Partakers Christian Podcasts

Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 26

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 26: John 12:3
Mary’s worship

Now we come to a quite amazing episode: “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair.” Amazing because up to this point John has recorded many things that Jesus did and said, nothing about what anybody else did of any consequence. Everything flowed out from Jesus; nothing flowed in to him. It is Mary who breaks through in a spontaneous demonstration of an act of pure loyalty to Jesus. Of the two sisters it is the one who sat at his feet drinking in the words and ideas that he said who carries out this wonderful act of dedication. She is a good example for us - it is only as we spend much time learning from the Master that we will get to the point of true devotion to him, and as we shall see in a moment that is all important.

All four gospels record an anointing of Jesus by a woman. It is likely that this happened on 2 occasions. We have to remember that these are the first written accounts of what must originally have been verbal stories told about Jesus passed on from the people who knew him to the next generation. In this case we have 4 written accounts of what are probably 2 incidents: here, and in Luke 7, Mark 14 and Matthew 26. The one in Luke 7 almost certainly refers to a different occasion because although there are some similarities there are also some considerable differences. But the one recorded here and those in Mark 14 and Matthew 26 in spite of some differences, probably all refer to the same event. The main difference in these accounts is in what was anointed: head or feet. Most probably both head and feet were anointed. The two accounts in Mark and Matthew emphasize that it was Jesus’ head that was anointed thus emphasizing his royal standing as the King of the Kingdom. John emphasizes the anointing of the feet of Jesus as he is more interested in his humility. John has moved the event forward to before the entry into Jerusalem to suit his theological requirements rather than stay with the strict historical order. He is intent on telling us about what Mary did before he tells us about Jesus washing the disciples feet.

John seems to have been always more concerned about the order of meaning of the various passages in his Gospel than the historical order so he puts Mary’s action ahead of the very similar washing of the disciple’s feet by Jesus. We have to ask the obvious question - why? The more obvious and natural thing to do would have been to use the historical order and tell us first about the washing of the disciples feet by Jesus and then to tell us about this anointing by Mary as an act of worship. They are probably in the order they are because it is not the obvious order! The obvious order would have highlighted the act of service carried out by Jesus and therefore as something we should imitate. The unobvious order John actually used throws the emphasis of both events on Jesus. Jesus is the target of the act of worship by Mary and he is the one who carries out the act of humble service in the foot-washing incident. As always John has sought to put Jesus first and make him the focus of each event. The foot washing by Jesus is often taken in both writing and preaching to be mainly an act for imitation, but that was not how John wanted us to see it. He wanted to emphasise Jesus as Lord, and as a very special sort of Lord. We too should always place Jesus first in all our thinking - not to let even the most worthy of considerations, like concern for the poor usurp our prime focus on him. That is why this episode emphasizes the over-riding significance of Jesus above all else.

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand what Mary’s motives were. She did not know Jesus would die so soon. She did not know he would die for many years to come. Was it an act of pure worship using what was perhaps the most expensive thing she possessed as a token of homage to him? With so much strong perfume being used some must have got onto his clothes and he would have smelt good right through the ordeals of the following week. That would have been a real encouragement to him.

The basic point in this account is to compare the importance of the worship of Jesus with the importance of caring for the poor. Perhaps rather surprisingly it is the former that is the more important. There are many who would challenge that order of priorities. Yet it is so. When you go overseas to a country that needs much help, both spiritually and practically, it is the evangelicals with their determined focus on the Lord and his Word, just like Mary, who are the active ones in all spheres. The more liberal wing of the church is conspicuous by its absence!

For us it is a great challenge to be always prepared to step out for our Lord in outrageous consecration.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 25

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 25: John 6:13
More extravagant grace

How do we, or did Jesus, prove that what he said was true, right, valid, in a disbelieving world? That was the problem Jesus had to face and the one that has troubled his people ever since.

The first thing Jesus said, “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true” (5: 31) is really rather puzzling since 3 chapters later he seems to say the exact opposite. He is referring here to the Jewish requirement that witnesses always come in twos. They had no forensic methods at all: no finger prints, blood types or DNA analysis; so they had to rely exclusively on witnesses, to the events at dispute, if there were any direct witnesses, or to character references. On these criteria the unsupported testimony of Jesus to himself was not valid.

So he goes on to cite 3 other witnesses to himself: John the Baptist, the works he was doing and the scriptures right back to Moses. As I commented before John was listened to in this context more than Jesus because he, unlike Jesus, behaved in the way they expected a prophet to behave. He fitted in to their expectation of what a prophet might do and Jesus did not. By the next thing he said about the ‘works he was doing’ Jesus meant the ‘signs and wonders’ which he had discounted previously as a way to faith but were valid in this different context. He is quite brutal in his comment on the third thing when he says about their use of the scriptures, ‘you do not believe what Moses wrote’ presumably meaning that they had added so much to the original intentions of the words of Moses that their use of them was no longer valid.

All that is very fundamental but it is not easy to understand. Perhaps the best thing that has ever been written about this is what C.S. Lewis said in his book "Mere Christianity" many years ago. They are comments particularly well said in relation to this chapter where Jesus has said that God is his Father (not in the general sense in which we talk of God as our Father), that what he was doing is special because he copies the Father in all he does, that he has been given all judgement to do at the end of the age and that honour paid to him is honour given to the Father.

Lewis said, “I am writing here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus ‘I’m ready to accept him as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”

I cannot improve in any way on those comments so I will just leave you to think about them …

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 24

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 24: John 5:36
A Heavy Testimony

How do we, or did Jesus, prove that what he said was true, right, valid, in a disbelieving world? That was the problem Jesus had to face and the one that has troubled his people ever since.

The first thing Jesus said, “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true” (5: 31) is really rather puzzling since 3 chapters later he seems to say the exact opposite. He is referring here to the Jewish requirement that witnesses always come in twos. They had no forensic methods at all: no finger prints, blood types or DNA analysis; so they had to rely exclusively on witnesses, to the events at dispute, if there were any direct witnesses, or to character references. On these criteria the unsupported testimony of Jesus to himself was not valid.

So he goes on to cite 3 other witnesses to himself: John the Baptist, the works he was doing and the scriptures right back to Moses. As I commented before John was listened to in this context more than Jesus because he, unlike Jesus, behaved in the way they expected a prophet to behave. He fitted in to their expectation of what a prophet might do and Jesus did not. By the next thing he said about the ‘works he was doing’ Jesus meant the ‘signs and wonders’ which he had discounted previously as a way to faith but were valid in this different context. He is quite brutal in his comment on the third thing when he says about their use of the scriptures, ‘you do not believe what Moses wrote’ presumably meaning that they had added so much to the original intentions of the words of Moses that their use of them was no longer valid.

All that is very fundamental but it is not easy to understand. Perhaps the best thing that has ever been written about this is what C. S. Lewis said in his book Mere Christianity many years ago. They are comments particularly well said in relation to this chapter where Jesus has said that God is his Father (not in the general sense in which we talk of God as our Father), that what he was doing is special because he copies the Father in all he does, that he has been given all judgment to do at the end of the age and that honour paid to him is honour given to the Father.

Lewis said, “I am writing here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus ‘I’m ready to accept him as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God.”

I cannot improve in any way on those comments so I will just leave you to think about them …

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 23

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 23: John 5:25 & 28
Now and then

These verses appear at first glance to be about us – our chances to cross over from death to life but the true focus is on Jesus.

Here they are: verse 25 says, “Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.”

And verse 28 says, “a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. The first of these verse is about a time and the time is now; the second is about a time and the time is sometime in the future.

Two things are in common between these two verses:

1. It is fundamentally important to hear the voice of Jesus
2. Those that do, will live.

Bearing in mind those two similarities let’s look at them in more detail and see what the differences are.

The first of them starts with ‘very truly’, which is literally ‘Amen, amen’ and it means ‘I am going to say something particularly important so listen closely … ‘; so listen we must!

It goes on to talk about the dead – who will hear his voice now, which is a bit of a puzzle. To make any sense at all it must mean those who are spiritually dead but physically alive. So it is of direct relevance to us. If we hear the voice of Jesus, here and now, we have crossed over from death to life. John is using the word ‘life’, as he does elsewhere, to mean a full, proper, well lived life, not the shabby imitation of proper living that so many people strive after with drink, or drugs, or excitement, or ever new experiences and, of course, lots of money. John has already told us “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind” (John 1: 4); he will go on to remind us that Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14: 6); later he calls Jesus the ‘Word of life’ (1 John 1: 1) .

We, you and I, if we have believed in the Father God by hearing the voice of Jesus, have been given the supreme gift of eternal life. WOW! This is not something that we shall be presented with once we die physically; it is something we have and should be enjoying right now. Are you? We are back to the idea of membership of the Kingdom, something we have been given the passport to and are to enjoy even now.

And now to our second verse: number 28. Here it is again, together with the following verse: “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”

We are clearly into the future now. The Greek that the NIV has translated as ‘will rise to live’ actually uses the word for resurrection so should more literally be ‘come forth to a resurrection to life’ and similarly ‘to death’ in the following phrase. There was a growing expectation amongst the Jews of those days of a resurrection based on passages like this from Ezekiel 37, “the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. … I will open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.” But what they expected was a general resurrection; not that one man would be resurrected ahead of everyone else as Jesus was. The other thing they very definitely did not expect was that this would happen, ‘when all who are in their graves will hear his voice’; the voice of Jesus that is.

All this must be enormously encouraging for us, and also enormously challenging because it tells us that we shall at that final day be judged by what we have done since we set out to follow Jesus – good or evil. But that is not the purpose of these verses, which is to explain more about the supreme position of Jesus. He is now the touchstone of all those who would seek a new and much better way of living. He is the one who will eventually have the responsibility of sorting out those who have done good from those who have not.

What exactly happens to those who have received the gift of grace but have subsequently failed to live up to what should follow from that is never made completely clear in the Bible. C.S. Lewis, in his pictorial representation of the moment of final judgment, has it that all who could not meet the eyes of the Christ figure – disappeared into his huge black shadow and were never seen again. He adds ‘I don’t know what became of them’ and that is probably as good a way of looking at it as any.

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. He is the giver of life now and the judge of the ages later, ‘that in everything he might have the supremacy.’

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 22

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 22: John 5:22
The Royal Agent

There is an idea that can be used to explain what Jesus is meaning when he says, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgement to the Son, that all may honour the Son just as they honour the Father. Whoever does not honour the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.” It is the idea of agency. They, in those days, had a rather stronger idea of what the implications of being an agent were than most of us will have.

If we talk to a salesman in a car showroom about buying a car, which of course means much argument about how much it is going to cost us, our discussion will come to the point where the salesman will say something like: ‘I must check that out with my boss’ and go off to do so. He is acting as an agent for the head salesman. If he is doing something more significant than buying a car, perhaps as an ambassador making an agreement about how two countries are to interact, and he is overseas, then he may still say ‘I must check that out with my boss’, who might now be the president or prime minister of his country. He can do that quickly and easily through his mobile phone etc.

100 years ago he could have done much the same thing but more clumsily and much more slowly by sending a telegram down the wires connecting him back to his own country.

200 years ago things would have been very different. He could only communicate with his home country by sending a message by horseman or sailing ship. He would get the answer only weeks later by which time the situation might well have changed beyond recognition. Consequently he would have had to act without that sort of reference back to base. He would have been a true agent acting on his own initiative on behalf of his firm or his country. That is the sort of agent we read about in the Bible. They might say ‘a person’s agent is as himself’. The agent had to take decisions that would need to be supported in full by his boss when he eventually got to hear what they were. If the boss did not support the agent’s decisions he would be a very bad and difficult person and not a good manager. Also any slight to the agent would be considered a slight to the boss.

We see this in the episode in Mark 12 where we read, “A man planted a vineyard … He rented the vineyard to some farmers … At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit. But they sent him away empty- handed … He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed … He sent his son (the usual full agent) last of all, saying, ‘they will respect my son.’ But the tenants said to one another … let’s kill him … What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.”

Coming back to John’s gospel we see that Jesus is given full authority as the agent of the Father over the judgements that are to come at the end of the age.

Later Jesus talks about, “a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.” The messenger there is an ‘apostolos’ – the word that we translate as ‘apostle’ which essentially means ‘sent one’ or ‘ambassador’, or we might say: ‘agent’.

Jesus was the apostle sent by Father God. We are apostles sent by the Lord to the world around us. What a huge privilege that is, and what a responsibility. How good an agent are you?

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 21

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 21: John 5:19
The Royal Apprentice

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.”

These 2 verses have been described as the only parable in John’s Gospel. Jesus describes himself as an apprentice.

I well remember going to get something done to the tyres of my car in Lahore, Pakistan. All the preparatory work for the difficult task requiring the strong hand of a grown man were carried out by a lad, about 12 years old, clearly working at the instruction of the man who was his father. It was no formal apprenticeship but he was clearly learning the trade and would eventually follow his father and take over from him the little business they had under the trees at the side of the road. Here is Jesus describing himself as working under the direction of his Father, except that there is no question here of his hands being weaker than the Father’s or of him having to grow up and take over their joint enterprise.

The most basic and important point this episode is making concerns Jesus. He is on a level with the Creator God. He is God’s equal, his co-worker. Yet Jesus was a man walking this earth. This is his answer to the perpetual question: who is Jesus, what was, and is, Jesus. He is the Son of God; he is his working apprentice here on earth.

But there is another point that speaks directly to us: if we seek to follow Jesus we must be his apprentices. And where does that idea sit alongside the more common one of discipleship? Apprenticeship is about doing, practical work experience; discipleship is about education, sitting at the feet of a teacher and learning, gaining knowledge. Which are we to be? One of them or both of them? I think the right answer is both, but we will probably, according to our personality and preferences, tend towards one more than the other. Although one writer rightly says “if theology (the study of God and his word) does not stretch our minds it probably wont stretch our lives.”

This is where an element of self-knowledge is important. What sort of person are you? Are you good at being a disciple, at sitting at the feet of Scripture, studying, learning, growing in grace and knowledge? Or are you more of the activist type – keen to get out there and do things: help people, evangelize people, work in the church etc. if you can see which sort of person you are (friends are a great help here) go for it – make sure you maximize your gifting.

But at the same time be careful not to neglect your weaker aspect. If you are a disciple type, make sure you also do things; work as an apprentice of the greatest tradesman of all times, don’t be one who learns just to hold their knowledge close to their chest. If you are an apprentice type, make sure you also learn the ways of the kingdom; don’t neglect the books, particularly the Bible, so that you do not become merely a do-gooder with most of your activity having only the most tenuous connection with your Christian profession.

Be balanced – walk straight – walk the right way – carry a good burden.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 20

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 20: John 5:pb
Law or Mercy

We read that, “The day on which this took place was a Sabbath”. Jesus presumably carried out this healing on the Sabbath that they prized so highly, quite deliberately. Had he wanted to he could easily have returned the next day and done it then. But he didn’t; he seems to have chosen to do it on the Sabbath quite deliberately. Why? He didn’t do things like this accidently; he had a purpose – what was it? All the rest of this chapter, and much of the rest of the book follow on from this one act.

Jewish thinking of those days had come down to three main points to identify Judaism and – as they thought – the people of God: circumcision of males, obedience to the food laws, and strict keeping of the Sabbath as a day of rest. Both most of the food laws and the details of Sabbath keeping were defined by the religious authorities. So this was very much their territory and they reacted strongly to what Jesus had done; “the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

Jesus had two clear purposes in what he did. The first was a general one: he wanted to remind them that, in the words of Micah: “what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” It is easy to miss the full meaning of those words. They say that the way to worship and serve the Lord is to treat our fellow human beings well. That is not what other religions say. They want us to carry out specific rituals directed towards their view of god. According to them we are to live certain ways, dress certain ways, pray in a prescribed format the correct number of times a day and so on. And the Jews had fallen into that trap; and many of them remain in it to this day.

Jesus says “no, that is not the way to worship and serve God the Father”, loud and clear. What really matters are relationships and we express our relationships with the Lord God very largely by our relationships with other people. That idea goes right back a long way. Of the ten commandments only the first four are concerned with us and God, the remaining six are about how we relate to other people.

Jesus’ second purpose is to announce loudly and clearly to his time and culture that he is different. He makes the rules; he has made the rules, though they did not recognize that, so he is above and beyond the often rather silly rules that they have constructed out of the Bible ( the Old Testament). He is God, walking this earth in disguise as it were. He is going to set up a new people of God in a new Kingdom, his Kingdom. That is going to cause a lot of problems in Jerusalem, particularly, and bring him to the Cross on which he would die as the one and only Son of God and true, faithful Israelite.

We will explore something of the implications of this second point – who Jesus was, and is, in following studies. The first point: the importance of relationships, all relationships, with God and other people, is there for us all to think about, take on board, and struggle with all our days.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 19

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 19: John 5:6
A curious question

Jesus asked the invalid man lying by the well “Do you want to get well?” which seems a very odd question. Wouldn’t anyone want to get well? One possible explanation is that this man is a sort of professional beggar; similar to those you can see in some cities to this day. They rely on the charity of passers-by to put enough money in their begging bowl each day to keep them going.

This man must have had somebody to put him there each morning and take him home at night, feed him and keep him reasonably tidy and respectable. He might even have belonged to a family of beggars; some of who even go to the lengths of deliberately crippling their young children to give them the necessary problems to justify their begging in later life. If Jesus heals him he will lose the source of his livelihood and need to do something to earn his living, upsetting the whole pattern of his life that has gone on for 38 years. Would he even be able to walk any distance? His muscles will be almost non-existent after all those years with minimal use. It is a serious step he is contemplating taking. If this is indeed the case it would also explain why Jesus, meeting him later, says, “Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The word for ‘sinning’ here is not the word for serious moral failure but one that can mean no more than miss the mark or be mistaken, which would fit in with the idea that Jesus thinks he is simply living a poor life which could be much better.

What about us? Does Jesus ever have to ask us if we want to get well? Or are we quite happy living a life at a much lower level that we are capable of? We are ‘born again’, OK, but perhaps talk of commitment makes us cringe away. Jesus said to a man, “Follow me.” But he got some poor answers; the last of which was “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.” Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

If we have set out to follow Jesus we must be prepared to follow him wherever he may lead us. There will be no question of ‘do you want to get well.’ We are committed - so we follow him. We are not told about how difficult this man found walking was; did he have a problem with his balance; did his legs feel like jelly under him; did he fall over after a very few steps; what did he say to the people, probably his family, who had supported him and expected a financial return from their work, when he got home that night and had to explain that they would not get any more money from his begging?

Following Jesus is not simply a way of getting an easy ride through life; it may well mean tough things to do, apparently insurmountable obstacles in front of us, a need to keep going, to persevere come what may; to follow his call wherever it may take us.

Keep at it. In the long term it is worth it; and even if it wasn’t he is the Lord of all and it is worth doing for his sake alone. These days we are often encouraged too much to ‘follow Jesus’ purely for the sake of the benefits it will bring us. Yes, it does bring us benefits but if he is, and was, the Creator of the world ought we not to be prepared to follow him for his sake – because of who he is - not because of anything for ourselves. Think about it!

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 18

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 18: John 4:48
Signs and wonders

In this, verse 48, “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” He was not speaking exclusively to the royal official and worried father for the ‘you’ is plural. At first the words sound like a rebuke, but Jesus went on to heal the boy that was so ill so his intent was more subtle than that. These words are used quite often by big meeting preachers to justify their claimed miracles and command people to believe. But that is not the intention of these words either and a sometimes very dangerous use of them.

It is much safer and wiser to take these words of Jesus as a comment on what happens, neither particularly encouraging or discouraging those who would rely on signs and wonders. It is important to note that exactly the same phrase is used in the Bible as a pointer to deceptive practices to be avoided (Matt 24: 24; 2 Thess 2: 9). But, positively, this episode is described as a sign in verse 54, the second one performed in Cana of Galilee. Jesus heals the boy. The NIV translates the crucial sentence as “your son will live” when it should more literally be “your son lives”. The action of Jesus is strong positive and instantaneous. So is that of the man. We are clearly meant to understand that he came to a strong, positive and totally valid faith as a direct result of this particular ‘sign and wonder’.

What should we make of this somewhat ambiguous situation? Surely this is actually the danger in signs and wonders – they focus attention on what Jesus can do for us, rather than on who he is. The royal official had a considerable advantage over us: he had met Jesus and could assess who he was. He knew both what Jesus could do and who he must be.

Who was, and is, Jesus? The Son of God; the Saviour of the world; the Lord of Glory; the Judge of the ages. Is that enough to be going on with? Of course we need to become convinced of these things which are not automatically obvious. And that is where the Resurrection comes in. Peter said, (Acts 2: 32, 36)“God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. … Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” Paul’s comment on that was (1 Cor 15: 20), “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,”

We are but human. We are quite capable of believing something today and its opposite tomorrow! Make sure your faith is grounded not on your subjective experience of the things that have happened to you or other people but on the objective facts of the word of God. The former may have brought you to faith as it did the royal official but work hard to transfer your true grounding to the latter, to his written word, the Bible and its sure testimony to the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the Resurrection of Jesus that is the one and only sure, unmovable foundation for your faith and for mine. All other possible logical bases for our faith are secondary and derivative.

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Gems in the Gospel of John - Part 16

Gems in the Gospel of John

Part 16: John 4:7b
You are … ( I AM …

Two people meet up in this amazing story. We will think about the first, the unnamed woman, here and the other, Jesus, in the following study.

No wonder she was surprised by the question Jesus asked, she was a woman – second class citizen in the thinking of those days; she was a Samaritan – long antagonistic to the Jews; she had a somewhat doubtful moral background – having had 5 husbands and now living with a man she was not married to (although there is no word of condemnation from Jesus so she may just have been a very unfortunate lady). On the positive side she was able to carry on a vigorous and effective conversation with a strange man and the village people gave her enough respect to come out to see Jesus at her suggestion.

We must not overlook the fact that Jesus treated women quite differently from that expected by the culture of his day. That is not immediately clear from the Biblical accounts that we have, but that may be because they were all written by men! But there are many easily overlooked hints that women had a considerable role to play in the early church. The news that Jesus had risen was entrusted to women (John 20: 1). As we shall see in the next study the news that he was God came first to a woman – this woman! Junia was an apostle (Romans 16: 7). Phoebe was an important and highly trusted member of the church in Cenchrae (Romans 16: 1). Women participated in the church services in Corinth (1 Corinthians 11: 5). The passages in which women’s participation in the church services are restricted (1 Corinthians 14; 1 Timothy 2) are both rather odd since they appear to contradict things Paul says elsewhere.

It would be nice to be able to claim that Jesus started a trend that has lasted through the 2000 years since but that would probably be overdoing it! Paul said (Gal 3: 28), “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Jesus had already amply demonstrated the truth of that, showing that neither race, nor status, nor gender is of any significance in the Kingdom. To those we should add for our world skin colour and education level. There may not be a clear trend through the many years since but Jesus made a statement that set a target. Only now as with modern sophisticated machinery nimble fingers and a quick mind become more important than brute strength is the equality of women being increasingly recognized.

The sharpness of the contrast John has drawn by his choice of Nicodemus: well known, named, respected, male and this unknown, unnamed, doubtful, female for his two stories close together is a warning to us just how easy it is to slip into an attitude of ‘not one of us’. There is no ‘them’ and ‘us’ in the Kingdom.

The ground is level at the foot of the Cross.

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