JOHN REFLECTION - Week 5

This week has been dominated by the so-called ‘upper room discourse’.

Fun fact, nowhere in John does it say it’s taking place in an upper room, but biblical scholars refer to John 14-17 as the ‘upper room discourse’ because Mark and Luke’s account say that Jesus and his disciples ate their Passover meal in the large upstairs room at someone’s home (Luke 22:12 and Mark 14:15). If your spidey senses are tingling, it might be because these passages, and the account in Matthew 26:17-19, are eerily similar. This could be one of those occasions where we see the outworking of Luke and Matthew’s authors using Mark’s gospel as a source for their own. So, though we have the passage three times, it might only be from one original source of information that this version of events is found. In fact, if you have a few minutes, you can sit and read the three accounts of this meal in Matthew, Mark and Luke next to each other – there are interesting points of seeing the overlap but also some particular differences!

Any which way, the synoptic stories are enough to transpose the name ‘upper room discourse’ onto this week’s passages in John. And it’s John we’re here to talk about! These four chapters contain lots of Jesus’ teachings, almost all of which are unique to John. The passages don’t flow quite naturally – which is to be expected when lots of teaching comes in one block (as mentioned in previous blogs on the sermon on the mount etc) – but each section is packed full of theological goodness and intrigue! I will highlight here some things that stood out to me, but there is much more than just these few points, so if you haven’t been reading along already, do go and read through these chapters.

We already had some fantastic sermons on the I AM sayings of Jesus in John last year, so if you want to unpack those that pop up in this weeks readings, you should listen back to those!

‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ – listen here.

‘I am the Vine’ – listen here.

“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but will tell you plainly of the Father.”  John 16:25

Another ‘hour’ of Jesus (see last week’s reflection for more…) is mentioned here, and this must have come as a relief to the disciples. They really were, I believe, trying their best to follow Jesus well and learn from all his teachings, sayings and signs, but he didn’t half make it difficult sometimes! We have the privilege now of 2000 years of studies and thinking around the words of Jesus so we can just look up what he likely meant, but the disciples had no such luxury. Jesus admits using figures of speech and that soon he will speak ‘plainly’.

I do wonder why John’s Jesus was particularly keen to wait for his hour, and kept things a little covert before then? What purpose might this layer of enigma serve?

One possibility is that we get a clue to this in the rest of the gospel. Believe, believe, believe. The word ‘believe’ occurs 98 times throughout John’s gospel!

Perhaps, then, action or teaching in plain terms before Jesus’ hour had come would impact the ability for others to believe him and believe in him?

“I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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.  The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.  Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me.  I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them.”  John 17:20-26

Setting aside the bible study mindset for a moment, I’ve always loved this part of John. I find there to be something so powerful about the idea that Jesus appears to be praying for us?! Whilst almost all of the biblical authors seem to be writing with a particular recipient in mind, Jesus speaks here of those outside of a particular time or place. We are those who have believed through the word of the disciples.

If you didn’t already think like that, have another read of the passage with that idea in your head.

 “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.” John 15:22-24

Let’s wrap up this week’s potted look at the upper room discourse with a passage that feels, on first reading, quite strange.

Is this to say that there was no sin before Jesus’ time? That doesn’t line up with the rest of what we see in scripture.

Is it that there were perfect people who had no sin but now do? I don’t know about you, but I’ve not met any perfect people…

So what is going on? It seems to me that a reasonable understanding of this is that the life and message of Jesus demands a response. Again, we return to one theme in John, ‘belief’, and before Jesus arrived there was no decision to be made about believing or not believing in him. Now he’s been, however, people must choose to accept or deny him.

Equally, Jesus’ offer is of forgiveness of sin. So, a decision to refuse Jesus is a decision to take account for your own sin. It is his works which reveal his identity and leave people with a decision to make.

Then we have another iteration of Jesus pointing out his relationship to God – to hate one is to hate the other. We know that Jesus wasn’t the most popular guy in his day, and to be revealed as the long-awaited Messiah must have been a tough thing to get one’s head around. And then to see their growing popularity, dare I say celebrity, might anger some people.

Jesus is talking about the seriousness of choosing to follow him or not. And whilst the disciples didn’t know it at the time, the next steps in their journey would force them to really consider what following Jesus meant to them.

But more on that next time…