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JOHN’S JESUS

Hello friend, this is the beginning of the last week in our intriguing series on the four Gospels. We’ve called it, The Four Faces of Jesus, because we’re seeing in each of the Gospels a distinct, unique portrait of Jesus.

We’ve taken a week with Matthew’s Jesus, and seen Him in His royalty. We’ve taken a week to see Mark’s Jesus, and seen a very human Jesus that fully understands us in our humanity. And a week to see Luke’s Jesus who bears our burdens and carries our sorrows.

Today we open the fourth Gospel and explore John’s Jesus. And the symbol for this Gospel we take from John’s other book, the book of Revelation where John describes a vision he had of God’s throne. He saw four living creatures including an eagle. And John’s Jesus is like an eagle that lives and flies, tirelessly, high in the heavens, with incredible sight to see what’s going on far below. Just as Jesus today lives in the highest heaven, works tirelessly on our behalf, and looks down at us on earth with the most tender, detailed interest in everything we think, and do, and say. That’s John’s divine Jesus!

You may have heard the words, Synoptic Gospels. Synoptic means taking “a similar view.” And Matthew, Mark, and Luke approach the life of Jesus Christ as a similar series of chronological events—even though each writes from a distinct perspective. But John is quite different from the other three!

You sense there’s something vastly mysterious and awe inspiring about John’s book right from the opening words. He describes the beginning of our world history, and tells us that Jesus, Whom He calls “the Word,” was there, with God the Father, and the Word is God, He’s divine. Nothing came into existence without the Word, John says.

John had a most intimate association with Jesus, and in John’s Gospel we can read the testimony of an eye witness who quickly recognized Jesus as God.

So let’s begin: I’m reading from John 8, from verse 1, in the New International Version.

1But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.
7But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

It’s very early in the morning; cool, but sunny. Jesus had spent the night outside Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives in prayer. While another man spent the night inside Jerusalem involved with illicit love making. Long shadows from the rising sun stretch across the temple courtyard making contrasting blocks of darkness and light. It’s still too early for the large crowds that will come as the day proceeds. But those that wish to bring an offering and start the day with God during this Feast of Tabernacles (the happiest of the seven annual feasts) have already arrived. Those in the courtyard can see the wisps of smoke ascending from inside the gateway to the inner court at the Altar of Burnt offering where a young lamb, the morning sacrifice, has just been placed in position. It will burn for the next 12 hours until the evening sacrifice.
Despite the limited number of people, Jesus quickly drew a crowd. He talked to them, loved them, healed them, taught them. Who wouldn’t love a person like Jesus, God’s Son! He’s the personification of the eternally loving God the Father, Whose unconditional love Jesus had come to show the whole world.

In the midst of this tranquil scene came a disturbance from a group of religious leaders, Pharisees and rabbis. Just seeing a bunch of them spelled trouble. But they didn’t come alone. They were harassing, herding, a timid, frightened, disheveled young woman. Her beautiful long tresses had not been combed. Her robe had been hastily drawn around her shoulders. The dark shadows under her eyes reflected her lack of sleep. They shoved her in front of Jesus and commanded her to stand there.

She kept her head lowered in humiliation in front of the finely robed men that ruled her society. The spokesman described the problem. “This woman has been discovered while in the act of adultery.” “Oh, how politely they put it,” she thought to herself. But her memories of the last few hours were far from “polite” I imagine.

Just think of the meticulous planning of these religious leaders to get to this point. During the days of the Feast of Tabernacles (the occasion that had brought Jesus to Jerusalem) these schemers had been trying to snare Him into doing or saying anything for which they could arrest Him. In the past, their best strategies had failed. This present episode had taken much better planning. They plotted to have one of their contacts seduce a young woman. He would bring her into his spacious home, and at the right moment, give a signal. Spies from the hierarchy would dash into the room, in mock horror grab the woman, drag her down to the temple to Jesus, and accuse her of adultery.

Up to this moment, their plan had gone like clockwork. The seduction idea worked well, the spies took their positions, the signal was given, they entered, and dragged the woman away to the temple.

But how despicable that they would pretend to be concerned about purity after arranging the impurity they now charged before Jesus! And even worse, that they would charge the victim and let the perpetrator go free! She now knew she’d been set up.

The sound of a voice cuts short her reverie. “Master,” she hears, “Under these circumstances, the law of Moses demands that we stone her to death. Do you agree?” Well, not quite true. Deuteronomy 22:22 says if a man commits adultery with another man’s wife, both were to be killed, but there’s no mention of stoning. It was all an elaborate trap. With no interest in the woman and little for the law, they seek to put Jesus into a most difficult position. He could belittle Moses, angering the Jewish establishment, or call for capital punishment, and anger the Romans. Clever plot! But they didn’t reckon with the wisdom of the divine Jesus.

The young Jewish woman heard their question as her death sentence. It was no longer a matter of what would happen to her, only when. She began to count her last moments on earth, sorrowful for her many failures. She only hoped the first stone would knock her unconscious.
Then she hears someone say, “Whoever is without sin, you throw the first stone.” Then all she “hears,” is silence. The Pharisee is silent. The people are silent. Jesus is silent. Only a gentle morning breeze whispers its secrets around the courtyard.

To this point Jesus had been standing. But now he knelt on the flagstones of the courtyard. The sweepers had not yet begun their work. The dust that had blown in overnight still lay undisturbed. To this point the accused had only seen Jesus’ feet from the corner of her downcast glassy stare. Now she saw the carpenter in profile, and His hand writing in the dust—but from her position she couldn’t read the words. Actually they were about people she didn’t know. Sentence after sentence Jesus wrote.

Then came sound: of sandals on “dussst”; someone disappearing from sight. Then another and another. People were leaving the scene. She stole a glimpse from her downcast head and noted the retreating figure of a richly robed rabbi. Although she couldn’t read the writing, she knew that by some miracle the accusers were in retreat and she wondered what her fate would be now.

Jesus stood up and looked at her. She sensed she was being observed and dared to look up, and saw His face for the first time. His eyes had compassion, forgiveness, acceptance. She’d never seen a face like His in her life. She’d never seen a man look at her like that before. Mercy looked intently into the eyes of Misery. Then He looked away and surveyed the scene. Not one of the robed accusers was in sight!

Then for the second time she hears His voice, this time with a question, “Where are your accusers?” She looks around to discover that not one of the arrogant gang that had grabbed her in the bedroom and herded her to the temple court is still there. “There are none, Lord,” she replies in amazement. And she hears His words, “I don’t condemn you either. Go, and sin no more.”

Her soul feels a relief, a recovery, a restoration she can’t put into words. Her eyes fill with tears as she drops to the ground at Jesus’ feet. She confesses her sins to Him, receives forgiveness, and is born again to become one of the most trusted and loyal followers of Jesus for the rest of her life. In His divinity, John’s Jesus, the eagle, had made her a new person. . . . And He can do the same for you!