I’ve always wanted to study the disciple who was considered ‘the one whom Jesus loved’.
He wrote the Gospel of John many years after the last synoptic Gospel was written, and his Gospel is in a class all on its own. I consider it to be the bridge between the Jewish and Hellenistic world.
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John has this lovely, whimsical way of telling the story of Christ—of His deification and glory and oneness with the Father. John, throughout his Gospel, makes many references to Greek gods, and similar to the plagues of Egypt, he describes how the beloved Messiah trumps all of those many Greek gods.
John’s Inspiration
John was heavily inspired by Greek philosophy, taking into account the ideas and thoughts that emerged at the time of him writing the Gospel. He theorized the term ‘logos’ based on its usage in Greek legal circles—he gave the Logos a persona.
The Gospel of John does not focus on the miracles of Christ like the other Gospels do. John isn’t concerned with proving Christ’s messianic nature to a Jewish audience. He doesn’t seem concerned about how Jews would’ve interpreted Christ’s actions. Instead, John wants to focus on a philosophy—the philosophy on which Christianity is built.
Understanding John
John isn’t the biography of Christ, but rather, the story of Christ. The story of who He was as God, and who He was as man. Its multi-layered view of Christ unravels as we dive into the mysteries between the words. John is artistic, poetic, symbolic, metaphorical, but most importantly—true. John highlights the most important purpose of Christ’s mission—His love for us as humans.
The Gospel of John is littered with confrontations, humor, emotions, personality, self-awareness, and at some points, the pettiness of John himself. John allows us to know that the writer of this Gospel is indeed a human being, one who takes the memories he made with his rabbi to heart, and carried them with him in his soul.
John never allows us to forget that this Gospel is his Gospel—the love he received from his teacher is written in every word etched into the paper.
Who is Christ?
I’ve always asked who is Christ? Who is this Yeshua, this Jesus that we speak of, that we revere? For a while, these questions plagued my mind. I understood who He was and his mission in a spiritual sense. I understood His character and His role, but I didn’t quite understand who He was.
Then, I had a dream. It was through this dream that I realized some truths about Christ that I would like to share with you. This dream has highlighted to me what John understood about his Rabbi.
The Key Takeaways
There are a few key takeaways I want you to get while we go through the Gospel of John. John’s story doesn’t simply focus on the deification of Christ as we know it. It focuses on God the Son and His unique relationship with humanity. The Gospel of John is the Gospel of love. So, I want to truly highlight those key points as we carry on through this book.
Key Takeaway #1
Christ wants to save us. It is apparent in the name given to Mary—Yeshua means ‘YAH delivers’, but we don’t always understand what that actually means.
A person who means to protect us and save us wants to guard us from harm. They want to truly ensure that we are out of danger’s way. So, a savior such as Christ, seeks to ensure that humankind is out of harm’s way. Christ is mainly concerned with our spirit being, ensuring that our souls and spirits are out of harm’s way.
Knowing that in the beginning our ancestors were deceived, dooming the rest of humanity, Christ knew that He needed to do something to ensure that our souls would not end up damaged or destroyed.
Even as we walk on our individual journeys, He sees our paths and knows where each of our paths lead. His intention is to guide us back on the right track, to prevent us from taking a journey that will end in our demise. Knowing that our end leads to total death, He seeks to save us from that sort of finality. He wants to save us from death. To prove that He has power over death—even of physical death, He came as human to die and rise again.
Key Takeaway #2
Christ cares about the smallest things. Even circumstances that seem insignificant to us is something that He cares about. He also cares about the things we care about—even if we think He doesn’t care about those things.
He cares about who we are, what we’re interested in, and the little quirks and characters that makeup our personality. He wants us to have the best possible life. However, having the best possible life doesn’t always seem immediate, especially when, in this world, we have to suffer.
Because of this, He ensures that we understand what causes our suffering, and gives us the guarantee of the Holy Spirit to guide us through these sufferings. He suffered the things we suffered. He understands what pain feels like and how it impacts each of us. Because of this, He is able to relate to us as God who overcomes these pains.
Key Takeaway #3
Christ’s laws are there to establish safety and fairness. His governance is not set to limit our freedom, but instead, to free us from the bondage of hurt, pain, suffering, and evil. His laws are there to protect us and to ensure that we are safe. His laws guide us to love each other, and to love God.
He wants to ensure that we are whole—that’s where the word holy comes from. We cannot be whole without also being spiritually whole, which is why to complete this circuit of holiness we must have the Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
The Gospel of John touches on these three key takeaways of who Christ is. In order to see this side of Christ, we need to dive into the Gospel of John, verse by verse, to see who He is to us.
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