Go Figure

Any reader of the New Testament who starts with Matthew and reads the gospels in the order they are printed immediately realizes there is something different about the one written by John.  While Matthew and Mark seem intent on telling the Jesus story in a way which often seems to mimic Mark, the first gospel to be circulated, John is obviously a different kind of thinker and writer. Unlike Matthew, the teacher who wants to make sure folks get it right, Luke, the physician who has all the people of the whole world in view, and Mark, the one who writes like a real man as he says what he has to say with as few words as possible, the writer John is more the mystic, more the contemplative.

The very first words written by John signal us that something new is about to be written.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  (John 1:1)  Right up front John gives his readers something on which to chew.  Surely, these first words and the words  which follow in that larger eighteen verse section known as the Prologue warn us that more than just a narrative will follow.  John is the creator of word pictures and images.  He speaks of Jesus in the midst of the stream of life as it tells the story of the wedding at Cana of Galilee. 

John enables us to experience Jesus in so many new and unique ways.  Not only is He the Lamb of God, but He is also the bread of life and in the very first words of the gospel the name given is the Word.  We can only wonder why John did not simply say, "In the beginning was Jesus and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God."   Would such have not been clearer and more obvious?  Apparently, John wants us to join him in considering Jesus, the One sent from God.  More than seeing Him as the main character in the narrative, John wants us to spend time thinking and meditating until we figure some things out for ourselves.