The Study of the Gospel of John - as part of the ongoing gospel study

by John-Peter Gernaat

​We covered the Gospel of John from the last part of chapter 15 to the end of chapter 19. In chapter 16 the question of missing the mark and thus not sharing in the reward arises and what this mark is that we miss. When we understand the commandment of Christ, we realise the mark we are aiming at is to love one another as Christ loves us. We are to develop a wholeness of character and action that is without blemish, and we can know that the Divine plan for the development of the human being has been determined.

If we wish to begin to understand the concept of what a community is, we can turn to the Divine Trinity which is the foundation of a community where the three aspects of the Divine work together in community.

Chapter 17 is known as the High Priestly Prayer. Humanity lost its relationship with the Father. The human being continued to worship the Father, but was no longer in a relationship. Through Christ, a relationship is again established as understood from this prayer of Christ. Christ speaks to the Father in a very familiar and personal way. This is what angered the religious order of the time that demanded his crucifixion. When the human being strives towards becoming the human being of the future, our essential self, the ‘I’, reveals Christ and we become Christ to one another.

John presents the Crucifixion as the Passover Feast at which Christ is the sacrificial Lamb of God. The Last Supper takes place on Thursday evening, the day before the Passover. In John’s Gospel the act of giving the bread and the wine to the disciples is not presented because the real commemoration of the body and blood is on the Cross, on Friday. We looked more closely at the disciple who can enter into the house of the High Priest and can stand at the foot of the cross.

In chapter 19 we came to understand, among other things, the significance of the vinegar, and we penetrated the words spoken from the Cross. What is ‘Mother’ and what is ‘Son’? What is the relationship that is established at the foot of the Cross? Finally, what has been ‘fulfilled’?