The Gospel of John - halfpoint

The middle of the gospel, in terms of length, is somewhere around the end of Chapter 10, although I read somewhere that a natural section break is at the end of Chapter 12.  But I’m doing my half-time overview now, for Chapters 1-11. 

The beautiful parts

When you hear this gospel in snippets on Sunday mornings, you are most likely to hear the beautiful parts and not the argumentative parts.  I have found beauty, good stories, and helpful instruction in this first half:  the creation poem at the start; the stories of the woman at the well, the feeding of the five thousand, several healings; the comforting metaphors of living water, the light of the world, the bread of life.  

Continual threads

Reading the gospel straight through thus far, I can see the emphasis on (eternal) life and death, on Jesus’ authority, and the constant threat from the powers that be.  It’s a much more foreboding text than the Sunday snippets show.  There also seems to be a constant emphasis on light and seeing vs blindness.

The continued antagonism between Jesus and “the Jews”  

I imagine that the writer of John was writing at a time when the small group of Jews who followed Jesus were threatened by Jewish authorities.  If you are part of a small group threatened by authorities, you would want your leader to be a guy who knows how to stand up to the powerful.  You would want someone who is fiercely protective of those in your group, someone who says your group is right and the threatening folks are dead wrong.  Perhaps setting up these folks as the enemy is the author’s way of bringing cohesion and strength to the Jesus-followers.  It makes sense, but it doesn’t make the language any less disturbing.

My pastor suggests that when the author of John uses “the Jews” he is referring only to the Jewish authorities who are hostile to Jesus.  So, it doesn’t mean all Jews, and not even all Jewish leaders.  Okay, so perhaps the gospel was not intended to be totally anti-Jewish.  But this does not get the Gospel of John off the hook.  I still wish the author had picked a more accurate term.  And the antagonism and mocking of those hostile to Jesus is still there.  But then, they are threatening the lives of Jesus and his followers.

Why the extensive use of metaphors?

The overload of metaphors in this gospel might be a way of getting the message out about Jesus without the danger of stating plainly that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one from God.  Nah, never mind that idea - Jesus equates himself with God numerous times in the text.

Maybe the metaphors are just the preferred way of communicating ideas at that time?  And it must be said, the metaphors used in this gospel have endured through the ages.

Where are the parables?

A parable tells a story to make a point, and often elements of the parable are representative of some greater idea.  A metaphor is like a parable but without the story. The other three gospels are chock full of parables. I haven’t heard Jesus telling any parables in this gospel, but have heard plenty of pontificating and dissing people for not understanding the metaphors.

Top 10 most frequent words in Chapter 1-11 (according to wordart.com)

Jesus, come, one, Father, believe, God, know, man, Son, answer.

In this section of the gospel, the term “Son of Man” occurs 9 times and “Son of God” occurs 6 times.