Day 28: For God so Loved the World...that he came and taught and healed

Okay, one of the things I am noticing about John is that there are so many familiar verses and stories here, but in between the familiar stories and familiar verses, there are some little sections of scripture with which I am not quite as familiar.

Take, for example, the very familiar story of Jesus and Nicodemus in John 3, and the extra-ordinarily verse within it, "For God so loved the world...." I know this story inside and out, and I suspect many of you do as well.  I have studied the nuances of the meeting in the darkness, the questions Nicodemus asks, and the mysterious portion part of the story where Jesus begins to speak in the first person plural, "we speak about what we know...."  But I have never paid much attention to what comes after this story in chapter three, which brings us back again to John the Baptist.  John the Baptist is baptizing and still preaching at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, and people have questions about that, but he is gracious, and explains that his time is coming to an end:  "he must increase, but I must decrease." 

The story of the Samaritan woman takes up most of John chapter 4, except a brief digression after Jesus leaves the village, but before we hear the results of the woman's evangelism (she is very successful; we could take lessons from her).  The digression has to do with the disciples trying to get Jesus to eat something, and Jesus telling them that he has food they don't know about.  (This is John's Gospel, and we KNOW that he doesn't literally mean bread; it's spiritual food; it's a METAPHOR).  As well (and it almost seems tacked on) there's the story about the healing of the royal official's son at the very end of chapter 4.  It is Jesus' second sign (count the signs in John; he calls them signs in stead of miracles), and the idea is that the moment Jesus said the son was healed, he was healed, even though Jesus was far away at the time.  But Jesus is the Word, and when the word is spoken, healing happens.

Chapter 5 includes the healing at the pool at Siloam (he's in Jerusalem again, by the way), and then the controversy because it was the Sabbath (notice that the initial controversy is because the man picked up his mat on the Sabbath, and only afterwards, did the fact that Jesus heal someone become a part of the equation).  Jesus says that his father is still working, and that means that God is working too.  (this implies a pretty close connectino with God, and this is another problem for the religious leaders).

Jesus makes some pretty pointed and provocative statements about himself her and later in John.  After he does a sign (and often connected to a sign), he will speak about who he is and his relationship with the father.  Often he will use the words,  "I am...."  I am the light.  I am the bread of life.  I am the resurrection and the life...." The Words "I Am" remind me of the Hebrew name for God, "Yahwah," which is often translated, 'I am.'

Jesus seems to dare people to hear his words, witness his signs, and believe in him -- or not.