Hero photograph
Last Supper Mosaic. New Basilica of St. Apollinarus, Ravenna
 

Belief in Jesus Changed the Church — John 16

Kathleen Rushton —

Kathleen Rushton shows in John 16 how a new way of telling the story of Jesus grew out of the Johannine community’s experience of being Christian.

Science has demonstrated beyond all doubt that our universe is unfinished. In his 2015 book, Resting on the Future: Catholic Theology for an Unfinished Universe, John Haught asks “what Catholic faith might mean if we take fully into account the fact that our universe is on the move . . . What if [we] began to take more seriously the evolutionary understanding of life and the ongoing pilgrimage of the whole natural world? . . . that the cosmos, the earth, and humanity, rather than having wandered away from an original plentitude, are now and always invited toward the horizon of fuller being up ahead?” Haught recalls that especially in Gaudium et Spes and Dei Verbum, Vatican II encouraged Catholics “to become more evolutionary in their understanding of the world and more biblical in their spirituality.” Haught’s insights and questions inform my reflection and interpretation of John 16.

The context of John 16:29-33 is a conversation between Jesus and unnamed disciples and divides into three parts — Jn 16:1-15; Jn 16:24; Jn 16:25-33. Each part has a similar threefold structure: a declaration of Jesus; a reaction by the disciples; and a further declaration by Jesus in response to the disciples’ reaction.

This chapter in John is one of the farewell discourses in which there is much talk about the future, questions about moving beyond the known, confusion, notions of time and a new vision of life obtainable for all who follow Jesus. Speaking just before his arrest, trial and death, Jesus is preparing the disciples for his departure and for their life in his absence. This future which Jesus envisions in John is the reality for us today because the Church lives without the physical presence of Jesus and is sustained by his words.

Written by Believers for Believers

A gospel is an interpretative narrative of the appearance, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus and tells of the significance of that story for those who hear or read it. It was told by believers for believers in particular situations.

The social context in the Mediterranean world was more complex than Jewish/Christian tensions. In first century Palestine and in Ephesus where probably John’s gospel was written, believers were subjects of the Roman Empire. All religious, social and economic life was under imperial domination. The Book of Revelation shows this tension. The theological concern of the writer was to expose the Roman Empire for what it is — a threat to the reign of God in the world — and to encourage Christians to resist its values.

The Johannine gospel, written probably in the 90s, emerged from this setting and is shaped by resistance and witness. To understand the religious interactions we need to remember the background in which readers/hearers faced difficult choices. They could remain in their local synagogue as members of a religious group that had official recognition in the empire and avoid the scrutiny of its officials. They could stay with the synagogue while at the same time also worshipping secretly as Christians. They could break away from the synagogue, worship openly as Christians and risk the consequences.

John encourages the last choice. We find the expression, “put out of the synagogue” (aposunagogos Jn 16:2) which was used previously in Jn 9:21–22 and Jn 12:42. In the whole of Greek literature this word is found only in John. Finally after a process lasting decades, the Johannine community’s belief in Jesus led to a parting of the ways. That brave Church went out of the world they loved and began to tell the old story of Jesus in new and often unique ways as we now read in the prologue and the farewell discourses.

Gathering of Present and Future Communities

We read in the latter stages of Jesus’ ministry that his death is connected with the gathering of present and future communities. Jesus will bring other sheep into the fold (Jn 10:15–16); gather the dispersed children of God (Jn 11:50–52); many will believe in him (Jn 12:11); Greeks come to him (Jn 12:20–23); and when he is lifted up he will draw all people to himself (Jn 12:32).

The future and the present merge in a single narrative moment in ways that contest the usual understandings of time. God and Jesus are present and interact without being confined by past, present and future. Jesus’ words concern his future which he implies is also connected with the future of the disciples and with that of the reader. The transformation and the merging of the times are conveyed by the mysterious word, “hour”, which is used in various ways with the verb “come” (Jn 16:2, 4, 21, 25, 32). “My/the hour” is an image for Jesus’ death-resurrection and draws others also into the mystery. For these times, there are words of promise and assurance (Jn 16:12-15 and Jn 16:33).

I Have Said These Things to You

The discourse moves between the present and future to indicate that a new age has begun. Jesus’ words containing the expression “put out of the synagogue” (Jn 16:2) are framed by his saying: “I have said these things to you” (Jn 16:1, 4) to keep disciples from stumbling and to remind them of his words when that time comes. “I have said these things/this to you” is repeated three more times (Jn 16:6, 25, 33). In Jn 16:12–15 there is a change of tense which suggests the future: “I still have many things to say to you.” Here Jesus links his departure with the coming of the Spirit of Truth. He has already told the disciples that his going is to their advantage for otherwise the Advocate will not come (Jn 16:7). Jesus then describes the twofold role of the Spirit: to expose (Jn 16: 8-11) and to guide (Jn 16:12–15).

Speaking Plainly/Frankly

In 16:29-33 the disciples react to Jesus: “now you are speaking plainly”. Speaking “frankly” or “plainly” (parrēsia) was a characteristic of the ancient ideal of friendship. The biblical figure of Wisdom Sophia gathered her friends. The earthly Jesus gathered his friends. Later the Risen Jesus gathers the Johannine community, and communities throughout the ages, in the Eucharist to be “friends of God and prophets” (Wisdom 7:27). Wisdom Sophia cries out for justice at the street corners. Likewise, Jesus lived his ministry publicly and spoke out frankly, often in Jerusalem, the centre of religious and political power (John 7:4, 13, 26; Jn 10:24; Jn 11:14, 54; Jn 16:25, 29; Jn 18:20). This led to Jesus’ death. Ancient writers, like Plato and Aristotle, wrote of another ideal of friendship as the love which leads one to lay down one’s life for friends. Jesus’ life is the incarnation of such friendship (Jn 15:12–15).

Telling the Old story in a Bold New Way

John Haught writes of creating a “spiritual space for a fresh throb of hope” and of living a biblical spirituality of “Abrahamic adventure.” The Johannine community gave us a new gospel. So how can we tell the old story in a bold new way? How do we become more evolutionary in our understanding of the world and more biblical in our spirituality? What is the Empire in our situation? What choices do we face? About what are we called to speak “frankly"?


Published in Tui Motu InterIslands Magazine. Issue 204, May 2016.