The Study of the Gospel of John

by John-Peter Gernaat

During May chapters 19 to 21 formed the study of John’s Gospel.

John wrote his Gospel with the purpose of telling humanity that that which was written has been fulfilled. The wait is over.

Was the vinegar that was given to Jesus a punishment, or did it serve a purpose? Vinegar shocks the system and could bring Jesus to consciousness of what was happening.

When Jesus addresses the mother and the disciple at the foot of the cross, he is not speaking to them by name. Jesus is speaking to them for what they have become. Mary is a community within one person and so is John. (There are articles written that speak to this elsewhere.) Jesus references the relationship between communities.

Jesus addresses them as Mother and Son. Mother is the birth giver. The quality of having been born makes one a son. When we receive the Spirit into us, it is the Spirit that gives birth to Christ in us. The Spirit is the birth-giver in us and Christ-in-us is the son. The name I O A is the full community of the human being. I O A NESS is the name of the human being bearing the qualities of a messenger. The community of husband and wife is replaced by the community of mother and son: Adam and Eve to Isis and Horus. The goal of humanity is to be integrated. The human being is to be the initiator and to carry the initiation – mother and son.

The words that we hear Jesus speak from the cross: “Behold your mother; behold your son”; “I thirst”; and “It is fulfilled” are unique to John’s Gospel.

The blood that flows from a human body makes one thirsty. The water that flows from the side of Jesus is a reference to the water that flowed from the rock in the desert when the people of Israel travelled in the desert for forty years (Exodus 17: 6).

The first day of the week as described by John is unique.

When Mary Magdalene meets Jesus in the garden, and mistakes him at first for the gardener, the words the Risen One speaks are “do not touch me”. Eight days later – seven days, a complete cycle, and the start of a new cycle – the Risen One says to Thomas “place your finger in the mark of the nails and place your hand in my side”.

What happens in these eight days? Jesus says to Mary “… for I have not yet ascended to the Father”.
On the evening of the first day while the disciples are in the locked upper room, the Risen One stands among them and breathes on them and says: “Receive Holy Spirit”. John is alert to these two events: that Jesus is ascending to the Father and he is bestowing the Holy Spirit of the disciples. John describes Ascension and Whitsun before the Risen One and the Holy Spirit make these two events outwardly apparent, because John has undergone the initiation of Lazarus. He was the only disciple who could enter into the house of the High Priest with Jesus and could accompany Jesus to the cross. He lies near the breast (heart-forces) of Jesus at the Last Supper. He is aware that the rising from the dead is not a man coming back to life, but rather a resurrection into a new life.

When Tomas meets the Risen One a whole new step is possible. Jesus has ascended to the Father and now Thomas can touch him. What is Thomas touching? In one of his lectures, Rudolf Steiner rearranges the lower of the twelve senses and begins with life (wellbeing), followed by movement and balance and then only the sense of touch. He relates the experience of Thomas to the sense of touch. Thomas is coming in touch with what the events mean.

Chapter 20 end as if this is the end of the Gospel and then there is chapter 21.

Firstly, in verses 15 to 17, the Risen One addresses Simon as “of John”. This has been expanded in many translations to “son of John”, but this is not in the original Greek text. This is indicative of John being a title rather than a name. We can translate the Prologue to John’s Gospel as reading: “There is the human being sent from God, and his name John”.

When the Risen One asks Simon whether he loves him, He uses a word that is directional and has purpose. “Simon, of John, have an aim in your affection. Make a commitment.” Simon denied Jesus three times and he must make a new connection with the Risen One. He is very quick to act, jumping out of the boat and rushing ashore, but he must find conviction.

In Greek the word sheep means the ones who move forward. The shepherd walks behind the sheep and has the task of ensuring that they are nourished. The human being must continue to move forward and Simon Peter, of John, is given the task to ensure that the human being finds nourishment, spiritual nourishment.