PROPHECY
Prophecy in the Christian scriptures of the New Testament serves a different purpose than prophecy served in the Hebrew scriptures. Prophecy in the Hebrew scriptures was more about pointing out the ignored obvious (the injustice exercised by the ruling class and corrupt religion) to warn of impending doom, whereas prophesy in the New Testament is more about taking the obvious signs of impending doom (wars, rumors of wars, natural calamities, and persecution) and forecasting God's ultimate victory in Christ.
In the Hebrew scripture, no matter how dire the prophecy, there is always a conciliatory note attached reassuring the Chosen People that God always loves and cares for them; that ultimately the world will be a better place because of God's glory in and God's love of creation.. Prophecy in the New Testament is apocalyptic and messianic-based. As such, New Testament triumphalism is attached to it. God is glorified through the ultimate victory of Christ as King.
MESSIANIC PROPHECY
It is important to note that apart from the apocryphal book of Second Esdras, there is no direct reference to the Messiah in the ancient Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament. In fact, in the New Testament the older the gospel, the less the Messiah is referenced. For example, in Mark, the oldest of the gospels, the Messiah is mentioned six times, in Luke twelve times, in Matthew seventeen times and in John sixteen times.
In Mark there is only the claim of Peter that Jesus is the Messiah, other than that it is inferred. Both writers of Luke and Matthew claim that they are writing about the Messiah, with Jesus strongly inferring that he is but never directly saying it in these texts. By the time John is composed, Jesus claims to be the Messiah.
It is interesting that, with the exception of Romans 9:5, there is no specific mention of the Messiah in any of the Epistles, which lends support to the notion that as time passed and Jesus did not reappear within the lifetime of his disciples and the earliest apostles there re-emerged an apocalyptic fervor about the second coming of the Messiah who will come to judge both the living and the dead.
DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES
In the Hebrew scriptures prophecy is about justice and the future establishment of peace through the restoration or redemption of Israel, whereas the role of prophecy in the New Testament it is about judgment and the reign of the righteousness with Christ as King.
Speaking of prophecies in the Hebrew scriptures, there is a marked difference between how Judaism and Christianity views them. In Judaism most of the prophecies of the Hebrew scriptures are yet to be fully realized. Christians see most as fully realized in the person of Jesus the Christ of God. In both cases, the role of prophecy is ultimately about reassurance; that no matter how bad things are or how bad they will become for those chosen of God, God is faithful to them.
John 16
John 16 opens with Jesus prophesying that he is returning to his Father and that things are going to get bad for his disciples; that they will be thrown out of the synagogue and will be killed.
The interesting thing about New Testament prophecy is that most of it serves as a precursor to the return of Christ in glory; that much of what these prophecies say have taken place or were currently taking place by or at the time they were written. The audience of John's day likely shook their heads in agreement that what Jesus said was true because they were experiencing such events at the time.
For Christians of today, prophecies of this type hold a pseudo-historical interest as something occurring in the past verifying the prescient knowledge of God in the person of Jesus. In addition to that, most of today's Christians see apocalyptic prophecies as yet to be fulfilled, since Christ hasn't returned and the signs of his return are so generalized as to be applicable to every and any period of time.
THE HOLY SPIRIT
That the Holy Spirit receives a great deal of attention during Jesus's table discourse is worthy of one's attention. It demonstrates an evolving theology that begins to define the triune nature of God, which became identified as the Trinity by the late second century.
More than any of the other gospels, John defines the role of the Holy Spirit. The term, particularly used in John, to describe the Holy Spirit is paraclete, which is an anglicised term derived from the same-sounding Greek word frequently defined as comforter, advocate, or helper.
In this chapter, the Holy Spirit is described as presenting incontrovertible evidence against the world regarding its understanding of sin, righteousness, and judgement in the light of the truth that Jesus is the Son of God. It is an odd statement that can leave one glossing over it as scriptural hyperbole:
The world doesn't understand the true nature of sin because it doesn't believe.
It is void of the righteousness because the epitome of righteousness, Jesus, is returning to the Father.,
The world(ly) lack judgement because the identified ruler of the current evil world, Satan, already is judged.
Jesus makes the case that if he doesn't return to the Father the Holy Spirit will not come.
In all of the gospels , however, the Holy Spirit is present at the baptism scene involving John the Baptist. John the Baptist sees the Spirit of God descending on Jesus like a dove. In essence, the Holy Spirit is constantly present while Jesus is present. It is what makes Jesus divine. What Jesus is saying is that the divination of those who believe him cannot occur until he returns from whence he came, the Father.
What John is implying is that Jesus is victorious; in that, through his atoning sacrifice and resurrection, he paves the way for the chosen believers to enter into divine union that he and the Father have through aegis of the Holy Spirit. This, of course, is not fully realized until, like Jesus, we pass from this life to new life in the resurrection, yet to come.
SYMBOLS
As always I am interested in the use of symbols in the New Testament. In reference there are two symbols used to signify the presence of the Holy Spirit, a descending dove and tongues of fire. A descending dove is mentioned as resting on Jesus at the Jordan river during the time of John the Baptist. While fire is not mentioned in connection to the Holy Spirit in the Gospel of John, it is in both Matthew and Luke and was likely understood by the Johannine community as representing the Holy Spirit during the Pentecost event.
I would suggest that the writers of each of these gospels understand the significance of the dove and it's association with Noahide covenant, as recorded in Genesis 8. The dove is sent out by Noah and returns with a sign of new life of an emerging new and cleansed earth upon which God will estabish his Chosen People.
The dove descending on Jesus represents the new covenant being made through Jesus. The Spirit of God heralds this new covenantal relationship by resting on the beginning of a new creation, Jesus. It is, after all, the Spirit of God that moved above or stirred the waters of chaos before speaking creation into being in the first chapter of Genesis. In the New Testament, the Spirit takes shape, first as a dove to signal a new realm of creation and then as tongues of fire which calls to mind the Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel by night after the Passover. In like manner, after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus - the new Passover - the Holy Spirit takes the form of fire to lead and guide the Church, the newly formed body of Christ, through the darkness that is this world.
THE HOLY SPIRIT ADVANTAGE
In John, Jesus claims it is to his disciples' advantage that he leaves so that the Holy Spirit can come. In fact, Jesus tells his disciples there simply was not enough time to tell them everything, and that is why the Holy Spirit is being sent to instruct them; to tell them what Jesus wants them to know. As Jesus will glorify the Father, the Holy Spirit will glorify Jesus.
In John, Jesus raises the role of the Holy Spirit to new heights and has Jesus explaining to John's audience the significance of Christianity's Pentecost experience - so much so, that this section of John is often read as the Gospel during Pentecost to this day in most liturgical churches. It is interesting that John has Jesus opening the door to new information; things that Jesus did not or could not tell his disciples at the time. As you recall, in John 14 Jesus also told the disciples that greater things could be accomplished by them or those who follow them than what Jesus did.
It is not clear what is meant by those statements. Were greater acts produce? If so, what were they? Could they still occur? What other information did the Holy Spirit impart to Jesus's disciples or to those who followed them? Is there more to come?
There is no small amount of ambiguity about such statements or claims. Prophetically speaking, they are rather weak and suggest possibility rather than certainty. From a practical point of view, they offer the writers John a degree of literary license by which to defend their claims about Jesus's teachings. More importantly, however, they offer room for expansion in the domains of religious accomplishment and intuition. To date I have found no reference to these verses as directly applying to any deeds greater than Jesus's or new teachings produced of Jesus since they were written.
Some might conclude that the letters of John and the Book of Revelation is being referenced by such statements, but I remain skeptical of such conclusions for the same reason that I remain highly skeptical that the Gospel of John is the work of one author. While it certainly fits the Johannine motif of "just believe," the Book of Revelation is talking about itself. Nevertheless, its placement as the final book in the New Testament canon has certainly wrapped things up nicely, and in some cases with leather bindings.
A FINAL CLUE
At the end of chapter sixteen, Jesus tells his disciples that he had been using figures of speech when talking to them and that he would no longer do that. This is a curious line in John and I would suggest it is code to the reader and listener to review what has been written to seek out the hidden meanings of John's text.
PRAYER
There is a very interesting and revealing Latin phrase that captures the Johannine theological perspective on prayer. The phrase is Lex orandi, Lex credendi, which is attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine of Hippo who lived in the 5th century. The meaning of this phrase is literally, the law of prayer [is] the law of belief or, another way of translating it is, we believe in the manner in which we prayer. Throughout this table discourse, Jesus instructs his disciples to ask the Father to give them what they need in his name and the Father will grant it. Jesus mentions this repeatedly in chapters 14, 15, and 16. In chapter 14, Jesus says he will do whatever is asked in his name, and in chapters 15 and 16, the Father will grant whatever is asked in Jesus's name.
IN JESUS'S NAME
The intercessory nature of payer is strongly embedded in Christianity as is the mediating nature of prayer; which implies that God is inaccessible without presenting the correct credentials; invoking the name of Jesus as a true believer. What the reader is exposed to in these three chapters is indoctrination - repetitious instruction that becomes so ingrained in one's psyche that one cannot but do it. It is like the those chain letters that say if you don't pass it on to ten people, bad luck will happen or you will forfeit the good luck you could have had if you passed it on. So pervasive is the idea that prayer in the Christian church has to end in Jesus's name that in almost every liturgical church, where prayers are largely written out, they end with words like, "through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you (the Father) and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen." Evangelical churches are even more prone to throw Jesus name behind anything that smacks of prayer-like nature.
Nowhere in the Synoptic Gospels is this teaching stated by Jesus. The Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples is absent in John, but is noteworthy in that Jesus never mentions himself in that prayer and clearly claims that God is the Father of all - Not so in John. Access to God in prayer is assured to those who invoke Jesus's name as a true believer. By doing this, John was utilizing Prosper of Aquitaine's maxim, Lex orandi, Lex credeni, prior to Prosper stating it.
Nowhere in the Synoptic Gospels is this teaching stated by Jesus. The Lord's Prayer, which Jesus taught his disciples is absent in John, but is noteworthy in that Jesus never mentions himself in that prayer and clearly claims that God is the Father of all - Not so in John. Access to God in prayer is assured to those who invoke Jesus's name as a true believer. By doing this, John was utilizing Prosper of Aquitaine's maxim, Lex orandi, Lex credeni, prior to Prosper stating it.
THE TALISMAN EFFECT
What is interesting is that John, according to most scholars, is addressing a largely Jewish audience. In Judaism, there is no need for a mediator. God can be addressed directly and this is true for what Jesus teaches about prayer as mentioned in his teaching of the Lord's Prayer. Here John may be borrowing a page from Paul's letter to the Romans, where Paul mentions that the Holy Spirit and Jesus intercedes for the Church, not because we ask them to do so, but because that is what they do.
In John, the name of Jesus is treated like a verbal talisman to insure a response.
The power of a talisman is that it offers comfort to those who believe in its power and where it becomes an object of one's focus. Jesus is that for the Johannine community. For all of its prayers, Judaism appeared from the Johannine perspective to have failed. There is no Jerusalem and no temple. Since Jesus is the very Word of God made flesh, those who are chosen to believe and maintain their belief in Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God are assured that God will answer their prayers, which brings us to Jesus's High Priestly Prayer.
In John, the name of Jesus is treated like a verbal talisman to insure a response.
The power of a talisman is that it offers comfort to those who believe in its power and where it becomes an object of one's focus. Jesus is that for the Johannine community. For all of its prayers, Judaism appeared from the Johannine perspective to have failed. There is no Jerusalem and no temple. Since Jesus is the very Word of God made flesh, those who are chosen to believe and maintain their belief in Jesus as the only-begotten Son of God are assured that God will answer their prayers, which brings us to Jesus's High Priestly Prayer.
JOHN 17
GLORY IN SACRIFICE
LEX ORANDI, LEX CREDENDI
The Gospel of John does not have a Garden of Gethsemane scene where Jesus is portrayed as praying that "this cup (of suffering) will be taken from him and sweating like great drops of blood. Rather John takes that moment of Jesus's private prayer and utilizes it as part of Jesus's table discourse - as a teachable moment. The prayer is divided into three sections: prayer about himself, prayer for his disciples, and prayer for those who believe in him. It's a great example of lex orandi, lex credendi. It sums up nicely what John had Jesus saying in the last three chapters.
GLORY IN SACRIFICE
Unlike the questioning prayer of submission Jesus offered in the Garden of Gethsemane, in John Jesus prays from a position of glorifying the Father and being glorified. He exudes a sense of triumph in his soon to be fulfilled purpose. It is a sacrificial prayer of Jesus offering up himself according to the Father's will. There is no questioning that will in this prayer.
Theologically, John has moved beyond the human aspect of suffering that Jesus is portrayed experiencing in the other Gospels. Verse three is a dead give away about the didactic intent of this prayer. In the Jesus portion of this prayer,he prays in verse three, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou sent." (KJV). As in John 3, we have Jesus talking about himself in the third person. One would think it obvious that there is no need to explain this to God. What this verse demonstrates is the intent of this prayer to provide a teaching/preaching moment.
SANCTITY AND SANCTUARY
While John 17 seemingly is a prayer for the eleven disciples that remained faithful to Jesus, the intent is also to reassure the current disciples, the believers that are hearing this prayer. It assures them that they are made holy and that they are being protected since they too have received the words of Jesus as recorded in John. It affirms the reality that they are to remain in an evil world, but not be part of it. That as he is leaving, he can no longer offer the direct sanctity and sanctuary of his presence, but asks God to bestow it on them, presumably through the aegis of the Holy Spirit.
What this section of the High Priestly prayer offers us is insight into the understanding of prayer at the time John was written and the effect it has had on prayer to this present day. In Jesus's prayer for his disciples, he defines their mission of being both the keepers and disseminators of his word. As such he prays that they are sanctified, made holy, to bear this word of Truth. This prayer is also about sanctuary; in that prayer itself, if properly addressed, is a place of sanctuary - a place to go for protection against the ravages of the world. This section of the prayer, reminds the reader that those who follow Jesus are protected by the mediation Jesus is performing and thus ensured of eternal life
UNITIVE COMMUNION
John has Jesus ending this prayer with a view towards the future. That, in itself, is a revealing feature of this prayer. It tells us that by this time, the early church had given up on the idea that Jesus's return in glory was forthcoming any time soon. Their theology clearly was being adjusted for the long haul. The explanation that John has Jesus offering is that there are those, yet unborn in any number of ways, who are part of God's new creation. John has Jesus revisit the unitive theme offered in John 15, that all those chosen to believe are one in God through Christ.
The theological insights offered in the High Priestly Prayer have had a profound effect on Christian theology throughout the history of the church. Jesus ends this prayer with a reminder that those chosen by God to believe are one in Christ and one with God through Christ. This is the ultimate role of communion in Johannine theology. This perhaps explains why John does not bother with repeating the words of institution that is found in the Synoptic Gospels and the writings of Paul.
For this community, the purpose of Holy Communion is not about forgiveness of sins, but rather union with God. One does not hear much about sins being forgiven in John, especially in the table discourse of Jesus. What one hears is an extended discourse on the unitive experience of Holy Communion, that is outwardly expressed in the love shown by believers towards one another - that attracting scent that leads those chosen by God into this unitive experience.
Until next time, stay faithful.
Theologically, John has moved beyond the human aspect of suffering that Jesus is portrayed experiencing in the other Gospels. Verse three is a dead give away about the didactic intent of this prayer. In the Jesus portion of this prayer,he prays in verse three, "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou sent." (KJV). As in John 3, we have Jesus talking about himself in the third person. One would think it obvious that there is no need to explain this to God. What this verse demonstrates is the intent of this prayer to provide a teaching/preaching moment.
SANCTITY AND SANCTUARY
While John 17 seemingly is a prayer for the eleven disciples that remained faithful to Jesus, the intent is also to reassure the current disciples, the believers that are hearing this prayer. It assures them that they are made holy and that they are being protected since they too have received the words of Jesus as recorded in John. It affirms the reality that they are to remain in an evil world, but not be part of it. That as he is leaving, he can no longer offer the direct sanctity and sanctuary of his presence, but asks God to bestow it on them, presumably through the aegis of the Holy Spirit.
What this section of the High Priestly prayer offers us is insight into the understanding of prayer at the time John was written and the effect it has had on prayer to this present day. In Jesus's prayer for his disciples, he defines their mission of being both the keepers and disseminators of his word. As such he prays that they are sanctified, made holy, to bear this word of Truth. This prayer is also about sanctuary; in that prayer itself, if properly addressed, is a place of sanctuary - a place to go for protection against the ravages of the world. This section of the prayer, reminds the reader that those who follow Jesus are protected by the mediation Jesus is performing and thus ensured of eternal life
UNITIVE COMMUNION
John has Jesus ending this prayer with a view towards the future. That, in itself, is a revealing feature of this prayer. It tells us that by this time, the early church had given up on the idea that Jesus's return in glory was forthcoming any time soon. Their theology clearly was being adjusted for the long haul. The explanation that John has Jesus offering is that there are those, yet unborn in any number of ways, who are part of God's new creation. John has Jesus revisit the unitive theme offered in John 15, that all those chosen to believe are one in God through Christ.
The theological insights offered in the High Priestly Prayer have had a profound effect on Christian theology throughout the history of the church. Jesus ends this prayer with a reminder that those chosen by God to believe are one in Christ and one with God through Christ. This is the ultimate role of communion in Johannine theology. This perhaps explains why John does not bother with repeating the words of institution that is found in the Synoptic Gospels and the writings of Paul.
For this community, the purpose of Holy Communion is not about forgiveness of sins, but rather union with God. One does not hear much about sins being forgiven in John, especially in the table discourse of Jesus. What one hears is an extended discourse on the unitive experience of Holy Communion, that is outwardly expressed in the love shown by believers towards one another - that attracting scent that leads those chosen by God into this unitive experience.
Until next time, stay faithful.
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