I recently heard that you could read the first few encounters in John’s gospel as Jesus just having a bit of a laugh with people.
One of his first conversations is with the pharisee Nicodemus, and he tells him, “You must be born again”. Nicodemus replies (in my translation), “I’ve got to go back into my mother’s womb… What?”
Jesus then encounters the woman at the well and says, “Give me a drink.” And she replies, “You ain't got a bucket mate – what are you talking about?”
Later, a paralysed man is trying to get into the healing pool. Jesus says, “Do you want to be well?” And the lame man replies, “I’m trying, mate, but I can’t walk!”
At the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus says, “Where are we to buy bread for all these people?” And the disciples respond, “You’re joking, right?”
I don’t think this stands up as a new method of understanding the gospel of John – well, the having-a-laugh bit anyway. I think what we are reading is Jesus using the everyday surroundings and happenings of the people he is interacting with to point to the somewhat foreign concepts of the kingdom that he was introducing into the world. Even in his presentation of the good news, Jesus is, as some have said, naturally supernatural.
A case in point: Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well.
Jesus is resting by a well in the middle of the day and makes a seemingly simple request: “Give me a drink” (John 4:7). The Samaritan woman immediately goes on the offence: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
And it’s the classic issue of human division:
Catholics don’t recognise Anglican confirmation for communion.
Protestants don't recognise the Pope as head of the church.
And Baptists don't recognise each other at a liquor store.
Jesus will not be distracted by this issue.
“If you knew the gift of God,” he says, “and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman tries to go there again, this time from another angle.
“Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”
The theologian and author David Bennett was once a self-described anti-Christian gay activist. The story of his conversion is that he had a Christian friend who he used to rant to about how bad the church was, how wrong it was and how anti-gay it was. His friend would simply reply that she didn’t really know about all that, but had he heard about Jesus? She didn’t try to defend the church or get side-tracked into the various issues – she just kept on directing the conversation back to the person Jesus.
Jesus responds to the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Jesus won’t take the bait. He stays on message.
It’s not that the issues of the day are unimportant or that the gospel doesn’t address those things.
But, for Jesus, the focus is on people receiving the life-giving Spirit that he brings. This is his priority and it is the starting point for everything else.
The conversation eventually finishes and the metaphors are left behind.
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just as is the case with the Samaritan woman, nothing makes much sense until we understand that.
As we engage in the day-to-day conversations with our neighbours, let’s be mindful not to get sidetracked. Let’s not use up our time with things that ultimately do not connect people with the water which we all need in order to live.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
We have invited these writers to share their experiences, ideas and opinions in the hope that these will provoke thought, challenge you to go deeper and inspire you to put your faith into action. These articles should not be taken as the official view of the Nelson Diocese on any particular matter.
I recently heard that you could read the first few encounters in John’s gospel as Jesus just having a bit of a laugh with people.
One of his first conversations is with the pharisee Nicodemus, and he tells him, “You must be born again”. Nicodemus replies (in my translation), “I’ve got to go back into my mother’s womb… What?”
Jesus then encounters the woman at the well and says, “Give me a drink.” And she replies, “You ain't got a bucket mate – what are you talking about?”
Later, a paralysed man is trying to get into the healing pool. Jesus says, “Do you want to be well?” And the lame man replies, “I’m trying, mate, but I can’t walk!”
At the feeding of the 5,000, Jesus says, “Where are we to buy bread for all these people?” And the disciples respond, “You’re joking, right?”
I don’t think this stands up as a new method of understanding the gospel of John – well, the having-a-laugh bit anyway. I think what we are reading is Jesus using the everyday surroundings and happenings of the people he is interacting with to point to the somewhat foreign concepts of the kingdom that he was introducing into the world. Even in his presentation of the good news, Jesus is, as some have said, naturally supernatural.
A case in point: Jesus' interaction with the woman at the well.
Jesus is resting by a well in the middle of the day and makes a seemingly simple request: “Give me a drink” (John 4:7). The Samaritan woman immediately goes on the offence: “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?”
And it’s the classic issue of human division:
Catholics don’t recognise Anglican confirmation for communion.
Protestants don't recognise the Pope as head of the church.
And Baptists don't recognise each other at a liquor store.
Jesus will not be distracted by this issue.
“If you knew the gift of God,” he says, “and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
The woman tries to go there again, this time from another angle.
“Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?”
The theologian and author David Bennett was once a self-described anti-Christian gay activist. The story of his conversion is that he had a Christian friend who he used to rant to about how bad the church was, how wrong it was and how anti-gay it was. His friend would simply reply that she didn’t really know about all that, but had he heard about Jesus? She didn’t try to defend the church or get side-tracked into the various issues – she just kept on directing the conversation back to the person Jesus.
Jesus responds to the woman, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
Jesus won’t take the bait. He stays on message.
It’s not that the issues of the day are unimportant or that the gospel doesn’t address those things.
But, for Jesus, the focus is on people receiving the life-giving Spirit that he brings. This is his priority and it is the starting point for everything else.
The conversation eventually finishes and the metaphors are left behind.
The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”
Just as is the case with the Samaritan woman, nothing makes much sense until we understand that.
As we engage in the day-to-day conversations with our neighbours, let’s be mindful not to get sidetracked. Let’s not use up our time with things that ultimately do not connect people with the water which we all need in order to live.
Check out other articles in the
series below.
More articles in the
series are to come.
