John’s Gospel

FRI., JAN. 26, 1996, 12:50 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

You just have done a “good thing”. You’ve spent some time with this favorite Gospel of yours, and prepared a provocative sheet for your class on Sunday morning, if such assembles. Now, obviously, you need some help with interpretation and understanding of this important Scriptural contribution… and here I am.

As John postponed the writing of his account of My life, as Jesus, he came to some more mystical conclusions. First, and most obviously, I, as Jesus, was, from the beginning of the earth… and there was no “time” in which I wasn’t. So the birth story… the basis for the Christmas celebration… didn’t seem important. It was vital that I was in the earth, but the how was inconsequential. I came to be baptized by another John, and in that came the revelation of My Sonship, which is still “one step back” from being One with God, the Father. As Holy Spirit I got to help deliver the “message”, for, of course, I also was “from the beginning”.

John’s first story of Me tells of a miracle, but, as I have reminded you several times, it was a strange miracle – turning water into wine at a wedding celebration. The wedding itself is not described, and there is no reference to marriage being important or sacramental, except as an occasion for drinking wine. The miracle was excessive… many gallons of wine that tasted like the best, not like some that had been “watered down”. It was a display of My power, as God, and I don’t apologize for it. (There were no auto accidents because of My generosity!)

Next came My conversation with Nicodemus, and My affirmation that “you must be born again”. Physical birth is one kind of entrance. Spiritual birth is the other and, clearly, the most important. Your experience was not as dramatic as many of the more pentecostal ones, but you can identify the circumstances, though not the exact “time”. You also can’t quite remember if your group was studying this Gospel or Paul’s letter to the Romans. They both have been important to you, so the specific is not as vital as the fact that you responded to My call through powerful Scripture. You were born anew, and then, over 20 years later, you were born yet again.

For most Christians, even those especially called by Me, the one spiritual rebirth is enough. For you, and a few others, you are offered yet another one. You don’t hear, in John’s interpretation of relationship, that you could have refused this additional rebirth. You were called, and you had to respond, as I wanted. But consider this: because I am outside of and little concerned with time, you could have refused Me in other lives or on other occasions. You had to develop spiritually to a point where you could… even wanted to… accept. I don’t affirm that this happened, but it could have.

Hear now the correlation between this “born again” story and that of the woman of Samaria. To her I said, “I am the Living Water… and you will never thirst again”. I now had been “reborn”, not only knowing Who I was, but now willing to affirm it (even if it was a bit indirect). But it was to a woman who was Samaritan, and later I admitted that I was more credible to “outsiders” than to those who knew Me and My “family”.