8. THE BOOK OF SIGNS

This may have been a selfstanding book, though incorporated into John's Gospel.

The first Sign is the story of Water into Wine.
This involves the mother of Jesus, who also appears at the foot of the Cross.
In neither episode is she called Mary.
Her role is only marginal and represenative of the old ways.
Jesus states that his hour has not yet come, referring to his crucifixion.
The new wine, symbolic of the new faith, is said to be abundant
and more plesant than the old.

This not really a miracle story, but a sign pointing to something quite different.
Jesus, the bridegroom, is calling Israel to a new understanding.
The wine of the Spirit has replaced the water of purification.

9. BORN OF THE SPIRIT

Nicodemus is introduced as an aid to contrasting the old with the new;
contrasting those who have a fixed bounded, literal, view,
with those who are open to a new consciousness.

Nicodemus was introduced as a Jewish leader who was curious about Jesus.
He was symbolic of those in the hierarchy of the synagogue
who were tettering on the edge, but remained "in the dark".
So he came to Jesus, symbolically, by night (John 3.2)
It would seem that he was drawn to Jesus
despite his better judgement.

The God of the synagogue needed to be harnessed, feared
and working within the set authorised limits.
Yet Jesus was working outside such limits.

Jesus states
"Most assuredly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he can't see the realm of God."
A very provocative statement challenging the foundations of the synagogue.
To be "Born Again", is a status that has an interesting history.
It has nothing to do with a dramatic conversion experience,
nor regression to a permanent state of childhood.
Jesus was saying that, if we are to understand him,
we need to take on a new perspective of life and living.

Nicodemus is portrayed as being so comfortable in his religious life
that he can not make any sense of the words of Jesus.
His reply (Jn3:4) exposes the narrow bounds of a literal mind.

Jesus tries again (Jn3:5-7) using a new analogy.
To be born of water is simply to be born into this world.
To be born of the Spirit is to enter a new dimension of life.
It is like the experience of the passing wind.

To be human is to be self-conscious.
Self-consciousness means that the mind can roam
to the past remembering what we have done or experienced
and to the future in anticipation fo what lies ahead.
To be self-conscious is to realise anxiety and the struggle for survival.
However it also offers the possibility of escaping al boundaries,
Nicodemus an not see it. "How can these things be", he says.
Jesus tells Nicodemus that he needs to experience the transformation
which John beieves that he has experienced,
in understanding the teaching of Jesus.

The God that Jesus reveals is the source of a love
that comes, not to judge but to open the eyes of people
to see that they are a part of the whole human race.
Judgement is not a divine but a human choice.
It means prefering darkness to light, security over freedom,
to relate only to what is and never to what could be, perhaps.

10 THE WOMAN AT THE WELL

In the last half of chapter 3 John takes Jesus to visit John the Baptist
who gives a a restatement of the role of Jesus.
Jesus is the dispenser of the Spirit
linking us to the source of life.

Then Jesus escapes the attentions of the Pharisees in Judea
by leaving for Samaria, where he meets a woman drawing water from a well.
A well is where, in Hebrew scripture, a man goes to find a wife.
(as related in Genesis 24, Isaac, and Genesis 29, Jacob, and Exodus 2, Moses.)

The story by John mirrors the ancient stories,
but incorporates, the more recent, division between Samaria and Israel
which came about after the reign of Solomon and the time of captivity.
The Northern Kingdom became a mongrel race always in competition with
the Jews who maintained the autonomy in the Southern area.

To the woman's hostile question, Jesus offers her "living water".
Spong, and most commentators, interprets this as a synonym for the Spirit,
(though I, and many, might see this as a much more earthy response)
The woman lifts the conversation above the quarrels of the nations
by referring to events that precede the division at this well.
Jesus follows her by offering water that makes people whole,
so that they never need to drink again.

In the story the woman is symbolic of Samaria.
The Samaritans were said to worship five Gods (2 Kings 17),
as the woman was said to have had five husbands and now lives unmarried,
just as Samaritans now worships a God that is not the true God.
She asks where people should worship, in Samaria or at the Temple.
Jesus tells her that God is above such human divisions.

Jesus is said to conclude this interchange
by referring to himself as the "I Am", the very name of God.
Whilst this may be a later adjustment fo the text, as portraying the unbounded nature of God.

11 HEALING THE OFFICIAL'S SON

This healing story (Jn 4:43 on) almost certainly reflects that in the Synoptics
of the healing (remotely in their case) of the Centurion's servant.
It is likely that, as in those stories, the official was a Gentile.
John will use this to expose the vast gap beween Jew and Gentile.

John links this story with the of the Water into Wine, by location,
and places this as the second Sign, after that one.
The story makes three points:
1. Jesus was a barrier breaker,
setting aside the barriers behind which humans live>
It is behind our tribal barriers that we develop and
where we diminish our humanity and grow our prejudices.
2. John presents a new understanding of God,
not as an external deity, whose protection we seek
and whose power we both respect and fear, but
as a permeating presence that calls us beyond our limits.
3. Faith is different from assenting to set formulae.
It is not giving of intellectual assent to a proposition, but
a source of Trust, that leads us into a new source of reality.

The separation of Jew from Gentile was a protective device.
It was built up to preserve their identity during the Exile.
Tribal thinking defines our ways as normal and others as a threat.
It is a part of our nature and there is little we can do about it.
We need to establish positive signs of our difference from others.
For the Jews they were, Sabbath observance, kosher diet and circumcision.
They saw themselves as the people through whom God would bless the world.

No doubt other nations had the same attitude
but, of course, the Hebrew scripture only tell us of the Jews.

This enabled them to keep the nationhood alive for 1800 years
without a homeland that they could call their own.

The official came to Jesus as a last hope for his son.
Jesus tells him that his son lives, prsenting a God
unbounded by tribal difference or even location.
This is contrary to the images of God that we have built;
a God tied to holy builidings and places and even words.
When these holy structures are destroyed by growth of knowledge
we act as if God has died an dhas no further relevance to our world.

Faith is not believing in creeds, dogmas, or doctrines,
but is trusting in the divine presence at every moment.
There is no such thing as "The Faith".

To be fully alive is to give up defining barriers;
to be open to the oneness of God.

12 A CRIPPLED MAN

This is the mythologial story of the man crppled for 38 years (Chapter 5)
This chapter features the conflict between the synagogues and the Johannine movement
and the eventual result, of light being extiquished by darkness, comes into view.
In John's view God has been reduced to a maker of religious rules,
rather than one who calls us to a radical humanity.
This is portreayed through the healing of a cripple
at a place where the needy gather.

The man is said to have been unable to walk for 38 years.
The number is probably meaningful, but its sigificance has been forgotten.
It may indicate the time since the followers of Jesus fell out with the synagogue.

When asked whether he wanted to be healed, the man exhibits indecision
and blames others for his failure to take advantage of the healing pool.
In the same way, we hesitate before leaving familiar religious forms for freedom.
Jesus cuts through the protocol and tells him to get on with it - and on a Sabbath.
The healed man is then accused of working on the Sabbath by carrying his bed!
and the bounds of the conflict are made clear.

The healed man blames Jesus for his action. He was not responsible.
Later he identifies Jesus to the authorities.
He has retreated back into known security.
(Many are given the chance of freedom but dare not take it.
It is a costly decision to turn away from security and choose life>)

Meanwhile the authorities turn on Jesus.
Wholeness, they said, can not be achieved through broken religious rules.
Jesus respondes that God does not stop work on a Sunday,
and implies that God is working through him.
This the authorities claim is blasphemy!

The close relationship between God and Jesus was developed by the Johannine community
and eventually led to the doctrine of oneness and the Trinity.
Christianity will forever be the victim of the religion
which also proclaims and sustains it.

13 THE RED SEA AND MANNA

In John's Gospel, the "Feeding of the Five Thousand" is the fourth Sign
and the story of Jesus walking on water as the sixth.
John ( in Chapter 6) presents these differently to the other Gospels.
He also develops the characters of Andrew and Philip.

As the crowd appraoches, Jesus asks Philip how they can feed so many.
Philip takes the question literally and replies literally.
John tells us that the question was a test of Philip's level of understanding.
Jesus, the "bread of life", knows what he is going to do
and his message (of mutual care and sharing) is effective.
However the people become over enthusiatic, so Jesus withdraws into the hills.
This leads to his reappearence later that night by the lake, walking on the water.

These stories are not meant to be taken literally, here or in the Synoptic Gospels.
They need to be heard through Jewish ears which are familiar with the Hebrew tradition.

Andrew and Philip are presented as those who led people to Jesus,
without seeking the limelight themselves.
In doing so, they both identify Jesus as the new Moses.
Now Jesus is shown as feeding a multitude as Moses did.
Then Jesus walks on water as Moses walked across the Red Sea.
Jesus is shown as possessing the power of God that Moses had.
(however legendary those episodes might be themselves)
The use of the term for God as "I AM" emphasises the Moses connection.

In his speech, Jesus is made to say that, after actual food, hunger always comes again.
Only spiritual food gives final satisfaction.
Then he tells us to eat his flesh and drink his blood.
They must take Jesus into themselves.
This was too much. The disciples took to their boat in darkness,
but then Jesus came to them, calling them out of their place of security
into a new understanding of what it means to be human.

14 THE BROTHERS OF JESUS

Long before John wrote his Gospel, Psalm 118 was in use as a pointer to Jesus
and Messianic fovertones added to the liturgy of Sukkoth (which is based on Pslam 118).
Chapter 7 of the Gospel may be based around that symbology>

The brothers of Jesus drive the action, taking the same role as his mother at the wedding feast.
They try to force his hand. "Go to Judea", they say "and show yourself."
Jesus rejects the idea (His "time has not yet come."),
but then, as in the wedding story, does as he was asked.
There he preaches in the Temple in the midst of the Sukkoth celebrations,
and getts into a further argument about the meaning and purpose of religion.
This switches to the question as to whether Jesus is the Messiah.
When they try to arrest him, he goes into hiding asserting that
they seem unable to follow him -his argument and his path. On the last day of the feast, Jesus proclaims himself as "Living Water".
This is a term usualy used to refer to the Holy Spirit.
Nicodemus saves him from arrest by pointing out the need for a trial
at which the accusers will fail because "no ever spoke like this man".

Jesus says that he is not of this world.
He is not stuckstuck in the self-absorbed world of humanity.
He is the light before which the darkness will fade away.
He is made to claim divinity several tiem withe phrase "I am".

He tells the authorities that they are in bondage to human concerns
for survival, wealth, comfort, insecurity and fear.
Their bondage comes from their refusal to abandon
the things of this world<

The debate descends into name-calling as those believe that the alone own the truth
seek to destroy those who challenge their religious security.

John is pointing out that no religious framework can contain Jesus.
It will be in total self-giving that the given will be in control.
(is this thw situation for suicide bombers?)

15 THE MAN BORN BLIND

The man is a acorporate figure, representing those who began in darkness but have been changed.
The light brought them a new perspective, relativising what they had seen as truth.
Would they stave off the threat to their security and build new walls,
or step into new knowledge that fresh light always brings?
This was a coded description of the experience of many in John's community.

The synagogue leaders had, by this time (about 90AD), decided to oust the Christians.
They could not handle the new ideas, particularly the doing away of ethnic boundaries.
The Temple had been destroyed, but Jesus had being the new Temple.

In those days (and into recent history) sickness was a punishment for sin.
Yet this man had been blind from birth, so how had he sinned?
Jesus responds that the purpose of this blindness was
to clarify a right understanding of divinity.

The story is similar to that in Mark's Gospel.

Retributive justice sems to be assumed by John and would serve to direct human behaviour,
but to pass that retribution down though generations is a step too far, even for that barbaric doctrine.

The deatils of the story reflect similar stories in Jewish literature
and are meant as a signal that this is not to be taken literally.
Once again, the authorities reject the healing
it breaks God's law about work on a Sunday.

The problem of the Pharisees is that Jesus undermines their understanding of their religion.
If Jesus is right, then all their life-work and the foundations of their faith are wrong.
Yet what Jesus is doing and saying has the stamp od divinity.
(This was the same dilemma faced by Nicodemus, and is faced by Christianity today
which has taken on the doctrine of the Trinity and atonement theology,
and dare not rock the boat of power and personal welfare
which supports the church's foundations.)

16 BREAKING THE FINAL BARRIER

There have seven signs showing how people found new faith.
Lazarus is presented as the most complex of the characters portrayed.
Every element in the story indicates that Lazarus is not a person but a symbol.
Lazarus, and his dramatic story, does not feature in any of the other Gospels.
It is presented here in exaggerated and drawn out detail,
embracing other aspects of resurrection and belief.

If we think of it as a literal event, we might wonder how
a person bound in grave-clothes managed to walk at all,
let alone out of a tomb! Jesus tells people to release him (John 11:44).

In the follow up, the priests decide that Jesus has to die.
His message is reaching too many people and will lead to revolution,
with the inevitable consequnces of Roman reprisals.

As it says in the parable of The Rich Man and Lazarus
(which is the only other mention of Lazarus in the Bible)
'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'

The result is, as with the other Signs, that the authorities reject the Message.
They will not open themselves to new possibilities, which they find threatening.
All the things that hold the nation together would be relativised.
Tribal identity would be replaced by an open society.

From here, after a short bridging account in Chapter 12,
John's Gospel moves on to the Farewell Discourses.