Plymothian

I find myself defending my liberal stance among conservatives in North America, and I also find myself defending my conservative stance with liberals.  The truth is that I try hard not to be conservative or liberal – firstly I try to be biblical and truthful.  I find that this does not put me squarely on either side of the political fence.  Iain Provan puts it well when he writes in his commentary on Ecclesiastes 4:1-16:

there is a truly depressing tendency, especially when matters like these [Matters of Ecclesiastes 4] are discussed among Christians in North America, to allow easy dichotomies to arise between allegedly leftist and allegedly rightist points of view on such issues as economic responsibility.  this is only slightly less depressing than a more general tendency for Christians to identify themselves as conservatives or liberals, as if the label Christian were a secondary religious tag hung around the neck of what is essentially a political animal.  christians should have no other primary commitments than to love God and their neighbours and to look after God’s world.

That task of love is far more complex than can ever be captured in a political ideology.  the first question to be asked is not whether an idea is conservative or liberal (so what?) but whether it is orthadox and biblical.  the Bible constantly strikes balances in order to catch the whole truth; political ideologies characteristically simplify and thus distort.  Thus, for example, Qoholet both urges the virtue of hard work (in common with other parts of the Bible, e.g. Eph. 4:28; 1 Thess. 4:11) and yet draws our attention to the misery of the world and advocates community.  Ideologues on the right have been known to use the first kind of text to justify inactivity in respect of the poor and oppressed, and ideologues on the left have been known to use the second kind of text to urge social reform that does not take individual sinfulness sufficiently seriously.  the Bible presses a more complex world upon us and urges a more sensitive response.  truly loving one’s neighbour (rather than simply being kind and polite) is always a challenge, yet it is the challenge set before us as we pursue life of contentment-in-community, in which we do not “eat, drink, and enjoy” selfishly, but openheartedly.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-16

 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:

   I saw the tears of the oppressed—
   and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
   and they have no comforter.
² And I declared that the dead,
   who had already died,
are happier than the living,
   who are still alive.
³ But better than both
   is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
   that is done under the sun.

 ⁴And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

 ⁵ Fools fold their hands
   and ruin themselves.
⁶ Better one handful with tranquillity
   than two handfuls with toil
   and chasing after the wind.

 ⁷Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:

 ⁸ There was a man all alone;
   he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
   yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
   “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
   a miserable business!

 ⁹ Two are better than one,
   because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
   one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
   and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
   But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered,
   two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Advancement Is Meaningless

 ¹³ Better a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer knows how to heed a warning. ¹⁴ The youth may have come from prison to the kingship, or he may have been born in poverty within his kingdom. ¹⁵ I saw that all who lived and walked under the sun followed the youth, the king’s successor. ¹⁶ There was no end to all the people who were before them. But those who came later were not pleased with the successor. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Questions

1. How is oppression linked with gain?
2. How is envy associated with gain?
3. How does the passage cover both conservative and liberal sides of the political spectrum?
4. How could Christians encourage the populace to work hard and also combat corruption in large corporations?
5. Which companies and government agencies oppress people?  How have companies like Gap and Nike changed their ways?

Going Deeper

Watch this video with oppression in mind.  How do you react?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpAMbpQ8J7g

“If I could turn back time …” is a popular motif in songs that show longing or regret.  The passage of time carries us along like a boat sailing downstream.  We can not control time – we do not exist in the future or in the past.  Our only time of existence is right here and now.  This is where a Carpe Diem attitude comes from.  There is a story being told which we can not change.  It starts with, “In the beginning God …” and finishes with “the grace of the Lord Jesus …”  We are here for our scene in the play as God has written the overall script.  He is gracious enough to let us improvise.  However, our stories are meant to be lived in harmony with the overall story. 

The opening of Ecclesiastes three is not prescriptive.  This is not a list of things that people are meant to do.  It is a descriptive list and describes the breadth of activities that God allows to happen in their time.  The overarching principle is that God controls time and we live in the present.  In the present we need to find joy in whatever the present time brings to us.  This is found in seeing the purpose of God and being thankful for whatever he has allowed us to have.

Ecclesiastes 3: 1 – 22

¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

 ⁹ What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³ That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

 ¹⁵ Whatever is has already been,
   and what will be has been before;
   and God will call the past to account.^[b]

 ¹⁶And I saw something else under the sun:

   In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
   in the place of justice—wickedness was there.

 ¹⁷I said to myself,

   “God will bring into judgment
   both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
   a time to judge every deed.”

 ¹⁸ I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. ¹⁹ Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. ²⁰ All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. ²¹Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

 ²² So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?

Questions

1. What is ‘merismus’ and how do verses 1-11 use it effectively?
2. How are animals and humans similar?
3. Where should humans find joy?
4. How does this passage caution those who have a ‘life map’?
5. What ‘times’ have you lived through (economic security, recession, WW2, 70’s, etc.)?  How was God working his will through these personal, national, and global ‘times’?

The Buddha was right in some regards.  He took a path that was similar to the one explained in Ecclesiastes.  He did not look to heaven as much as he looked to reality, and in seeing the reality of the world he preached a middle way of acceptance.  By renouncing the pursuit of gain a Buddhist can find a higher enlightenment and be released from the never-ending circle of existence.  However, the Bible goes further.  The Bible roots existence in the reality that is created by God.  If one is to truly accept reality, one must truly accept God.  To accept God means to accept a path of reconciliation and surrender through Jesus, who is the Way.  Life with Jesus causes one to mature into a person who accepts all things as coming from the hand of God.  One does not try to straighten what God has twisted, but only to straighten what God wishes to change.

The pursuit of possessions was once only available to kings.  In this egalitarian age, the pursuit of pleasure, wealth, and scientific understanding has made us rich in our own eyes, but our souls are impoverished.  The Buddhist and the Christian can both agree that time needs to be taken out of pursuing our goals and our dreams to see if such things are in line with reality.  Reality, though is best accepted when the Creator of reality is the focus of our meditation.

Ecclesiastes 1:12 – 2:26

¹² I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. ¹³ I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! ¹⁴I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

 ¹⁵ What is crooked cannot be straightened;
   what is lacking cannot be counted.

 ¹⁶ I said to myself, “Look, I have increased in wisdom more than anyone who has ruled over Jerusalem before me; I have experienced much of wisdom and knowledge.” ¹⁷Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.

 ¹⁸ For with much wisdom comes much sorrow;
   the more knowledge, the more grief.

¹ I said to myself, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure to find out what is good.” But that also proved to be meaningless. ² “Laughter,” I said, “is madness. And what does pleasure accomplish?” ³I tried cheering myself with wine, and embracing folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom. I wanted to see what was good for people to do under the heavens during the few days of their lives.

 ⁴ I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. ⁵ I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. ⁶ I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. ⁷ I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. ⁸ I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem^[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. ⁹I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.

 ¹⁰ I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
   I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my labor,
   and this was the reward for all my toil.
¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
   and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
   nothing was gained under the sun.

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

 ¹² Then I turned my thoughts to consider wisdom,
   and also madness and folly.
What more can the king’s successor do
   than what has already been done?
¹³ I saw that wisdom is better than folly,
   just as light is better than darkness.
¹⁴ The wise have eyes in their heads,
   while the fool walks in the darkness;
but I came to realize
   that the same fate overtakes them both.

 ¹⁵Then I said to myself,

   “The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
   What then do I gain by being wise?”
I said to myself,
   “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;
   the days have already come when both have been forgotten.
Like the fool, the wise too must die!

Toil Is Meaningless

 ¹⁷ So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸ I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹ And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰ So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹ For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²² What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

 ²⁴ A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, ²⁵ for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? ²⁶ To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

Questions

1. Why is the pursuit of good things (e.g. wisdom) meaningless?
2. In the writer’s time why would a king be one of the few people to try his experiment?
3. How is a life of dissatisfaction oriented toward the future, and how is a life of joy focused on the present?
4. How do people today become educated without focusing on the present act of becoming educated, but only on what it will do for them in the future?
5. How could you pray daily in a way that would develop appreciation for the tasks and relationships that God has placed in your life today?  In other words is there a time when you could discipline yourself to do this?

Going Deeper

Buddhism and other major religions have overlaps.  Most religions contain truth.  Should a Christian dialog with other religions by focusing of the difference or on the similarity?  Why do many religions agree about moral behavior and acceptance of reality?  Are the differences significant enough to be emphasized?

If you take the morning vapor and look at it as it settles in the valley, it is just a brief time and it is gone.  It is beautiful but it is fleeting.  By mid afternoon all of that moisture amounts to nothing.  When we look at the unending cycles of nature – the wind, the water, the sunrise – the linear lifespan of a person is nothing.  Against the reality of God’s Creation, the existence of the individual is small and meaningless.  In history a few people are remembered, but most are forgotten.

The writer of Ecclesiastes sets up the question, “What can the individual gain that will endure and be of consequence for the ages?”  The answer – nothing.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

¹ The words of the Teacher,^[a]son of David, king in Jerusalem:

 ² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
   says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
   Everything is meaningless.”

 ³ What do people gain from all their labors
   at which they toil under the sun?
⁴ Generations come and generations go,
   but the earth remains forever.
⁵ The sun rises and the sun sets,
   and hurries back to where it rises.
⁶ The wind blows to the south
   and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
   ever returning on its course.
⁷ All streams flow into the sea,
   yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
   there they return again.
⁸ All things are wearisome,
   more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
   nor the ear its fill of hearing.
⁹ What has been will be again,
   what has been done will be done again;
   there is nothing new under the sun.
¹⁰ Is there anything of which one can say,
   “Look! This is something new”?
It was here already, long ago;
   it was here before our time.
¹¹ No one remembers the former generations,
   and even those yet to come
will not be remembered
   by those who follow them.

Questions

1. If ‘fleeting’ is a better translation than ‘meaningless’ how is the above translation misleading?
2. What great cycles in Creation are pitted against mankind’s attempts to gain?
3. Why, in your opinion, does mankind long to gain riches, knowledge, or control?
4. What might this passage imply about how mankind should maintain God-ordained balance in the environment?
5. How should the pointlessness of hoarding affect today’s consumer society?

the writer of Ecclesiastes is popularly thought of as Solomon.  This is mostly because of his wisdom and his life experience.  However, the experiences reported in Ecclesiastes are broader than he could have had.  It is better to think of the author as a philosophical artist addressing a large gathering.  The gathering in Greek would be the Ekklesia, which gives the book its name.  He performs a wide range of perspectives as if he himself were living them.  He portrays what it would be like to have much wisdom, power and riches.  The performing philosopher or orator who collected wisdom sayings and made them his own is someone scholars now call ‘Q’ for Qoholeth.  Qoholeth is more of his role as a public purveyor of wisdom rather than a personal name.

The main themes of the book are relevant for today.  Q saw that people in his day were accumulating wealth, studying hard, or wielding power in order to control life.  Q sees taht life is too big for scientific answers to satisfy.  Man must look at the universe and see there is no way to control it and that it is utterly incomprehensible.

God brings meaning to a person’s life and we are to be content and take time to smell the roses.  In tasting the sweetness of God in the present moment life can have enjoyment.  A life spent living for future gain, future careers, future promotion, or future wealth will end in death.  All too late the person living for the future will find that they passed through life without being fully alive.  God brings life to his faithful on a day to day, moment by moment basis.

Questions

1. Do you believe that Solomon or Qoholeth wrote Ecclesiastes? 
2. Does it bother you if Ecclesiastes is written as poetic musing rather than historical fact?
3. How do people live for the future and miss the present?
4. What have you missed out on in life by looking to gain riches, knowledge, or power?
5. Pray that God will use the book of Ecclesiastes to enrich your daily awareness of his presence and his goodness.

Meaningless, meaningless! This is the oft quoted phrase from Ecclesiastes.  However, if everything is meaningless doesn’t that mean that the book itself is meaningless?  The philosopher who wrote Ecclesiastes was not a nihilist.  He actually had a perspective on life that is fairly positive.  Ecclesiastes is one of those books that many misunderstand.  Some think it contradicts much of the rest of scripture.  An example is when the author seems to imply that the soul of an animal and the soul of a human share the same fate in chapter 3.  The famous ‘Time to …’ passage in the same chapter is often used to say that each activity should be done at the right time – however, some of the acts in the list are immoral and so there can’t be a right time for them.

Read an introduction to Ecclesiastes in a Bible.

Questions

1. Who wrote Ecclesiastes?
2. Why was Ecclesiastes written?
3. How have you understood Ecclesiastes in the past?
4. Have you ever wondered how to live life on a day-to-day basis?
5. How do you cope with that fact that you live a short time and nothing that you do will last?

Browse back through the book of John and answer the following questions:

Questions

1. Why do you think some theologians divide John into the Book of Signs and the Book of Glory?
2. Do you think John 1 and John 21 are part of the original manuscript written by John?  How are they different from the rest of the book?
3. Does John help you believe?  How?
4. The Holy Spirit plays a prominant role in John.  Does he play a prominant role in your life?
5. How can the book of John encourage you in your prayer life?

The last chapter in the gospel of John has two key narratives revolving around two animals:  fish and sheep.

The fish story is generally accepted to foreshadow the evangelistic work of the church.  The sheep story foreshadows the pastoral work of the church.  Both should not be neglected.  There are many ways for the church to ‘catch’ a large number of people.  I would question, though, whether the western church in general has lost its zeal for fishing.  The 153 fish caught represents a bounty.  In today’s postmodern society people are spiritually hungry but they are tired of the church.  Like the disciples, the people of today need a transformational encounter with Jesus.  The Holy Spirit brings the life of Jesus into our lives and that life in us changes the lives of those around us.  However, what kind of passion and what kind of message are the members of God’s church cultivating in themselves.

The pastoral aspect of the church is weak in the west, too.  Either churches are infected by consumerism and offer programs that therapeutically soothe the conscience of the masses. Other churches are introspective, isolationist and even cruel in their pursuit of truth.  Of course, some churches still grow their members in a discipleship that equips them to reach others.  Some churches feed their sheep in such a way that whole communities are changed.  This latter example seems to be more in line with Jesus’ request of Peter.

Have you involved yourself in both fishing and shepherding?

John 21:1-21

¹ Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee.^[a] It happened this way: ² Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus^[b]), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. ³“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

 ⁴Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

 ⁵He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

   “No,” they answered.

 ⁶He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

 ⁷ Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. ⁸ The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards.^{[c] 9}When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

 ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Jesus Reinstates Peter

 ¹⁵When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”

   “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

 ¹⁶Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

   He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”

 ¹⁷The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

   Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

   Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” ¹⁹Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

 ²⁰ Peter turned and saw that the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them. (This was the one who had leaned back against Jesus at the supper and had said, “Lord, who is going to betray you?”) ²¹When Peter saw him, he asked, “Lord, what about him?”

 ²² Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” ²³Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?”

 ²⁴This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

 ²⁵ Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

Questions

1. How many times does Jesus ask Peter if he loves him?
2. What is Jesus doing in his conversation with Peter?
3. Why does John tell the story of the catch of fish?
4. How has Jesus equipped you to ‘catch fish’?
5. How has Jesus commissioned you to ‘feed the flock’?

Next Book

We have finished John.  I will write a brief review tomorrow.  What book would be good to study next?  Nahum?

The apostle John wants us to believe.  He wants us to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and that Jesus gave his Holy Spirit to his followers.  He lays out the evidence for the empty tomb, he had seen it empty.  He lays out the evidence for a bodily resurrection in an appearance to Mary and the disciples, particularly Thomas.  However, he knows that the blessing of truly believing in these facts will only come through a faithful acceptance. We don’t have the luxury that Thomas had of Jesus appearing to us in his bodily form.

What we have is the gift of Jesus’ Spirit.  Jesus leaves his Holy Spirit with his followers so that they may believe.  When we investigate Jesus we can do so in a skeptical and disrespectful way and Jesus is not duty-bound to cultivate belief.  However, to those who are truly seeking after Jesus and want to find him, the evidence of John’s gospel comes as truth.  We read the words about Jesus’ resurrection and we know that literally, historically this occurred.  Jesus’ Holy Spirit enters into our lives and we know him in the transformed way that the disciples began to experience him in John 20.

John 20: 1-31

¹ Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. ²So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

 ³ So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. ⁴ Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, ⁷ as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. ⁸ Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹ (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) ¹⁰Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

 ¹¹ Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb ¹²and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

 ¹³They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”

   “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” ¹⁴At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

 ¹⁵He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

   Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

 ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

   She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

 ¹⁷Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

 ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

 ¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

 ²¹ Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

 ²⁴ Now Thomas (also known as Didymus^[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

   But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

 ²⁶ A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

 ²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

 ²⁹Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

The Purpose of John’s Gospel

 ³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe^[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Questions

1. Why was John’s gospel written?
2. What things would John have us believe about Jesus in this passage?
3. What does Jesus give to his disciples?
4. How does the Holy Spirit lead you into an intimate relationship with Jesus?
5. How are knowing and believing connected in your life?

It is ironic that Jesus is the crucified king.  It is ironic that Pontius Pilate should acknowledge that Jesus is King of the Jews probably to spite the Jews.  In so doing the man who asked, “What is truth?” declares a very important truth.  The King of the Jews is lifted up in John and glorified through crucifixion.  For John, things are not what they seem.  For John there are layers of meaning.  The quality of the tomb is also important when understanding that Jesus is king.  The tomb that a crucified victim would usually be thrown in would be an inglorious hole outside the walls of the city.  Wild animals might even ravage the body.  Jesus is placed by a wealthy man in an unused tomb.  This again marks that there is something distinct about Jesus.

When we look at the sign that Pilate placed over Jesus’ head, it was written in Greek, Aramaic, and Latin.  Jesus was announced as the king to all the peoples of the known world.  In other words, Jesus is not just the King of the Jews but he is raised up as the universal king.  This foreshadows the spread of the gospel through Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.  For John, this death on the cross is no sad defeat but it is the ironic triumph of a conquering king who completes his work for his subjects.

John 19:16b-42

So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. ¹⁷ Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). ¹⁸There they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

 ¹⁹ Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. ²⁰ Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. ²¹The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”

 ²²Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”

 ²³When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.

 ²⁴“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”

   This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,

   “They divided my clothes among them
   and cast lots for my garment.”^[a]

   So this is what the soldiers did.

 ²⁵ Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman,^[b] here is your son,” ²⁷and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

The Death of Jesus

 ²⁸ Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. ³⁰When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

 ³¹ Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. ³² The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. ³⁵ The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. ³⁶ These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken,”^{[c] 37} and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced.”^[d]

The Burial of Jesus

 ³⁸ Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. ³⁹ He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.^{[e] 40} Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. ⁴¹ At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. ⁴² Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Questions

1. Which facts in John’s account point to Jesus as king?
2. Why does John tell us that Jesus legs were not broken; a hyssop branch was used; and that Jesus’ blood flowed out?
3. Who secretly followed Jesus?
4. What do you understand as the rights of a king?  What are Jesus’ rights?
5. What does this passage have to say about those who follow Jesus in secret fear?