Today, December 27th is the Feast Day of St. John, the author of the fourth Gospel and a couple of epistles. Here are a couple of his famous passages. All quotes taken from the NAB translation.
I love the poetry in the opening first chapter.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and
without him nothing came to be. What
came to be through him was life, and this life was the
light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it.
A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to
testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to
testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was
coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came to be
through him, but the world did not know him.
He came to what was his own but his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to
those who believe in his name, who were born not by natural generation nor by
human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God.
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his
glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.
John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said ‘The
one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” From his fullness we
have all received, grace in place of grace, because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side,
has revealed him.
-John 1:1-18
And then from the 18th chapter you get this
intense moment when Jesus is brought to face Pontius Pilate.
Then they brought Jesus from Caiaphas to the praetorium. It was morning. And they themselves did not
enter the praetorium, in order not to be defiled so that they could eat the
Passover. So Pilate came out to them and said, “What
charge do you bring [against] this man?”
They answered and said to him,
“If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.” At this, Pilate said to them, “Take him
yourselves, and judge him according to your law.”
The Jews answered him, “We do
not have the right to execute anyone,” in order that the
word of Jesus might be fulfilled that he said indicating the kind of death he would die.
So Pilate went back into the
praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a
Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What
have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom
does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my
attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him, “Then
you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say I am a
king. For this I was born and for this I came into
the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens
to my voice.”
Pilate said to him, “What is
truth?”
-John 18:28-38
But we know the
answer to that. John has presented it in
the 14th Chapter.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith* in God; have faith also in
me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling
places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a
place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take
you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where [I] am going you know the
way.”
Jesus said to him, “I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. If you
know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen
him.”
-John 14:1-7
“I am the way and the
truth and
the life.”
I forgot to respond to this last week- I was going to say that although my longtime favorite gospel is that of Luke, in this new year I was going to actually study John, as opposed to just reading it again.
ReplyDeleteIf you never heard another thing out of the bible, the first five verses of John would almost be enough to set your faith.
Oh that's great. John's Gospel is my favorite and I would be interested in your study. Perhaps you could post some of your thoughts on your blog. By the way, this was in spam again. I'm going to have to check spam on a daily basis.
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