At first blush, the Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark, and Luke) are so different from the gospel according to John.
Two of the three Synoptics start with the genealogy of Jesus (Matt and Luke). Mark jumps right into the story with John’s ministry.
John starts with the eternal preexistence of Jesus (thereby making a claim to his divinity) then moves in the wedding of Cana.
In the Synoptics, the first thing Jesus does in his ministry is announce that the kingdom of God has arrived. In John’s gospel, Jesus’ first words are “What do you want?”
Something that most modern NT readers miss is that the Wedding of Cana paired with the cleansing of the temple that we read about at the start of John’s gospel is saying the same thing that the synoptics are saying: the long awaited Messiah and the kingdom of God are here.
Two things point to this in John’s story telling.
First, the over abundance of wine at the Wedding of Cana. The prophets said that when the kingdom comes the hills will overflow with wine (Joel 3:8, Amos 9:13).
Second, the wedding itself. According to John (as is evidenced in Revelation) the kingdom come is like a great wedding.
Third, the cleansing of the temple. Second Temple Judaism had very specific messianic expectations. One of the things that 1st century Palestinian Jews expected the Jewish Messiah to do was rebuild the temple. Jesus first cleansed the temple (and in the synoptics, he cleanses the temple at the end of the narrative), then came under fire from the authorities for doing so. When they asked him, “who gave you authority to do this?” He said, “I will tear down this temple and rebuild it in three days.”
Ah, there it is. Jesus, the Messiah, rebuilding the temple (John explained that he was talking about his body, but that is besides the point for now).
With this, we have a wedding (kingdom language), an abundance of wine (kingdom language), and rebuilding the temple (kingdom language).
This means that John starts the same way with Jesus’ ministry as the Synoptics: the kingdom of God is here.
My last word, once again, the Gospels are all about the coming kingdom; they are not about me and my sin crisis (that’s there too, but not central). The Gospels are all about the fulfillment of God’s World Renewal Plan, taking back the throne of creation, and establishing his reign through his chosen human agent (the Messiah; also why Jesus must be human :)).
It’s all about Him.
Reblogged this on Tea in Solitude.