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When Jesus Gave Birth (Part 5)

April 29, 2013  Leave a comment

The best evidence for the piercing of Christ’s side (John 19:34) being an allusion to the creation of Eve (Genesis 2:21-22) is found in its seamless connection to John’s core message and themes.  In my last post I noted three verbal and or circumstantial parallels between John 19:34 and Genesis 2:21-22: Death as sleep, opened side, and the substance.  In this post we explore John’s theme of new creation.

The Source of Creation

Beginning with John’s opening allusion to Genesis 1:1 (“in the beginning”), references to the creation abound in this gospel. John ascribes the creation of all things to the Word/Logos (1:3) and connects the Word/logos with Jesus (1:14) and so declares that what came into being through Jesus was a new creation – a new beginning.

Life and Light.  As the author of creation, Jesus, the Word made flesh, is the source of life and light (Gen. 1:3).  John 1:4 states, “in Him was life, and that life was the light of all people.“   And throughout the gospel we see Jesus offering life and light to the people he encounters, most notably light to the man born blind in chapter 9 and life to the dead man Lazarus in chapter 11.

Sabbath Work. Jesus’ Sabbath “work” is also tied to creation narrative.  When people object in John 5 to Jesus’ healing on the same day God rested from creation, Jesus responds, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” (5:17). Jesus implies that neither God nor himself has ever stopped working.  The people are outraged.  ”This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God” (5:18).  For Jesus, in John, there is yet to be a completion to the creation and therefore there has been no true day of rest.  We’ll return to this important idea below.

A New Week

John also interestingly opens his gospel with a series of six days (John 1:29, 35, 39, 43; 2:1, 12).  Such a tight sequence is unique in John and appears to allude to the days of creation.  But more than simply echoing the number of days, each day conceptually parallel the corresponding day in the creation account. Note the following similarities.

  • On the first day God creates light and separates the light from the darkness (1:3-5). On the first day in John (note: John 1:29 begins the second day) John distinguishes light from the darkness (1:5).
  • On the second day, God separates the water which was below from the waters above (1:6-8). On the second day in John (1:29-34), John the Baptist states twice that he baptizes “in water” and then goes on to proclaim that Christ will baptize “in the Holy Spirit” (1:33) Like the higher and lower waters in Genesis, there are two baptisms; an earthly baptism and a heavenly one, a baptism in water below and baptism in water from above.
  • On the third day, God gathers the water into one place and causes dry ground to appear. He also causes the earth to produce fruit after its own kind. On the third day in the gospel of John (1:34-39), Jesus speaks for the first time. He also bears fruit, reproducing himself in the gathering of his first disciples.
  • On the fourth day, God creates “the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.” In John (1:39-43), Jesus meets with Peter. Jesus, the greater light (8:12), governs the day (9:4) while Peter, a lesser light, will govern the night.
  • On the fifth day of creation, God creates fish in the sea and birds in the air. On the fifth day in John, Jesus calls Philip who, like the fishermen Peter and Andrew is from a place called Bethsaida, meaning “house of fish.”
  • On the sixth day of creation, God creates male and female. Genesis 2 provides the full details, revealing it as the first marriage in scripture. “For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh.” On John’s sixth day, Jesus attends a wedding.
  • And as with Genesis, John’s sixth day is the last day of this series of active days. God rests on the seventh day. In John’s gospel Jesus remains at Capernaum for a few days.

For more on this see Paul Trudinger’s article “The Seven Days of the New Creation in St. John’s Gospel: Some Further Reflections.”

I think it’s again interesting that we find no clear rest day in this “creation” week.  The Sabbath may be hinted at but it’s not reproduced.  Jesus simply continues his work without ever truly resting.  This matches Jesus words that He and His Father have only continued to work.  Jesus’ whole ministry in John should be understood as a continuation of the sixth day – the day in which God made man in his own image.

“It is Finished!”

Allusions to the creation account also cluster around Jesus’ arrest, death and resurrection. Andreas Kostenberger points to several possible instances of the new creation motif here.

  • The setting of the passion narrative in a garden, invoking the memory of Eden (18:1, 26; 19:41)
  • Pilate’s identification of Jesus as “the man” (19:5), which may present Jesus as the new Adam
  • The possible portrayal of Jesus’ resurrection as the beginning of a new creation (1:3; 20:1)
  • The identification of Jesus as “the gardener” by Mary (20:15), reflecting misunderstanding and possible also irony
  • Jesus’ breathing on his disciples and his giving of the Spirit in the final commissioning scene (20:22), invoking the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7 (Ezek. 37:9)

To this we need to add Jesus’ cry from the cross in John 19:30, “It is finished.”

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”  A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.  When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “it is finished,”  and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.  Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away.  (19:28-31)

Note the similarities to the creation account.  Jesus is declaring his work finished on the day immediately preceding a weekly Sabbath, a word which means rest.  Here’s Genesis 2:1-3,

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.  And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.  So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

Given John’s repeated references to the creation and Jesus’ insistence that the Father and He had not stopped working even for a Sabbath, we should hear Jesus’ cry as the ultimate completion to their work.  In Jesus’ death and burial the creation was completed and the Sabbath finally realized.

The Creation of Eve from the Side of Adam

The capstone of this new creation occurs a few verses later in the piercing of Christ’s side and the flow of blood and water (John 19:34).  As an allusion to the creation of Eve, John 19:34 fits seamlessly with John’s theme of new creation.  In my next post we’ll explore John’s theme of new birth.

In Bible, Easter, Gospels
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Keep Reading!

April 16, 2013  Leave a comment

I’ve never been much for memorizing bible verses.  I’m referring to the typical way we go about memorizing the bible – a verse here and verse there – written down on a flashcard and placed on a mirror or fridge.  Why? I think it trains us to think of the Bible as a book of isolated verses rather than a unified whole with a context that defines and gives meaning to each individual verse.

For instance we memorize and quote Matthew 5:13-15, “you are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world“, and in so doing we simply believe Jesus is referring to us.  But the context clearly defines the “you” in those verses and it may or may not be us.  Memorizing individual verses apart from their setting leads us to distort what scripture is actually saying.

Is there a better way to familiarize ourselves with the Bible?  Yes!  And it doesn’t require flash cards.

Think of the first time you took your commute to work. If it wasn’t already a familiar place, you may have arrived at your job and not remembered the whole of your drive. Maybe a certain curve stuck out in your memory, a landmark or a sign. But as the days and months went by that stretch of road became a little less mysterious. The bold sights that once attracted your eye began to fade with repetitiveness and more unassuming details took their place.  Whole sections of the road began to fill in, anchored around those original markers. Eventually even the smooth flat road seeped into your mind. Unconsciously, bit by bit, it was there when you tried to recall it. So one day, without perhaps even realizing it, you knew the road like “the back of your hand.”

Knowing and understanding Scripture comes about in much the same way as our repetitive drives to work. On the first reading we may find a verse here and there resonating in our mind like an eye catching sign.  But they hang isolated and alone, with nothing remembered before or after. Its only through repeated reading that these significant gaps begin to fill in.

So how should we go about acquainting ourselves with scripture.  The answer is just keep reading!

 

In Bible, Devotions
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Is that Promise for You?

April 15, 2013  Leave a comment

Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-16,

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

Who is the “YOU” in that passage?  For those of us who apply the bible directly to our own lives its quite natural to see the “YOU” as referring to us.  For instance, The Personalized Bible renders that verse for me this way

“Matthew is the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “Matthew is the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.

Since the “YOU” is plural, we also might apply it to a particular Christian group.  ”My Church is the salt of the earth” or “those who say a sinners prayer are the salt of the earth…”

But Jesus’ “YOU” is more specific than that.  It has a context which we all too often ignore.  Jesus has already told us to whom that “YOU” refers.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are YOU when people insult you, persecute YOU and falsely say all kinds of evil against YOU because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is YOUR reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before YOU.

YOU are the salt of the earth…

The “YOU” Jesus addresses are those who possess these qualities.  While I hope those qualities are represented in you and me, I recognize that’s not necessarily the case.  Do you and I match the description?  The promise is for those who in weakness demonstrate humble dependency upon God.  It’s not for people who simply claim the promise by inserting their name.

In Bible, Devotions
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