John: Who Is This Man?

Which is harder, loving people whom you do not like, or loving people who do not like you? Most of us would be hard pressed to answer that, yet we are often called on to do these very things. How practical, how down to earth is the Word of God! It deals with issues right where we live. This very week you may be called on to love somebody you do not like, or love someone who does not like you.

Last week I went through the yellow pages of the telephone book and counted the number of Christian churches in Palo Alto. There are 36 of them, all claiming to be Christian. I did not even attempt to count the churches in the cities on the Peninsula. If we were to include all the cities that ring the Bay Area we would probably find that there are thousands of churches in this part of California alone.

The passage for our study today, John 17, is often referred to as the "Holy of Holies" of the New Testament. This wonderful prayer of our Lord closes the Upper Room Discourse and precedes his agony in the shadows of Gethsemane, the betrayal by Judas the traitor, his arrest and the beginning of his trials. I have called this "The Longest Prayer" for two reasons:

You cannot read Chapters 18 and 19 of the Gospel of John, which cover the trial, crucifixion and burial of the Lord Jesus, without noting that these are very carefully selected events which John records. He leaves out many of the incidents the other gospels include, while supplying details they leave out. Chapter 18, which opens with the arrest of Jesus and ends just prior to the scourging by the Roman soldiers at the command of Pilate after the Lord's first appearance before him, encompasses three major movements of events. We will not be covering the familiar stories of what happened to Jesus, but rather the emphasis that John gives to the specific events which he has selected. He is obviously aiming at creating a certain impression, and this is what we want to focus upon.

Underneath the buildings that presently occupy the north side of the temple mount in Jerusalem, archaeologists have uncovered a pavement stone that bears markings of an ancient game, rather like the game tick-tack-toe, which was played by soldiers of the Roman Empire. It has almost certainly been established that that is the actual pavement of the judgment seat of the Roman governors, the spot on which our Lord himself stood as he was condemned to death by Pilate. The pavement is called "Gabbatha" ("pavement" in Hebrew).

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, (1 Corinthians. 15:3-4)

There has recently been a rash of new movies about ghosts. Among the more popular are Poltergeist, Ghost Story, and Ghostbusters. This seems to indicate renewed interest in the occult and in the question of whether the dead can return to life and appear again before the living. Many people reading the Gospels for the first time wonder if the accounts of the resurrection appearances of Jesus are not ghost stories. For that reason I would like to examine very carefully the account of Jesus' appearances to his disciples, found in the 20th chapter of John's gospel.

The expression, "By hook or by crook," you may be surprised to learn, originated from the 21st chapter of the Gospel of John. A hook is the symbol of a fisherman, while a crook is the symbol of a shepherd. Here then in this chapter are symbolized the two ministries of the church: fishing and shepherding. That is how the work of God goes forward.