Barnes: Shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to swim in

Last week, I raised the question, “Who am I of?” and showed that, in John 8, Jesus denounces the inadequacy of the confident self-understanding of His Jewish hearers in their Abrahamic heritage, and reveals the inadequacy of the faith of modern-day “halfway-house” Christians now, who hold onto sins which, like those of Abraham’s descendants, prevent their holding onto His saving teachings.

In John 8, Jesus shocks us by telling us that we are ” of the devil” when we hold onto our sins.

This week, I begin with this statement: “The portrait of Jesus in John can be simply labeled, Jesus saves.”

That is Dr. Linda McKinnish Bridge’s assertion in her book, “The Church’s Portraits of Jesus.” My former colleague and constant friend, and her husband, served as young missionaries in Taiwan for a few years where she taught John’s Gospel to non-Christians seated around her kitchen table in Taipei.

She writes, “Later, I spent several years combing through stacks of books and articles written on John, preparing to write a dissertation. … Faced with both the simplicity and the profundity, I agreed with the scholar who said that the Gospel of John was shallow enough for a child to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to swim in.”

Appreciating the central use of light, “the speediest messenger of the senses,” in Impressionistic paintings like Monet’s, she emphasizes, “The Fourth Gospel is like that. The Light of the World takes central focus.”

Modernity’s hesitancy toward a religious use of the word “saves,” even in modern churches, Bridges laments, risks a loss of understanding, and she contends for reclaiming this old word of faith for its central importance in conveying “Jesus’ power to save.” Bridges shows her readers that, “Episode after episode, John reveals characters who encounter Jesus and then are changed. Jesus saves in John.”

I can hear Linda Bridges’ preaching voice in the following translation; translating from the Greek text, she renders the words of Jesus in John 12:35-36: “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

Teacher of preachers, she asks, “How do you describe Light?” And she preaches: “Before Jesus dies, the Light washes people’s feet and teaches that this is the model for us all (13:1-20).” Further, she proclaims:. “…the mark of a real minister is not the ability to parse Greek verbs, handle Hebrew exegesis, list major movements in church history, or recite theological confessions, but to wash the feet of people.”

Professor William Hull, translating chapters 12:31-33, and 16:33, and further interpreting Jesus’ stark denunciation of those who mistakenly presumed their religious heritage validated their faith, in chapter 8, points to Jesus’ insistence that bondage to evil, to darkness of the spirit, i.e., being “of the devil,” can be broken by holding to true belief through obedience to His commandments, and foregoing the voluntary will to serve sin. Rather, doing the truth, Jesus has shown, gives knowledge of God and God’s will.

Hull writes of Jesus’ “merciful recognition” that persons could be “victimized by forces outside their lives: the binding power of religious tradition, of national pride, of racial prejudice.”

Dr. Hull’s wise observation in 1970 holds new currency today, when national pride of a distorted and disfigured kind, and racial prejudice accelerating into hate crimes, have become major threats to peace here and abroad and commitment to mutual care and respect for one another.

Like Jesus’ first disciples, we, too, must recognize clearly that genuine faith cannot be had and understood apart from the cross and resurrection, Professor Hull shows. Our faith cannot avoid being a halfway house experience, unless a true and personal experience of the crucified and resurrected Christ, and obedience to His Will, mediate knowledge and wisdom; that alone is powerful enough to break the devil’s bondage.

Both these Christian scholars, Professors Bridges and Hull, challenge and enable us toward faith that is more than a halfway house experience, toward trust exercised and revealed in washing people’s feet, and in holding to Jesus’ teaching by “dropping the trash” of sinful choices and lifestyles, and keeping His teaching through obedience to His commandments.

Christ Jesus offers that strong faith now.

Thanks be to God.