not yet ready to find or commit to a local church and you have more questions.  Feel free to contact me.  Good questions are the source material for good blogs 😉

If you are already counted among His own and want to grow a deeper more resilient faith then continue to learn and get to know Him.  I would specifically encourage a study through Hebrews.  There you will find Paul’s explanation of the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant.  But there is also so much more to discuss in regards to this passage in John; that the servants knew where the wine came from when the master did not and the significance of the stone jars and the rites of purification.  Why the third day?  Discovering what they mean starts with a question.  He, through the Spirit, will reveal Himself to you.

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Photo by Fabio Sangregorio on Unsplash

Scott, J. Julius, Jr. Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000. Find this resource in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

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Of That Which is Hidden for Kings

On By AaronIn Uncategorized1 Comment

The Gospel of John opens with the description of the Word.  It is proper in that it is capitalized and it is specific in that it is “the” Word.  The Word is a specific and proper thing, or more precisely a specific and proper person, and yet as we read this introduction, we are inclined to interpret it rhetorically.  To interpret the writer’s meaning as if he is writing a flowering introduction as opposed to saying something specific and definitive.  But that would be in contradiction to the proper and the specific that we see just in terms of the definitive article, the, that proceeds the word and the capitalization of word.  The concept might be illustrated; We are not talking about an Aaron.  We are not even talking about Aaron.  We are talking about the Aaron.  The same is true of the Word in the beginning of the Gospel of John.  We are not talking about a word, or even the word, but we are talking about the Word.

In the Greek word is translated from logos.  Adam Clarke in his commentary suggests that we should refrain from translating this word (Clarke); i.e., “In the beginning was the Logos.”  But this is exactly what I mean.  He is placing too heavy a meaning of the text on the meaning of the term logos.  For Clarke the term, “signifies a word spoken, speech, eloquence, doctrine, reason, or the faculty of reasoning.”  All of which is true specifically when applied to Jesus and thus the reasoning for the selection of the word logos by the author of the Gospel at the beginning of the Gospel of John.  However, that assumes a Greek understanding of both the writer and the audience as the preeminent understanding.  But wasn’t the Gospel of John written by a Hebrew, to a Hebrew audience, about a Hebrew concept?  Granted it was written in Aramaic and then translated to Greek, but the ideas conveyed are Hebraic ideas.  What then is the Hebrew understanding of “the Word?”

Here is where we have to reverse translate.  Not simply translate from the English back to the Greek but to translate from the Greek back to the Hebrew to find a meaning and then express that meaning in English.  We have to look for the best matching word in Hebrew for logos and I believe that matching word is the Hebrew devar.

Now, if you are interested in a more thorough discussion Douglas Estes writes a great article in The Lexham Bible Dictionary describing all the theories regarding the use of the Greek logos in the Gospel of John.  My point is much simpler and it is possible that it is an oversimplification.

In Proverbs we read, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out (Pro 25:2, ESV).”  In the Hebrew the things that God conceals and the things that the king is searching out come from the word davar.  When translating davar into English from Hebrew the vast majority of times it is translated as word.  When translating logs into English from Greek the vast majority of times it translated as word.

When the author of the Gospel of John writes, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (Joh 1:1).”  Could he be saying that in the beginning was this thing or this matter, this thing or matter was with God, and this thing or matter was God.  The story of the fall in Genesis, through the flood, the promises of God to Abraham, the exodus of Israel out of Egypt, the Law, and the story of the nation of Israel; the entire Old Testament revolves around God’s unveiling plan of redemption.  God had hidden that plan and that plan was the matter or thing that every King should search out.  The writer of the Gospel of John wasn’t telling his audience about some Greek mystery he was revealing Jesus to be that matter or thing that while hidden united the Old Testament.  He was telling his audience that although they had been rejected from the synagogue for their acceptance of Jesus the reality was that their acceptance of Jesus more thoroughly united them with the Israel of there heritage.

Sometimes we think that Jesus was plan B.  He had to do what He had to do because of our fall and our need of redemption.  But even before Adam and Eve were placed in the garden, even before the garden was created, the matter of their redemption was before God.  We are not talking about a thing, or even the thing, but we are talking about the Thing.  That Thing which all of creation was created for.  That Jesus could demonstrate His love for you by providing for you the redemption that you can not hope to attain on your own.  That redemption that secures for you an inheritance in His kingdom.  Are you the king that has found that glory?

Thanks for reading and do not forget to subscribe to my e-mail below.  I am working on some great things and I would hate for you to miss out.

Clarke, Adam. The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes. New Edition. Vol. I–VI. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife Corporation, 2014. Find this resource in the Faith, Hope, Love (Life) Store

Estes, Douglas. “Logos.” Edited by John D. Barry, David Bomar, Derek R. Brown, Rachel Klippenstein, Douglas Mangum, Carrie Sinclair Wolcott, Lazarus Wentz, Elliot Ritzema, and Wendy Widder. The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016.

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