Brave New World

Don’t even know if I’m doing it right, but just wanted to show my virtual face. Now I have somewhere to go instead of surfing pointlessly for blogs and sites and then wondering if they are sound or misleading. I know these guys well enough to know how to question or support anything they say,and I know I’ll get honesty.Hope I manage to add something at some stage too.

Feeding 5,000 and a Fish Fry After Resurrection

A little more on feeding 5,000 and the closing incident of John’s Gospel in chp 21. I know many experts argue that the Gospel closes at the end of chp 20, finishing with Thomas’s great declaration of faith in v28 and then the famous summary statement of the writer to the effect that Jesus did lots of other things which were not recorded, but these have been carefully selected to lead you to faith and life (v30,31). And that would make literary sense…it’s a suitably high dramatic moment on which to conclude. But instead we have this curious additional chapter.

I’m intrigued by a number of things:

1. Thomas’s reappearance here in v2, (after his declaration in 20:28), as the disciples decide to return to fishing. This has always been presented to me as a loss of faith on their part evidenced in a return to the old life, and their conviction that the great endeavour with their Messiah had failed utterly. I guess it could still be; we’re all prone to these lapses, and if so, then it is remarkable that Jesus still has patience. But maybe there is something more here. Any ideas?
2. The startling number of parallels with the feeding of the 5,000 in John 6.
   Note:
   -the lake has a prominent part – both stories happen beside it or after having crossed it.
   -there is a food related question to open events:
   “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” (6:5)
   ”Friends, haven’t you any fish?” (21:5)
   -miraculous multiplication of bread in and fish in chp6, and a miraculous catch of fish, more than ever before in
   chp21.
   -the distribution of the food in ways eerily reminiscent of the Last Supper, (6:11 & 21:13)
   -the exact same phrase is repeated ‘and he did the same with the fish’ (6:11 & 21:13)
   -the asking of questions to which Jesus already knew the answers (6:6 & 21:17)
   -the conclusion with a statement about force, the one referring to the attempt to make Jesus their king (6:15)
   and the curious statement of Jesus to Peter concerning the death by which he would glorify God: ‘when you were
   younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands,
   and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ (21:18).What’s going on?
3. And on that last point, what is the connection between a statement about ‘feed my sheep’, the third command in the reinstatement of Peter (21:17) and the statement about Peter’s death? I mean, what leads Jesus to make that statement after having spoken to him about his pastoral duties? Is there a connection with the call in 21:19?
4. Why did Jesus ask them to bring some of the fish they had caught, when he already had fish cooking (v9, 10)?
5. What does it mean when John says ‘none of the disciples dared ask him ‘who are you?’. They knew it was the Lord.’ (21:12)?
6. Why repeat the explanation of 21:25, which says almost the same thing as 20:30,31?

So many questions. But then the events that followed the resurrection were so extraordinary I guess.

Anyway, I’m open to further ones, or to any answers.

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previously posted on crookedshore

Making Jesus King by Force

At Saturday’s breakfast we considered the story of the feeding of the five thousand in John ch 6. We were all particularly struck by the comment in verse that the people wanted to come and make Jesus king by force. I’m not sure what that means or how that works. How do you insert someone as your king if that person doesn’t want it, or doesn’t want it that way.

And yet the church has insisted on doing this down through the ages, whether by the crusades, or forced conversions or at the point of a gun or, in more pietistic terms, by programmes and systems of evangelism and church growth. In NI in the next few weeks, some will try to make Jesus king by force in a series of big rallies in the Odyssey Arena. But Jesus will not have it this way….our way.

Instead, buried in same section of John’s Gospel is the hint of the Jesus way.

Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
John 6:11

John in his account of the feeding of the 5,000 records these actions of Jesus as a conscious, but hidden, hint for those of us who are this side of the events of Holy Week. These words should call to mind for us the words of Jesus at the Last Supper before he moves out to Gethsemane and the subsequent events of his crucifixion.

If there is to be a king, that kingdom will be in inaugurated by self-sacrifice, by the washing of feet, by those who want to be first choosing the last place. It cannot be by force.

So this deceptively simple story lays out the stark choice, the two ways, and we must choose. The Way of force and might? Or, the Way of service and sacrifice? This is the choice we continually make. The choice the church continually makes.

One final thing. The sadness is that, in a sense, making him king by force is exactly what they did in the end. Pilate writes an inscription in three languages, Jesus the King of the Jews, only not the king anyone imagined.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
John 19:19,20

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previously posted on crookedshore