Recap

So far in John we've read through the prologue and started Jesus' public ministry. The most unique of the four gospels, John's gospel focuses on the divinity of Jesus. The prologue identified Jesus as both 'the Word' and God. He existed before creation and took on flesh to dwell with his creation. He's described as the light found in Genesis 1, and both the tabernacle and the Passover lamb found in Exodus.

John the Baptist prepared the way for him as Isaiah prepared the way for the Lord, but we didn't read John baptise Jesus as we did with the other gospels. Nor do we read Jesus go into the desert to resist the temptation of Satan. Jesus is God on earth. He's the one who baptises and is so far above Satan that any ‘temptation’ is far too insignificant to mention. He called his first disciples, who recognised that he was the Messiah immediately.

Then we saw Jesus interact with four Jewish institutions. The first is a wedding in Cana. There he performed his first miracle, turning water into wine. He produced over 100 litres of the highest quality wine, showing the generosity of the kingdom of God. Like a marriage is a covenant between husband and wife, Jesus is ushering in a new covenant.

Then, in Jerusalem, he interacted with the second institution, the temple. He cleared it of its corrupt traders. When the religious leaders asked him by what authority he did this, he tells them that he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. He was talking about his own death and resurrection, but the religious leaders misunderstood him. They were too focused on their temple, not realising that the new temple was standing in front of them.

John 3-4

The next Jewish institution we see Jesus interact with is a Rabbi, a teacher. One of the religious leaders, a man named Nicodemus, comes to Jesus by night to praise him for being such a great teacher. Jesus responds by pointing out the people don’t need teaching. They need completely new lives. It is as though they need to be born again, but this time of fresh water and spirit.

Jesus is drawing on ideas from the Old Testament prophets, like Ezekiel, who said that the people need new hearts (Ezekiel 36:25–27), or Isaiah when he spoke of God pouring out water and his spirit on the people (Isaiah 44:3). The people don’t need new teaching. They need to be renewed from the inside out.

Like the religious leaders misunderstood Jesus when he was talking about the temple, Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus talking about being reborn. He assumes Jesus is talking about literal birth.

Jesus likens himself to the bronze serpent in Numbers 21. The people had been bitten by poisonous snakes, and so Moses make a bronze serpent and lifted it up for all to see. When someone looked at the serpent, they were healed of the poison. In the same way, Jesus is saying that everyone is filled with spiritual poison, and he has come so that people can focus on him and be healed.

Jesus explains that he was sent by God the Father to redeem the world and save it. Anyone who believes in him will be saved. They are choosing light and life. But those who reject him are choosing darkness and death. 

Sometime later, Jesus is out with his disciples who are baptising people. John is also there, baptising people with his disciples. Some Jews come to John to complain, asking if he was concerned that people will stop following him and start following Jesus. But John is happy. He points out that he only came to point people to Jesus. He’s always said he wasn’t the king that had been prophesied about. Now that the king is here and people are following him, John is happy.

In this, the author John is addressing the complaint that many had that Jesus was starting some separatist movement away from Judaism. John the Baptist represented the prophets and teaching found in the Old Testament. Just as Jesus was the thing that John had been pointing to his whole ministry, Jesus is also the thing the Old Testament was pointing to. Jesus hasn’t come to take people away from their Old Testament teaching. He has come to fulfil it.

Jesus then travelled from there to go to Galilee and decided to journey through Samaria. There he visits the fourth Jewish institution, a sacred well. This well is full of Jewish history. This was the land that Jacob bought after being reunited with his brother Esau (Genesis 33:18-19). And this was the place that Moses spoke to the people about the blessings and curses of God, and the proper places of worship (Deuteronomy 11-12).

While sitting there, a Samaritan woman, a non-Jew, came to use the well and Jesus strikes up a conversation with her. Through this conversation, Jesus explains to her that he is the source of living water. This was a pun with double meaning. Living water was how fresh underground springs were described, and in Genesis we saw the Abraham and his descendants work hard to dig wells where these could be found (see Genesis 26:19).

But also the life that God offers is described as living water (Jeremiah 2:13). Jesus is the source of abundant life. Then they begin to talk about worship, and Jesus points that in his kingdom it’s not the location that’s important when it comes to worship, but the heart. His followers will worship God in spirit and in truth.

But perhaps the most significant thing about this story is the fact that this woman is a Samaritan. The Jews and the Samaritans famously hated each other. But Jesus’ kingdom isn’t restricted to just Jews. It is for everyone.

There’s also a key Old Testament parallel going on here. In Genesis 25, Genesis 29, and Exodus 2 we saw the Old Testament equivalent of the boy meets girl motif. In each we had a story of a man travelling to a foreign country, stopping off at a well, meeting a girl, one of them draws water for the other, the girl runs off to tell her family, and the two get married.

In this story, Jesus plays the role of the boy in the boy meets girl story. The difference is that rather than drawing water, he is offering life, and rather than marriage, he is bringing the reunion of humanity with God.

Jesus' disciples caught up with him and after seeing him talking to the Samaritan woman, encourage him to eat. But just like with the living water, Jesus talks about secret food that they don’t know about. The disciples are confused, but Jesus explains that his food is to do God’s will. Jesus’ followers don’t need to worry about what they will eat. Instead, their focus should be on doing God’s will and everything else will be sorted (see Matthew 6:25-34 for a similar idea).

A little later, an official comes to Jesus begging him to heal his son. Jesus tells him to go home, his son will live. When the official got home, he finds that his son was healed at the exact time he had spoken to Jesus. John describes this as Jesus’ second sign. This is the second miraculous sign we see Jesus do, and it points to Jesus’ kingdom being one of health and life.

Psalm 102

This psalm is attributed to ‘one afflicted, when he is faint and pours out his complaint before the Lord’. There’s been much discussion about who this might be, but no concrete answers have emerged. It falls into the category of lament psalm.

Psalm 102:1-2 - Opening request

Psalm 102:3-11 - Complaint

Psalm 102:12-17 - Declaration of trust

Psalm 102:18-22 - Declaration of trust for future generations

Psalm 102:23-28 - Final complaint, request, and declaration of trust

The psalmist opens with the request for God to listen. They ask that God hear them and show up. Then we get to the complaint. The psalmist feels like they are wasting away. Their days are like smoke easily blown away. Their bones crumbling and turning to ash like they’ve been burnt in a furnace. Their heart is like grass that’s been cut and withered away.

The psalmist is weak, wasting away, and lonely. They are surrounded by enemies who curse and taunt them. And all of this is because of God’s indignation and anger. To the psalmist, it feels like God is the one punishing them.

And then the psalmist encourages themself with truth about God. He is enthroned forever as king. There will come a time again when God will have pity on Jerusalem and restore her. Once again, nations will fear the Lord’s name and Jerusalem will be the pinnacle of his glory because he hears the prayers of those in need.

The psalmist then looks forward to future generations. They want them to know that the Lord looks down from heaven and sees those captive and hurting and sets them free. There will come a time when all people and kingdoms come together to worship the Lord.

Finally, the psalmist turns back to their own situation. God has broken their strength and shortened their days. They ask God to lengthen their life, for God is eternal. He created the heavens and the earth. Both of those will one day perish, but God will remain, for God has no end. Because of this, those who are loyal to God can be confident he will always be there for them.