Role of Living Authority

Power and Event

1st Ref	Place		2nd Ref	Place
1. Represents God		Baptising

1:19-34

Bethany beyond Jordan

3:22-36

Judea at Jordan

1:19-34 This is the witness (given by John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus). The Jews from Jerusalem, that is the priests and the Levites, sent to ask him "Who are you?" He (the Baptist) confessed and did not deny, saying "I am not the Christ." They asked him "Are you Elias?" He says "I am not." They asked "Are you the prophet?" He answered "No" They therefore said to him "Who are you? Tell us something so we can give an answer to the people who have sent us. What do you say about yourself?" He (the Baptist) said "I am the voice of one who cries out in the desert "Make the way of the Lord straight" as the prophet Isaiah said." Now the people who had been sent were Pharisees. They asked him saying "Why do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?" John answered them saying "I baptize in water. But amongst you there stands someone whom you do not know. This one is coming after me. I am not even worthy to loosen the thong of his sandal." These things happened in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.

3:22-36 After these things Jesus and his disciples came into the land of Judea. There they continued (with their ministry) and baptized. John also was baptizing in Ainon near Salim because there were many streams of water there. So they (Jesus and his disciples) came and were baptized. (They were able to do this) because John had not yet been thrown into prison. There was a degree of questioning of the disciples of John by a Jew about the subject of purifying. They (John's disciples) came to John and said to him. "Rabbi the one who was with you beyond the Jordan and to whom you bore witness, behold this man is baptizing and everyone is coming to him. John answered and said. "A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves know that I said I am not the Christ. Rather I have been sent before that one. It is the one who has the bride that is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom stands by and on hearing him is happy because this is the voice of the bridegroom. It is therefore with joy that I find my role has been completed. It is right for that one to increase. But as for me (it is right for me) to decrease. The one who comes from above is over all. The one (John himself) who comes from the earth is of earth and speaks of earth. The one from heaven in coming, is over all. What he has seen and heard is what he gives witness to. His witness is such that no one receives it (fully). On the other hand the person who does receive him is sealed in the conviction that God is truly (there). He (Jesus) whom God has sent, speaks the words of God. He gives the Spirit of God fully. The Father loves the Son and has given (him control) of everything - into his hand. The one who believes in the Son (Jesus) has eternal life. On the other hand the one who disobeys the Son will not see life. Rather the wrath of God remains upon him. (Note: Text is mainly a paraphrase of the Literal translation in the RSV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, 1988)

Re the last sentences in the second paragraph here and re 'the analysis' presented in Reality Search one can understand the Baptist as saying the following. 'Jesus, in his teaching, presents the underlying pattern of the universe that is, according to the designs of its Maker. If someone rejects the balanced sort of life and society that he teaches, then they will be putting themselves out of kilter with the Ultimate Reality. This will affect their own being both in this life and beyond it.

Perhaps a word should be said here about the law of Moses and the teaching of Jesus. Apart from respect for parents, the key social commandments of Moses that is, the 5th commandment re murder, the 6th one about adultery and the 7th one about stealing, are taken to a new level by James (c/f analysis of Reality Search in Acts). James apparently warns against blood sports, fornication, and unjust business practices. On the other hand it may appear the gospel structures are about the construction of societies rather than 'pushing up the bar' as to what constitutes sin. The key 'sins' that Jesus chides people about, appear to revolve around the barriers they put up to prevent the building of a balanced society. Forgiveness is stressed and there are warnings about hardness of heart. So where is the connection between these two factors and the basic moral law of Moses? A balanced society allows the moral law to prevail. A balanced society requires forgiveness and a compassionate heart. These latter qualities may not appear to be crucial but in the general picture they are. Forgiveness fosters internalised law which in turn reflects the spirit of Living Law.

2. Invites					Come and see/ Give me a drink
	1:35-51	Into Galilee		4:1-42		Into Galilee
1:35-51 The next day John (the Baptist) again stood (by the Jordan river) with two of his disciples. He was looking at Jesus walking along and said "Look, there is the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard him speaking (on these lines) and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and seeing them following him said to them. "What are you looking for?" They replied to him "Rabbi - (which means teacher), where are you staying?" He says to them "Come and see." They therefore went and saw where he was staying and stayed with him that day. At that time it was about the tenth hour (4 p.m.). One of these two was Andrew the brother of Simon Peter who had been listening to John and so followed (Jesus). The first thing he did was to go and find his brother Simon and say to him "We have found the Messiah - (which means the Christ). (Then) he led him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and Continued			4:1-42 When the Lord (Jesus) knew that the Pharisees had heard how he was making and batpizing more disciples than John, though it was his disciples baptizing and not himself, he left Judea and went back into Galilee. It suited him to pass through Samaria. He came therefore to a city of Samaria being called Sychar, near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. There was there a well of Jacob. Therefore Jesus who had become weary from the journey sat by the well. It was about midday. A woman of Samaria came along to draw water. Jesus says to her "Give me a drink." His disciples had gone away meanwhile into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said. "How is it that you, who are a Jew ask me, a woman who is a Samaritan for a drink? Jews do not associate with Samaritans." Jesus answered and said to her. "If you knew the gift of God and who the one is who is asking you "Give me a drink", it would be yourself doing the asking and he would have given you living water." She said to him "Sir you do not have a bucket. And the well is deep. How then could you have living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank of it himself as well as his sons and his cattle." Jesus answered and said to her "Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I give to them will by no means thirst again until the end of the age. The water that I will give will become a fountain within that person and it will well up into eternal life." The woman says to him "Give me this water so that I will not be thirsty again nor need to come here to draw up water." He says to her "Go and tell your husband to come here." The woman answered and said "I do not have a husband." Jesus says to her "Well said by saying "I do not have a husband." Indeed you have had five husbands and the man who is with you now is not your husband. You have spoken truly." The woman says to him "Sir I perceive that you Cont.

Continued said "You are Simon the son of John. You will be called Cephas - (which is translated Peter, the rock). On the next day (Jesus) headed towards Galilee and found Philip. Jesus says to him "Follow me." Now Phillip was from Bethsaida which was also the city of Andrew and of Peter. Then Phillip found Nathanael and tells him "We have found the one that was written about in the law of Moses and in the prophets. He is Jesus the son of Joseph from Nazareth. Nathanael said to him. "Can any good come out of Nazareth?" Philip says to him "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael as he approached and said about him "Look here comes a true Israelite. There is no guile in him." Nathanael (on coming up) said to him "How is you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig-tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are king of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him. "Do you believe (this) because I told you that I saw you underneath the fig-tree? You will see greater things than this." He (Jesus) said to Nathanael) "Truly truly I tell you, you will see heaven opened up and the angels of God going up and coming down upon to the son of Man."

Continued that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain and you say that Jerusalem is the place where one should worship." Jesus says to her "Believe me woman, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know because salvation (is to come) from the Jews. But an hour is coming and indeed has come, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Indeed the Father is looking for those who will worship him (in this way). God is spirit and it behoves those who worship in spirit and in truth to worship him (this way)." The woman says to him "I know that the Messiah is coming. He is the one who is called Christ. When this one comes he will tell us everything." Jesus said to her "I am that one who is talking with you (here and now)." With this the disciples came upon him and they marvelled that he was talking with a woman. However nobody said "What are you looking for or why are you speaking with her?" Rather, the woman left her water pot and went away into the city. She said to the men there. "Come and see a man who has told me everything I have done. Would this not be the Christ?" They therefore went out of the city and came to him. In the meantime his disciples asked him saying "Rabbi (will you not) eat?" But he said to them "I have food to eat that you do not know about." The disciples therefore said to one another "Has someone brought him something to eat?" Jesus said to them "My food is to the will of the one who has sent me a so that I may finish his work. Do you not say that in four months there will be the harvest? Look I tell you, lift up your eyes and see the fields. They are white and ready to harvest (now). Already the one who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit to eternal life. So that the one who sows may rejoice together with the one who reaps. In this way the word is true that one person sows while another one reaps. I have sent you to reap what you have not laboured for. Others have laboured and you have entered into their labour." Meanwhile many people out of that Samaritan city believed in him because of the word of the woman who gave witness in saying "He told me everything that I have done." Therefore when the Samaritans came they asked him to stay with them and he did stay there for two days. There were more still, who believed because of his word(s). To the woman they said "We no longer believe because of what you say. We have heard for ourselves and we know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world."

At the back of John's gospel we have a situation in which Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians are trying to co-exist and find some specific ways of linking themselves together into the future. By John's selection of what was said and done, it appears he is addressing those of a Gentile background in his Section B in order to draw them towards a deeper appreciation of faith (and authority). What does he mean talking about those who sow being together with those who reap? Over the centuries the Jews had laboriously witnessed to the rest of the world, the existence of a moral God. It was they who 'sowed' this understanding of God amongst their neighbours. Now it is the believers of a Gentile background who are 'reaping' converts who are ready to become believers in such a God. John acknowledges the importance and validity of the background of the Jewish heritage and the Christians who have converted from Judaism..