Images of Jesus from the gospel of John

I’d like to start a new thread that deals with an idea I have for a non-fiction book about the images of Jesus from the gospel of John. I have used this in a bible class three times in the last ten years and it has always been well received. I’d like to write it up in a format that would be easy to use for bible classes.

Throughout John’s gospel Jesus and other use some rich imagery to talk about who Jesus is. We have had some discussion of Jesus on this forum but with no real focus. I would like us to focus on just what we can find from the old and new testaments to add to our understanding of the different images in John. As an example a few of those images would be The Word from chapter one, the Temple from two and water and bread from four and six.

I would like to start us off with the Word. John starts his gospel with “In the beginning was the word…” This start immediately makes me think of the way Genesis begins, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.” I do not believe that God was trying to tell how he created the world but in verse 3 it says “And God said Let there be light”, he used words. In many other places in both the old and new testaments the bible speaks of the Power of God’s Word.

How can this use of the Word of God in the bible be related to who Jesus is?

And one more bible quote is form Jeremiah 31:33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”

Now I always thought this meant that we would memorize the law but this quote is actually talking about a time in the future and during the time this was written the “house of Israel” had already been commanded by God to memorize the law.

So, does this quote refer to something other than memorization?

Thanks for the suggestion to look into the market before I start writing. I have made that mistake already this year.

I love your use of 'Resonance'. Their are a number of time that the bible talks about the whole world speaking for God. Isaiah 55 starting in verse 11 "so is my word that goes out from my mouth..." the skipping down to verse 12 "You (still speaking about his word) will go out in joy and be lead forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands." (my words in parenthesis)

I hear music in God's creation.

As for Jeremiah the weeping prophet he lived during the time of the exile and told Judah about the terrible things that would happen when the Babylonians came and took them away. Then he gave them something to look forward to by giving several messianic prophesies. Jer. 31:33 is one of them. And after Genesis the next four books of Law have some admonition to to commit God's Law and God's Word to memory. Dt 11:18 being the most direct command to memorize the God's word.

thanks for chipping into the discussion.

Another aspect of Jesus being viewed as the Word of God is all the times that the WORD is talked about in the New Testament. When the Apostles in Jerusalem appoint the first special servants to take care of the Grecian widows their comment is that the Apostles should "devote themselves to prayer and the ministering of the Word". I had always assumed that this was the bible. like we have today but the truth is that what we have today was still a few centuries from being compiled. What word are they ministering too? If it is the Old Testament or what the Jews call the Torah and the Apostles felt that it was important to minister to it, why did they instruct Paul in the Jerusalem counsel that Gentile Christians didn't need to follow it?

Peter in 1st Peter 1:22 says the the word is living and enduring. Heb. 4:12 says the word is living and active. Rom. 10:8 the word is near you. And Col. 3:16 "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly"...

When I think of the word as being Christ himself it changes the way I view Paul's word's in 2nd Cor. 3-5 were he is making the argument that we are God's ambassadors. As God's ambassador I had always felt that I should be trying to convert people to the Bible but now, if I carry this argument through it is Christ, the word that dwells in me, that converts people to Himself.

One aspect of anything that is "living and active" is that it changes. In relation to a God that never changes that must mean the the "living and active word of God" changes other things, we who hear it and accept it into our hearts. There with the help of the spirit of God it transforms my life. It would be very surprising if my concept of the Messiah didn't change as I grew and was refined by the love of God over time.

I believe that the corporate understanding is supported and upheld by our personal understanding, and that our personal understanding is in turn formed and supported by the prevailing corporate understanding. And at times the corporate understanding as well as our personal understanding have been very shallow, and even wrong. We make a mistake when we try to understand Jesus or God based on the latest concept of God.

This mistake is compounded by the fact that we fail to see ourselves in peoples of the past. For instance, when we look back on the Christians of the Middle Ages we can criticize and condemn their faults without ever realizing that we too have our own faults. We can not help but carry around our own world view that distorts the picture of God that he wishes us to see. And he has told us that we must be humble enough to know this.

Another image from John that I like comes from John 2:19-22 Jesus tells the Jews who ask him for a sign of authority, to "destroy this Temple and i will re build it in three days". He of course meant his body. Later Paul calls our bodies the temple of God. How was Jesus and how are we now the temple of God?

The idea that the Temple is the dwelling place of God is well understood but there is more to it than just a dwelling. The importance of the Temple in the bible is better understood when we examine Solomon's dedication to his newly built Temple in 1Kings 8:22-52. Here Solomon talks about the Temple being the dwelling place of God but also a place where the people of God can come and be in the presence of God, make prayers and supplications and receive reconciliation. When we compare this to Jesus' mission on Earth It is easy to see how he fulfills this purpose is his body. When Paul speaks of our bodies being the Temple of God do we also take on these functions that Solomon talks about?