The Gospel of John: A Personal Commentary
John's view of the life of Jesus is not identical to the three synoptic Gospels. It is more personal and more selective and focuses on encounters and events of Jesus, such as His "I am" statements and certain miracles that occurred to change the lives of people in need, which always brought a negative response from the religious authorities. The last four chapters of the Gospel display the tragic fate of God's Son and the eventual victory that the resurrection of Jesus accomplished over sin and death, which Paul later described in 1 Corinthians, chapter fifteen. An important aspect of John's Gospel is the accounts of miracles. John recorded three healing events that provided evidence that Jesus possessed the power of God. Chapter five describes the healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda, who had been crippled for thirty-eight years but could not gain access to the healing water of the pool. Jesus told him to rise and walk, and he did so promptly without entering the pool. Chapter nine describes the healing of the man who had been blind since birth. John writes that Jesus spit on the ground, made a clay mixture, and put it on his eyes, and he was told to go wash his eyes in the pool of Siloam. He did so, and he returned able to see. Chapter eleven records the greatest miracle, with the raising of Lazarus from the dead after four days in the tomb. John writes many of the Jews believed in Jesus due to what they had seen, but some of them went to report to the religious leaders, which gave them further cause to plot the death of Jesus. For John, the miracles of Jesus were evidence of His divine status. For others, they possibly reinforced their unbelief, and maybe nothing would have convinced them to believe in the One who came to seek and save the lost. Perhaps it is somewhat the same in our time.
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