Book of John Essays

Book of John Essays Book of John Essay Book of John Essay One of the major themes of the Book of John is to prove that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. What makes these miracles so special is the difficulty faced to create them and what each is trying to teach. There are seven main miracles, seven being a significant number throughout the bible, that are used to help better understand Jesus and his true identity. We can also find a last miracle in His resurrection, which in itself is simply put that Jesus is a part of God because of how impossible this action seemed. The last miracle is sometimes skipped as a sign that Jesus is the Christ and Messiah. This book was written from true events which is why it is made important and allows people to see who Jesus is. The reason these events are so significant is because they truly happened and carry a deeper meaning that was is read on the surface. The seven main miracles made by Jesus in the Gospel of John are each unique and significant in meaning to the people and the purpose that is behind each of them. The underlying meaning is what the reader should focus on, even though these miracles are claimed to be eye witnessed, making each of the miracles historically true, in a sense. The first miracle of the seven was the Wedding at Cana. This miracle is where the true glory of Jesus is revealed. This specific miracle leads to Jesus disciples having a deeper faith along with all his followers. This allowed his disciples to have a much more complex understanding of him. Jesus turned water into wine which could represent the old Israel converting into a believing Israel (hence the old wine into new). The turning of wine into water portrayed that Jesus is who all things are truly made. The main point of this miracle was to show that Jesus was the true Son of God which makes him the Messiah and is son-ship of God. The second miracle, or sign, is trying to illustrate that the word of Jesus is The Word of God. It does so by having the official leave and head home once Jesus said miou may go; your son will live. Because the official did not question how exactly it was his son would be cured and simply turned around and started going home meant that he believed Jesus without a doubt. In other words, you could simply say that the high official saw the Glory of God by listening intently. This showed the Jesus was the Glory by him saying something will be done, and even from afar, it happening. It means that despite the distance and how sick the young man was, Jesus can heal and is the healing to humanity and all else. This could parallel with the healing of Israel in the new age. This sign speaks to us about true faith and what can happen once we are devoted completely and believe in our hearts and souls that what Jesus commands shall happen. What made the third sign significant aside from curing a man that was lame is the emphasizes on the tact that the man nad been ill tor t eight years. The curing that Jesus did in this miracle can be applied to healing a lame Israel and will now be estored. This miracle did not have a complex form of working other than having the man listen to Jesus and do what he had been told to do and following orders. The lame man would represent Israel and Jesus would represent God, in a sense. This would mean that if Israel obeyed what was commanded of it, God could heal them from their lameness through his son, the Messiah. The curing of the lame man led to a greater faith in the already believing people, or a bigger doubt in the non-believers. The second part of this miracle focuses on how this healing was done on the Sabbath. Of course, the people that doubted argued that Jesus should be stoned because he broke the law of the Lord by working on the Sabbath. Jesus argument was that since he is the son of God he healed the man alongside God which would then mean that this miracle was allowed to be made since God was the one at work. Since certain people were so blinded by their doubt they saw this as breaking the faith by Jesus saying he was equal to God, in a sense. This made them angry and made them want to stone him. They did not learn the lesson that John was getting at, and they could not realize that in front of them stood Jesus, the true Messiah. No matter what miracle or action was done, their views could not be turned around to believe in Jesus. The fourth sign involves Jesus multiplying bread and fish which can be translated to mean that Jesus is the creative word. He is the giver of life, which is what the bread would represent. Jesus proves himself to be greater than Moses by being the true creator of mans provisions. Jesus points out that he can give physical life, but most importantly give spiritual life because he is the true bread of life. The Messiah is expected to feed people miraculously, which is exactly was Jesus does in the nstance. This would then mean the people recognized that he was a Messianic figure. Due to the misinterpretation because of the earthly minds that people have, they wanted physical life and not the spiritual sense of it. Therefore, they wanted to make Jesus an earthly king instead of the Messianic fgure that he was. Jesus then had to point out the true meaning of what he had done emphasizing that those who go to him in faith will find life. False faith would mean that the people believed in the miracle but not in who Jesus truly was. Receiving life through Jesus would illustrate a rusting response to him and who he truly was, the son of God. Since God is nature and God knows all and controls all, the fifth sign would then be attempting to make Jesus a true part, or equal to God in a fatherly-son way of being. The writer of the book of John focuses more of the mystery of how Jesus was able to cross the water without a boat. Jesus being able to walk on water meant that, just like God, Jesus could control the elements of nature and that he was some-what of a higher power than earthly things. This would mean that Jesus was connected to God in a deep and profound way. This miracle, again, reveals his true glory and would mean that believing and having true spiritual faith in Jesus would lead to true life. The sixth sign becomes significant once we read that the man that was healed was blind completely from birth. This was used to portray that Jesus was the light of the world sine he opens the eyes of those who were spiritually blinded from birth. Jesus also emphasizes that the blind nas not been punished and is not a sinner, tor his purpose in life is to show His Glory which would make the man an important person despite being blinded. This could be used to represent the people who were piritually blinded being healed and seeing who Jesus truly was. The blind man would be a spiritually blinded man instead of the physical blindness. Even those who clam to see are blind because they have not seen the light of life, or realize who Jesus truly is. It is only the true believers that understand the Jesus is the Son of God because their blindness has been healed, and the real consequence is that they will see the light of Glory and light of the world. The seventh sign reveals Jesus as the giver of life, and the giver of eternal life, and there is once again a stress on the term Son of God, and the glorifying of Jesus and n the fact that Jesus is both Son of God and Messiah. The raising up of Lazarus in a way very similar to that of the final resurrection is surely a pointer to that resurrection. It is a physical enactment of the glory of the coming general resurrection. So above all it reveals Jesus as the One Who has life in Himself, and as the One Whose voice as the Son of God can raise the dead. While His glory is not specifically mentioned at the end, it was underlined at the beginning. What has happened has revealed the glory of the Father resulting in He Himself being glorified, nd later in chapter 20 the writer goes on to draw our attention to the fact that Jesus is to ascend to His Father, in other words to the glory which He had had with Him before the world was. Again we have the contrast made in the narrative between those who saw and believed the truth about Jesus, and those whose eyes were closed. Johns hope was that his readers would be among those who saw and believed. Note also the reference by the Chief Priests and the Pharisees to signs, but again they were signs which were misunderstood and never properly interpreted. Although Jesus resurrection isnt identified as a miracle, but as The Resurrection, in the Book of John it can be seen as an eighth sign. This miracle revealed Jesus as the Son of God completely without a doubt. This is the greatest miracle of all and is done my Jesus and himself only. I find it significant that those who truly believe do not have to witness in order to be commended. Thus these eight signs, witnessed to as facts by the disciples, and occurring at specified places, manifest the fact that Jesus is both Messiah and Son of God to those who have true faith, with the consequence that they receive life. Although, they are undoubtedly central to the theme of the Gospel it is also unquestionable that they do not in themselves provide a foundational structure that can explain the whole Gospel, even apart from the prologue and the activities of John the Baptist and the passion narrative, do not build on these signs, but are separate elements in the narrative. Therefore, Johns selection of material is not to be seen as dependent only on the seven signs. He has a wider view. Chapter 7 does, however, in its own way bring out what men were thinking about Jesus. It commences with Jesus brothers encouraging Him to do signs openly, n order to win allegiance from the people, although again they are the wrong kind of signs because the aim was simply physical notoriety. And it goes on to deal with the fact that all were asking questions about Him. But they were not coming to the right answers, because they had not understood the signs. They too were blind. Some, however did respond to His miracles and would appear to have acknowledged His Messian ship, although not in the tullest sense required by John, and this eventually leads on in to a confirmation, and even expansion, of Jesus revealing Himself as the water of life and the giver of the Spirit.