Dever: Jesus in John's Gospel

They plotted to take his life (11:53, 57). They harassed his disciples (9:22; 12:42; 16:2). They even sought to kill Lazarus after Jesus raised him from the dead (12:10-11)! Finally, of course, Jesus was betrayed, arrested, bound, deserted, denied, interrogated, struck, flogged, mocked, crowned with thorns, made the center of what amounted to a lynching, and was crucified, causing him to suffocate to death. Mildly previewing the response many had to Jesus, John introduces his book by writing, “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (1:11).

As I have reflected on this Gospel, one thing is so obvious it is easy to miss. If you want to know who Jesus is, consider one indisputable clue: the strength of the opposition Jesus received when he talked about who he is. The fate that every historian agrees befell Jesus and the fate that every local church remembers in the practice of the Lord’s Supper—violent rejection and crucifixion—suggests that something was going on that we would not expect surrounding a Galilean layman who had “no power base,” as Meier argues, nor surrounding one who was merely a pedestrian, itinerate sage. He was making some kind of claim that proved inflammatory among the people of his day and, no doubt, does the same within our own culture’s pluralistic belief in the equality of all religions. In short, the ire that accrues around Jesus in John’s Gospel appears to result from how he described his relationship with God: he presented himself as the unique Son of God.

Dever, M. (2005). The message of the new testament: promises kept. Wheaton, IL: Crossway.

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