Week 6 John Class Woman caught in adultery Problem with the text - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Week 6 John Class

Woman caught in adultery

• Problem with the text
• Ancient manuscripts either omit text, put it

somewhere else, even in Luke’s gospel.

• However, it is a part of the canonical text

• Mercy is in the news
• Jesus shows the proper way to give mercy:

forgiveness for the past, but reform for the future

i am the light of the world

• Theology again
• Controversy with Pharisees: "Jesus spoke to them

again, 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 NAB)

• Relationship between Jesus and Abraham
• Recurring accusation that Jesus has a demon.
• Obviously there is spiritual power. But, adversaries

are convinced it is not of divine origin.

Healing of the Man born blind

• important story for the liturgy
• Blindness
• physical
• spiritual
• Note the man has both blindnesses taken away

during the course of the story.

• Lengthy discourse
• Multiple investigations and interrogations

• Theology attached to narrative
• Healing of physical blindness leads to discussion
• f spiritual blindness

good shepherd

• Jesus the good shepherd. Another theological

excursus.

• Identity of the Christ
• "So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,

"How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly."" (Joh 10:24 NAB)

• "The Father and I are one." The Jews again picked

up rocks to stone him.” (Joh 10:30-31 NAB)

Book of signs part 4

• Healing of Lazarus
• Preparation of Jesus for death
• Entrance into the City
• Plotting to put Jesus to death
• Summary of book of signs.

• Another important story: Jesus triumphs over

death.

• So much of the whole gospel is contained here in

this one story.

• Characters:
• Lazarus
• Martha & Mary

• Lazarus. Name also appears in Luke, but not the same person:

"And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps that fell from the rich man's table. Dogs even used to come and lick his sores." (Luk 16:20-21 NAB).

• Lazarus was a common name in the first century, there are

inscriptions with this name on ossuaries.

• Name means “God helps”
• Lazarus: the one who Jesus loves
• Symbol for all humanity

• Martha and Mary
• Mary is identified as the one who anoints Jesus. When

does that happen?

• "They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served,

while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him. Mary took a liter of costly perfumed oil made from genuine aromatic nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair; the house was filled with the fragrance

• f the oil." (Joh 12:2-3 NAB)
• Sequence is a bit off

• Jesus loves this whole family. This story shows the

solidarity of Christ with human families.

• Lazarus is dead. A great sign is to follow
• Interesting reaction from the disciples:
• "So Thomas, called Didymus, said to his fellow

disciples, "Let us also go to die with him."" (Joh 11:16 NAB)

• I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
• This time the theology is part of the story

• Jesus wept (John 11:35)
• CCC 470: The Son of God. . . worked with human hands; he

thought with a human mind. He acted with a human will, and with a human heart he loved. Born of the Virgin Mary, he has truly been made one of us, like to us in all things except sin.

• CCC 478: Jesus knew and loved us each and all during his life, his

agony and his Passion, and gave himself up for each one of us: "The Son of God. . . loved me and gave himself for me."116 He has loved us all with a human heart. For this reason, the Sacred Heart

• f Jesus, pierced by our sins and for our salvation,117 "is quite

rightly considered the chief sign and symbol of that. . . love with which the divine Redeemer continually loves the eternal Father and all human beings" without exception

• Why does Jesus weep?
• He was sad for Lazarus?
• "When Jesus heard this he said, "This illness is not to end in

death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it."" (Joh 11:4 NAB)

• He was sad for Martha and Mary?
• "Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on

the last day." (Joh 11:24 NAB)

• Jesus weeps because he is moved at the plight of the human race.

• Jesus is the voice calling the dead to new life.
• "Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is

now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son

• f God, and those who hear will live." (Joh 5:25 NAB)
• CCC 988: The Christian Creed - the profession of our

faith in God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in God's creative, saving, and sanctifying action - culminates in the proclamation of the resurrection of the dead on the last day and in life everlasting.

• After the death and resurrection of Lazarus, the

death and resurrection of Jesus takes over.

• This explains, perhaps, the reordering about the

anointing.

• The anointing of Mary directly points to the death of

Jesus.

• By changing the order the sequence of his death is

clearly revealed.

• Again, be careful with the word “Jews.”
• "Now many of the Jews who had come to Mary

and seen what he had done began to believe in

• him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and

told them what Jesus had done." (Joh 11:45-46 NAB)

• Not simple (review Brown 157-175)

• The passage about Caiaphas is dripping with irony
• Fear of the Romans.
• In fact, the Romans came to Jerusalem in 70AD and destroyed the

Temple

• "But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to

them, "You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” He did not say this on his own, but since he was high priest for that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also to gather into one the dispersed children of God.” (Joh 11:49-52 NAB)

• In fact, Jesus does die to save the “nation,” the people.

Mary anoints

• Interesting historical details
• The anointing takes place 6 days before. Saturday evening.

The next day would be Palm Sunday (in fact, Jesus enters the city the following day).

• Pound of costly ointment, pure nard.
• Nard (or spikenard) fragrant oil from the root of the nard plant that

grows in the mountains of northern India.

• 300 denarii. A denarius was a Roman silver coin. It was about the

daily wage of a laborer.

• Exotic and costly

• Ironic that Judas is the one quibbling for money. He will betray Jesus for

much less.

• "He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a

thief and held the money bag and used to steal the contributions." (Joh 12:6 NAB)

• "You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have

me."" (Joh 12:8 NAB)

• Not indifferent to the poor, think of this as a reminder that the poor can be

helped all the time.

• "The land will never lack for needy persons; that is why I command you:

"Open your hand freely to your poor and to your needy kin in your land."" (Deu 15:11 NAB)

Jesus enters the City

• Entrance into Jerusalem fulfills the prophecies about the Messiah.
• "Exult greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout for joy, O daughter

Jerusalem! Behold: your king is coming to you, a just savior is he, Humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zec 9:9 NAB)

• Reminiscent of the entrance of Solomon after David appointed

him as king to follow him: "Then Zadok the priest took the horn of

• il from the tent and anointed Solomon. They blew the ram's horn

and all the people shouted, "Long live King Solomon!” Then all the people went up after him, playing flutes and rejoicing so much the earth split with their shouting." 1Ki 1:39-40 NAB)

• Jesus is the Savior for the people of Israel.
• Immediately, Greeks come to find him.
• He is the Savior of Jew and Gentile.
• The hour finally comes.

The Hour of Jesus

• There are 17 mentions of the hour of Jesus in the Gospel.
• Before chapter 12, the hour is always in the distance.
• At chapter 12, the hour has arrived.
• Hour refers to fulfillment. It is the decisive moment.
• Sometimes the hour is good:
• "Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be

glorified." (Joh 12:23 NAB)

• "Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when

the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live." (Joh 5:25 NAB)

• Sometimes its bad:
• " "I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? 'Father, save me from this

hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour." (Joh 12:27 NAB)

• "They will expel you from the synagogues; in fact, the hour is coming

when everyone who kills you will think he is offering worship to God." (Joh 16:2 NAB)

• "When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has

arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.” (Joh 16:21-22 NAB)

• “The Hour” does not always refer to the same thing.

Be sure to know the hour to which you are referring.

• Jesus talks about his death
• "And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself."" (Joh 12:32

NAB)

• Jesus uses this language other places:
• "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be

lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."" (Joh 3:14-15 NAB)

• "So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses: Make a seraph and

mount it on a pole, and everyone who has been bitten will look at it and recover." (Num 21:7-8 NAB)

• The serpent to be crushed this time is the ancient enemy. "Now the snake was the

most cunning of all the wild animals that the LORD God had made. He asked the woman, "Did God really say, 'You shall not eat from any of the trees in the garden'?"" (Gen 3:1 NAB)

• Jesus summarizes his teaching:
• "Jesus cried out and said, "Whoever believes in me believes

not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness." (Joh 12:44-46 NAB)]

• Interesting: "Whoever rejects me and does not accept my

words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day," (Joh 12:48 NAB)

• Which commands? There is not a list in this gospel. Read this

gospel in the light of the others?

Summary of the Book of Signs

• 7 Signs, but how do you count them?
• 1. Water into wine at Cana (John 2)
• 2. Healing of official’s son (John 4:46ff)
• 3. Healing of paralytic (John 5)
• 4. Feeding of the 5000 (John 6)
• 5. Healing the man born blind (John 9)
• 6. Raising of Lazarus (John 11)

• That is only 6 signs. Now some people include the

walking on water as a sign.

• But, that passage does not refer to the event as a

sign.

• Also, signs lead to belief, but there isn’t much in the

text showing that the walking on water lead to belief.

• The 7th sign (in my opinion) is the death and

resurrection of Jesus.

What have we learned so far?

• Mixture of narrative and theology
• Language is much different from that of the

synoptics.

• Much of the theology is found in controversy
• Works of Jesus lead people to faith
• No lists of commandments or moral teachings up to

now.

Module 8

Book of Glory Pt 1: ch 13-15

Book of Glory

❖ Most commentators split John’s gospel into two major

sections.

❖ We’ve completed the first section. ❖ Second section is called book of Glory.

Glory

❖ Glory: doxa in the Greek ❖ The “glory of God” means something like the weight of his magnificence. It

also comes to signify his presence.

❖ "The glory of the LORD settled upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it for

six days, and on the seventh day he called to Moses from the midst of the cloud." (Exo 24:16 NAB)

❖ "When the priests left the holy place, the cloud filled the house of the LORD

so that the priests could no longer minister because of the cloud, since the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD." (1Ki 8:10-11 NAB)

❖ "When my glory passes I will set you in the cleft of the rock and will cover

you with my hand until I have passed by." (Exo 33:22 NAB)

Glory

❖ The created world glorifies God by recognizing his

presence, his essence.

❖ "Joshua said to Achan, "My son, give glory to the LORD,

the God of Israel, and praise him by telling me what you have done; do not hide it from me."" (Jos 7:19 NAB)

❖ "The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament

proclaims the works of his hands." (Psa 19:2 NAB)

❖ "Give to the LORD the glory due his name. Bow down

before the LORD's holy splendor!" (Psa 29:2 NAB)

Glory

❖ The book of Glory shows the divinity of Christ revealed

in the Cross. This is his “hour” of glory.

❖ Hinted in the prologue: ❖ "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." (Joh 1:14 NAB)

Glory

❖ Jesus is glorified through his death: ❖ "Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the

Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." (Joh 12:23-24 NAB)

❖ The glory of the timeless and eternal God comes into

• ur time when the word becomes flesh. The hour is at

hand.

Glory

❖ We will try to notice the various ways “glory” is used in

the gospel.

❖ The word “glory” appears 15 times ❖ The word “glorify” appears 8 times ❖ Important concept in John’s gospel

Chapter 13

❖ We saw last module that after the death and

resurrection of Lazarus comes the death and resurrection of Jesus.

❖ Events began with the anointing by Mary and the

triumphal entrance into Jerusalem

❖ Now we move to the “Last Supper.”

❖ Passover central to the story telling. ❖ Lazarus event took place “6 days before passover.” ❖ 13 begins: "Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that

his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end." (Joh 13:1 NAB)

❖ Notice key terms: passover, hour, love.

❖ Washing of feet. ❖ Notice there is no Eucharistic narrative in John’s gospel. ❖ Did the foot washing ceremony take the place of the Last

Supper in the early community?

❖ Did both events take place? ❖ Are the foot washing and the Eucharist in competition? ❖ “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done

for you, you should also do." (Joh 13:15 NAB)

❖ A recurring theme of the gospel: God acts first, faith is the

response.

❖ "And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling

among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and truth." (Joh 1:14 NAB)

❖ "From his fullness we have all received, grace in place

• f grace," (Joh 1:16 NAB)

❖ A recurring theme of the gospel: God acts first, faith is the

response.

❖ Wedding feast: "Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana

in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him." (Joh 2:11 NAB)

❖ Healing of the child: "The father realized that just at that time Jesus

had said to him, "Your son will live," and he and his whole household came to believe." (Joh 4:53 NAB)

❖ Feeding the 5000: "So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker

baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, "This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."" (Joh 6:13-14 NAB)

❖ Man born blind: "He said, "I do believe, Lord," and he

worshiped him." (Joh 9:38 NAB)

❖ Raising of Lazarus: “Now many of the Jews who had

come to Mary and seen what he had done began to believe in him." (Joh 11:45 NAB)

❖ The “works” of Jesus had the effect of causing faith. God acts

first, people respond with belief.

❖ New and interesting shift. ❖ Belief was the response for those who first encountered Jesus. ❖ Now, what about those who already believe? ❖ Jesus asks for a new response. ❖ "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your

feet, you ought to wash one another's feet." (Joh 13:14 NAB)

❖ We have noticed that to this point there hasn’t been a

lengthy moral teaching.

❖ No Sermon on the Mount, no Beatitudes ❖ Instead, Jesus bases his moral teaching on the foot

washing.

❖ Explains more fully: "I give you a new commandment:

love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another." (Joh 13:34 NAB)

❖ Catechism 1823: Jesus makes charity the new

commandment.96 By loving his own "to the end,"97 he makes manifest the Father's love which he receives. By loving

• ne another, the disciples imitate the love of Jesus which

they themselves receive. Whence Jesus says: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love." And again: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."98

❖ Similar to the great commandment in the synoptics. ❖ ""Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"

He said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."" (Mat 22:36-40 NAB)

❖ John decides to include only this moral teaching.

❖ Last supper scene ❖ Betrayal of Jesus: takes place after receiving the morsel. ❖ “So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was

night." (Joh 13:29-30 NAB)

❖ First mention of the beloved disciple ❖ "One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved, was reclining at Jesus'

side." (Joh 13:23 NAB)

❖ "When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he

said to his mother, "Woman, behold, your son."" (Joh 19:26 NAB)

❖ "So she ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom

Jesus loved, and told them, "They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don't know where they put him."" (Joh 20:2 NAB)

❖ "So the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." When

Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment, for he was lightly clad, and jumped into the sea." (Joh 21:7 NAB)

❖ No mention of the beloved disciple before chapter 13. ❖ One theory: BD was a later disciple who was quite

young at the Last Supper, making it feasible for him to have written the Gospel some 50 or 60 years later.

❖ Anonymous could have deep meaning.

❖ Peter’s promise to lay down his life

❖ Promise of the Father’s House. ❖ Father’s house was mentioned in conjunction with the cleansing

• f the Temple.

❖ "and to those who sold doves he said, "Take these out of here,

and stop making my Father's house a marketplace."" (Joh 2:16 NAB)

❖ New Temple: ""This temple has been under construction for

forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking about the temple of his body." (Joh 2:20-21 NAB)

❖ "Jesus said to him, "I am the way and the truth and the

• life. No one comes to the Father except through

me." (Joh 14:6 NAB)

❖ Perhaps the most popular funeral reading ❖ Father’s house is a popular image. ❖ But, must stress importance of Christ as the only way,

truth, life.

Jesus the Vine

❖ We will discuss the paraclete in the next module. ❖ Chapter 15 introduces another important Johannine concept: remain ❖ Remain is used 17 times in John’s gospel and 8 times in the Letters. ❖ The Greek is “meno.” Could mean: remain, stay, live, dwell, continue, abide. ❖ Fits nicely with the image of the Father’s house in 14. ❖ The house is the Body of Christ, the Church ❖ How to remain: "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,

just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love." (Joh 15:10 NAB)

❖ His only commandment in John: love one another

❖ Primacy of Christ: ❖ " It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you

and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you." (Joh 15:16 NAB)

❖ "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me

first." (Joh 15:18 NAB)