Your personal guide to life, the universe and everything
Every day we’re asking four questions about part of the Bible. Today Bern Leckie answers:
What did I like about today's passage?
Of all the accounts of Jesus’ amazing life, I find John’s gospel the most breathtaking. If we think of the gospels as cameras at a football match, all watching the same game from a different angle, Mark is the neat, efficient one at the halfway line. Matthew and Luke cover from opposite ends, just as they are written for Jewish and Gentile audiences respectively. These three are clearly similar and naturally complement each other. But what about John?
John is the blimp camera with a unique view, not just showing the game but the Big Picture where it takes place: the stadium, the city, the world… Actually, it’s more than a blimp. It’s whatever you need for a universe-spanning, spiritually aware, multi-dimensional opening shot of all creation, God and the beginning of time. How can we get our heads around this?
John knows the scope of what he’s trying to describe and that we can only grasp it if he zooms in on a person we can follow. Here he is! Jesus? No – John! (Not the writer but a different John, just in case you thought this was going to be too easy.)
I love how John the writer is still bursting with glorious, epic pictures of darkness and light as he starts to focus on John the Baptist who demonstrates something vital. What God is doing is massive, but a faithful person can point the way to following along. God chose John the Baptist to be the person who would grab Israel’s attention, see the Spirit coming down to remain on Jesus, and then be able to tell others with conviction: go and follow him!
What’s so special about Jesus? This is the main thing the writer John wants to show us. It would help us to believe the testimonies of other people who are pointing to and following Jesus, but we probably need to see for ourselves too. So, John maps out seven signs of Jesus’ miraculous power. The first is Jesus turning water into wine at a wedding where everyone got to enjoy the fruit of God’s transformational work, and the servants became the ones privileged to see how this happens. Can you imagine being there? No-one would have walked out of that feast with a theology degree, but everyone would have a taste of God’s kingdom and the new life to come, and they met the man God sent to guide us into it.
What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?
God wants to do massive, world-changing things through faithful people who will listen to and obey him. But he knows that there is too much for most of us to grasp without relationships and people we can get to know and follow. Jesus is our ultimate guide to a new way of life and understanding everything. The Spirit helps people to recognise Jesus, follow him and do what he does. We might recognise his work through God-given spiritual sensitivity, or we might just like good wine. If we are willing to drop what we were doing and go with Jesus, he will show us everything.
What am I going to do differently as a result?
I want to spend time with Jesus the way these disciples did! I will enjoy what he shows me through this gospel and expect that it will help me to see life in a fresh way.
Who am I going to share this with?
My family and other people I follow Jesus with.