With that said, and
at risk of being redundant, one cannot allow himself to drift too far from awareness
of the fact that Jesus’ hearers, along with those for whom the account recorded
in John is prepared (again, relying on both oral and written components of the
Jesus tradition that became relatively fixed at a very early stage), would have
been thoroughly immersed in a worldview that had the entire history of Israel
that stretched back to Abraham (including the creation narrative in which
Israel’s God orders the cosmos) in view, as the story was told and re-told
(much like can be seen in the book of Acts). This would have been true
even of Gentile members of the church, as the story of Jesus would not have
been presented without instruction related to proper background, lest the Jesus
story become void of any real meaning.
Without this
immersion, and without this critical historical framework, Jesus would not have
been able to be understood by His contemporaries. If every attempt is not
made to become immersed in much the same way, so as to be able to hear Jesus
and the stories of Jesus with the same mental construct as that which was
possessed by first century Jews and those who made up the early Christian
communities, hearing the story of God’s redemptive plan as presented through
Israel, there will be a failure to understand Jesus. If there is a
failure to understand Jesus, then there is a failure to understand the God whom
Jesus shows forth; and, at least for the purposes of this author, if one fails in
those things, then one fails to understand what is truly meant by love.
So, getting back to
miraculous signs and the Moses/exodus motif that is prevalent in this Gospel, consider
the previously referenced signs provided by Moses before Pharaoh. In the
second chapter of John, after Jesus performs an action in the Temple, “the
Jewish leaders responded, ‘What sign can you show us, since you are doing these
things?’” (2:18) In the sixth chapter, after Jesus feeds the multitude,
walks on water, and speaks about Himself as the bread of life, there one finds
the inquiry of “what miraculous sign will your perform, so that we may see it
and believe you? What will you do?” (6:30) What can be seen in
Exodus? In the seventh chapter, when the Creator God commands Moses to go
before Pharaoh to demand the release of His people, He tells Moses that Pharaoh
will say “Do a miracle” (7:9). The miraculous signs come forth, but
Pharaoh’s heart is hardened. This same type of thing can be seen being
played out in John, with Jesus obviously playing the role of Moses.
Early on, Moses signs
are mildly effective, but they are said to be matched by Pharaoh’s servants
that are practiced in the secret arts. Indeed, the signs aren’t quite
good enough, which is also reflected in John. Moses begins with the signs
for Pharaoh, but then come the plagues. Though these are meant to
convince Pharaoh to set Israel free while also demonstrating the supremacy of
Israel’s God and the impotency of Egypt’s gods (much like the creation
narrative in Genesis is meant to, among other things, show forth the supremacy
of Israel’s God over the gods of the other nations, answering their various
creation mythologies with that which is presented as the creative action of the
one true God), they have the greater role of proving to Israel that Moses is
the deliverer that their God has provided, and that their God is acting on
their behalf in faithfulness to His covenant.
It is not difficult
to imagine that faith in this fact---in Moses as God’s appointed
deliverer---grew over time as the miraculous signs came forth. With the
signs, there is a growing tension between Moses and Pharaoh, and the final
plague results in the confrontation between Moses and Pharaoh in which the
freedom of the people is finally granted. The people are given their
freedom, though Pharaoh quickly attempts to rise up and re-assert himself to no
avail, and even in the freedom there will be a long and difficult journey to
their land of promise. In John, the
author indicates that Jesus signs are mildly effective, gaining him a following
in which people begin to express their loyalty to him. He even has John
the Baptist as something of a mouthpiece, just as Moses had Aaron. Within
John’s narrative world, these miraculous signs culminate in the raising of
Lazarus from the dead. In that story, it is Jesus’ love for Lazarus and
his family that prompts Him to act to raise him---to give him an exodus from
the exile of death.
This point does not
go un-noticed in an attempt to comprehend the Johannine conception of
love. In the end, the author suggests that “the chief priests and the
Pharisees,” quite alarmed by what has happened, “called the council together
and said, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many miraculous
signs. If we allow him to go on in this way, everyone will believe in
Him, and the Romans will come and take away our sanctuary and our nation” (11:47-48).
In this, does one not hear echoes of Exodus and of Pharaoh’s decision to
pursue Israel? There it was said, “What in the world have we done?
For we have released the people of Israel from serving us!” (14:6b)
For the author of
John (and the Johannine corpus), who appears to have a specific notion
concerning love, this miraculous sign of raising Lazarus from the dead is a dramatic
turning point, as it is said to be that which was responsible for the crowds
gathering to hail Jesus in His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, “because they
had heard that Jesus had performed this miraculous sign, the crowd when out to
meet Him” (12:18). It is what ultimately leads to Jesus’ death on the
cross, which was ultimately the supreme act of self-sacrificial love (going
down into death to bear the curse of an entire people) to which the entire
narrative points and upon which the fate of the cosmos rests. This, of
course, leads to the Resurrection, which, following His paramount act of love
(endured in suffering and shame), is Jesus’ exodus to the long-awaited promised
land of the redeemed creation of the Creator God, there to be joined by those
that cast their lot with Him and share in a world now re-shaped and re-formed
by the supreme ethic of love.
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