John 5 - Thursday 24th October
Today’s chapter is John 5
Tom writes:
John has exploded this extraordinary man into our consciousness. He has shown Jesus to be Lamb of God, to have power to perform mind-bending miracles, to be the one around whom all nations should form, to be the one who is above all. But, for many of John’s early readers there would be a problem with this. As any good Jewish boy would know, there is only one who is above all and His name is YAHWEH. John tackles that problem here. He doesn’t provide a doctrine of the Trinity but rather quotes Jesus’ own words about how he relates to the Father and, crucially, what the Father has given him to do in the world. (By the way this is a pretty cool example of how we can advocate for Jesus - just quote his words and talk about what he is doing in the world.) John shows the Father has given Jesus a commodity to trade in. The commodity is real, unadulterated, soul-shaking life. But Jesus doesn’t sell it and he doesn’t just distribute it willy nilly. He bestows it on certain people, and it gives him great pleasure to do so. This is an incredible image of Jesus; a bit like a company rep who is sent onto the street to hand out free goods to build a good reputation for the company. Except the company is the most prestigious you could ever find, the goods are so precious no money could buy them. And the motive is genuine concern for the crowds rather than self-interested publicity.
Jesus has been sent by His Father not just to give some people a temporary, jolly boost but to determine destinies That is what all the talk of judgement is about. And the reason Jesus is so trusted a company rep is that he is utterly in tune with the Father in every single way. He does exactly what the Father asks him to do. All the time. Now we could take this truth about being “in tune” to theorise the technicalities of the Trinity. We could. But Old Man John wants us instead - I think - to ask the question - am I in tune with the Father? Are you? There is something utterly unique about Jesus but you and I could both become more like Him than we are. That is what Old Man John is showing us. Jesus shows us what our life could look like if we chose to make it so. If I am reborn by the Spirit and am ready to stop a while in Sychar and if I make every effort to obtain the praise that comes from God (rather than the praise of people) I could actually look a bit like Jesus. Because of the Spirit, you and I can now live a life in tune with the Father. We could become people whose every word is a word that God himself would have spoken. We could become people who do extraordinary things because our hands and mouths become willing instruments of God’s intentions. I’m hugely motivated by that idea. I hope you are too. Let’s choose to increase our expectations for what it looks like to be born again of God.
Question for reflection
Why don’t you stop right now and ask God what he wants you to do this next hour?
