Start:Stop - Nevertheless believers

From 'Panel 11' by Jacob Lawrence, 1955

Hello, my name is Phillip Dawson, welcome to our Start:Stop reflection from St Stephen Walbrook, when we stop for a few minutes and start to reflect on a passage from scripture. You can hear an audio recording of this reflection here. During Lent at our informal discussion group, we are exploring the Gospel of John - do join us via Zoom on Thursdays at 7.30pm if you can. 

One of the distinctive features about the gospel of John is the number of ‘asides’ or ‘stage whispers’ if you prefer, often shown in the text in brackets, which add explanatory detail or insights to the narrative; like those moments in plays or on television when the ‘fourth wall’ is broken and an actor steps outside the world of the production to speak directly to us, their audience, in our time.

Drawing on the tradition that the author of the fourth gospel lived well into old age (Clement of Alexandria claimed John lived until he was around 100 years old), many like to see these asides or whispers as answers to the most common questions and comments that John encountered over a long and difficult lifetime teaching people about the love of Jesus; what it means to be the ‘Beloved Disciple’ – a vocation which is been distilled into the beautifully crafted text of this Gospel.

The passage we are about to hear is one of the longer ‘asides’. Here, the Beloved Disciple addresses us in his own voice at the end of the first half of his Gospel, known as the ‘Book of Signs’. In doing so, he offers his explanation as to why, despite all the signs that Jesus has performed – beginning at the Wedding in Cana and ending with the Raising of Lazarus amongst many others – the people still do not believe - and even the few who do are afraid to publicly proclaim their faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.

Bible Reading – John 12.37-43

Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. This was to fulfil the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

‘Lord, who has believed our message,
   and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’

And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,

‘He has blinded their eyes
   and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
   and understand with their heart and turn—
   and I would heal them.’

Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.’


Reflection

I wonder if this ‘aside’ or ‘whisper’ is a result of people hearing the Gospel for the first time and asking John at this point “if Jesus really is a light so powerful that darkness cannot overcome it, why are people still in darkness? They’ve heard of thousands being miraculously fed, the sick being cured – even the dead raised to life; Jesus has revealed himself through the “I am” sayings and openly declared himself to be the Messiah. Has all this been in vain? Has Jesus’s ministry failed?”

It’s seems a reasonable question to ask! At the end of the Gospel, John explains that his purpose in writing the text is so “we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing [we] may have life in his name.” Why then may we believe and yet so many of the ‘chosen’ people of Israel in Jesus’s time were unable to do so – and those that did were “nevertheless” not confident enough to publicly profess their faith; fearful of their status in society?

In giving his answer, John encourages his listeners not to lose heart; suggesting in this ‘whisper’ that the unbelief of the people of Israel is not a failure on the part of God but all part of His divine plan; encouraging us to recall the words of the opening prologue; “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Like all good teachers, John then expands his point by evidencing his claim; drawing on texts from Isaiah; first, from the poems known as the ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’ followed by text from Isaiah’s famous ‘vision’ of the Lord and his calling as a messenger of God. In doing so John suggests that the ministry of The Word made flesh – and the failure of the people to respond to it by believing in Jesus – is rooted in The Word of the prophets.

But John isn’t a teacher who gives us easy answers. He challenges us. Commentators across the ages have been baffled by the combination of quotes he chooses. How can the Suffering Servant also be the one who blinds our eyes and hardens our hearts so that we might turn away from the love of God – even if at the end there is a hopeful promise of being healed? One of many explanations is offered by the American theologian Dale Bruner, who draws parallels between John’s choice of quotes and the parable of the Prodigal Son, to explain what he describes as this ‘permitted hardening’. Bruner suggests that the Prodigal Father was able to foresee the hell where his son’s actions would lead – but it was only by letting him go that he would ever want to return home.   

For John, the full glory of God is revealed through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ; events which form the second half of his gospel. The promise of which, John suggests, was witnessed by the prophet Isaiah and revealed to many of those during Jesus’s earthly life. But unlike Isaiah, these believers were “nevertheless” unwilling to proclaim the Glory of God.

Here, perhaps, John subtly turns his ‘whisper’ towards today’s listeners – God’s Easter people - to whom the full glory of God has been revealed. Are we shouting so loudly of our own glory that we are unable to hear the whisper of the glory of God? Are we, who confess our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord in church, nevertheless afraid to even whisper our faith in the world outside?

John asks us to consider whether we, like the people of Israel, are “nevertheless” believers?


Prayer

Lord, open our eyes that we may turn and see the signs of your presence in the world around us.
Forgive us for the times when we have failed to recognise the true source of our glory;
   when we have shouted so loudly that we have been unable to hear the whisper of your truth.
Soften our hearts with your tender love and give us the strength to direct our lives towards you in all we think, say and do.
Amen


Thank you for listening. We hope to reopen the church for worship in Holy Week, with a Sung Eucharist on Maundy Thursday 1^st April at 12.45pm. but other services and events will continue online for the time being by telephone and zoom. Please look at our website www.ststephenwalbrook.net for details. We’ll be back with another Start Stop reflection next week.


Links

Image : Panel 11 by Jacob Lawerence, 1955 (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).