Spirituality: The Fourth Gospel

 Today, I was asked why John's Gospel was so different. We often refer to it as the Fourth Gospel because scholars are not quite sure about the author, but it does fit within the Johannine school of writing. 

The question is, "is the Gospel inaccurate?" The Fourth Gospel is not inaccurate. It has a completely different focus than Mark, Matthew, and Luke and its intent that sets it apart from the rest of the Synoptic Gospels. It was written to encourage a beleaguered community that was constantly being thrown out of the synagogues and family gatherings. There was much hostility between the community of Greek Jews that were at odds with the Jesus Jews, and families and friendships were ripped apart. For a Jesus Jew, a believer could no longer go to the Synagogue to celebrate the Sabbath or any feast. They could not attend family gatherings. This Fourth Gospel was written to solve a particular local community's dilemma. Conservative Jews were breaking off into rabbinical Judaism and the Jesus Jews were in a sense becoming Christians. 

The Fourth Gospel was written to show that (1.) Jesus Jews could continue to celebrate its traditional feasts - Weeks, Booth, Passover, Sabbath, The Dedication, and all the agricultural feasts, but it would be done in and through the person of Jesus, (2.) that Jesus was the fulfillment of these feasts, and all the celebrations would be done in his name and body, (3.) it shows Jesus, in his Risen State, in full power so that he combatted the forces of the Greek world with its philosophy and attention to Wisdom, which is the reason Jesus became the Word, and (4.) that Fourth Gospel introduces a high Christology, a high ecclesiology, a high-theology, which was different from the low Christology, low ecclesiology, and low-theology of the Synoptics.

The Fourth Gospel is complex. My Johannine professor quoted another source who said, "The Fourth Gospel can be likened to a magic pool in which an infant can piddle and an elephant can swim."