We have spent a fair amount of time on the issue of “miraculous signs” in this Gospel, having already reviewed nine such appearances in the text. We have not encountered the phrase since the seventh chapter, but do so again at the close of the tenth chapter, where we read “Many came to Him and began to say, ‘John performed no miraculous sign, but everything John said about this man was true!’ And many believed in Jesus there” (10:41-42). This is prefaced by a reference to the fact that “Jesus,” following his time spent specifically in Jerusalem, where we have seen His dealings in the time periods of the Feast of Tabernacles and the Feast of Dedication, “went back across the Jordan River again to the place where John had been baptizing at an earlier time and He stayed there” (10:40). This mention of John, as we close out the tenth chapter, is mildly intriguing, as it obviously calls attention to the words and work of John the Baptist. It re-identifies Jesus with John and the exodus-themed movement that he had begun at a place not terribly distant from Jerusalem.
Clearly, by making mention that it was being said that “John performed no miraculous sign,” the author wants to hang a substantial amount of weight on the miraculous signs performed by Jesus, as reported in his Gospel. The miraculous signs are what, in the author’s mind, set Jesus apart from all those that had come before Him. With the Resurrection from the dead, following His crucifixion, being the ultimate miraculous sign, it could be said that the church was fully agreed that Jesus was quite unique. The uniqueness of the miraculous signs does not simply lie in the fact of the miraculous. It could also be seen that Jesus gained a following, with people believing in Him, His message, and His movement, through the witnessing and reporting of miraculous signs. Others had gained substantial followings as well. However, in contrast to Jesus, their followings often grew with reports of their rebellious and subversive activities, their incitement to violence against their oppressors, or their military exploits against the vaunted Roman military machine. Jesus’ following achieved no growth along such lines. He certainly did not go about achieving His popular support in the usual or expected way. Though John the Baptist is reported to have been caustic in his speech (though not in John’s Gospel), the same could be said to be true of him, as he did not gain his following along by the usual means. How could he? Had he engaged in overtly revolutionary activities, he certainly could not have heralded himself or have been heralded as preparing the path for the messiah that Jesus presents Himself to be, nor would Jesus have aligned Himself and identified Himself with John’s movement (the signaling of a new exodus for Israel, and through Israel for the world) by undergoing baptism at John’s hands.
The regular references to Moses, both explicit and implicit, are both an adjunct to the mentioning of miraculous signs and a reminder of the way in which Moses went about proving that he was God’s representative. It must be said that Moses gained a following, though the following was not gained, as he perhaps expected, when he raised his hand to kill an Egyptian that was abusing one of his fellow Israelites. That action merely sent Moses into his own period of exile, possibly delaying God’s plan to deliver Israel from their Egyptian bondage. Moses gained his following, initially, through miraculous signs, which is what he was instructed to do by God when he returned to Egypt with the demand to “let My people go.” When Moses had questioned God as to how he was going to convince Pharaoh and Israel that he spoke for the God of Israel and that he was the vessel through which God was bringing about the deliverance of His people, God provided Moses with a series of miraculous signs to perform. The book of Exodus records the performance of these various signs. We shall return to this shortly.
Returning to the text, we find the author assisting us in hammering home a point previously and repeatedly made, which is that the Gospel narrative must be heard as a unified presentation, rather than presented through selected portions of the narrative. While we can certainly elaborate on circumstances, situations, and statements, such things demand to be considered within their wider context. Any statement by Jesus, or the author for that matter, that is pulled out of the text and examined on its own without being placed in its appropriate theological, soteriological, sociological, and eschatological framework (at the very least), will end up as nothing more than an ingredient in a recipe for fallacious and anachronistic exegesis. So what assistance does the author provide? He provides it with his record of the people saying “everything John said about this man was true!” This forces the listener and the reader to recall what it was that was said by John. Just as the statements by John form the foundation for the introduction of Jesus into the narrative, this recapitulation of statements by John forms the bedrock for the transition to the second half of this narrative.
Therefore, it is important to know what John said, so that we might have these things in mind as we proceed. He said, “This one was the one about whom I said, ‘He who comes after me is greater than I am, because He existed before me.’” (1:15) He also said, “Among you stands one whom you do not recognize, who is coming after me. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandal!” (1:26b-27). He said “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one about whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is greater than I am, because He existed before me.’ I did not recognize Him, but I came baptizing with water so that He could be revealed to Israel” (1:29b-31). This speaks to Jesus’ first identifying Himself with John’s movement, undergoing the exodus-themed baptism so that He might fit into a recognizable pattern for His people. John also said of Jesus: “I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven, and it remained on Him. And I did not recognize Him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining---this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ I have both seen and testified that this man is the Chosen One of God” (1:32-34). He saw Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” (1:36b)
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