Gospel Conversations Reimagined: Listening for the Music of the Gospel From the Beginning
I introduced the topic of Gospel Conversations Reimagined: A Series of Stories by affirming that the metanarrative of Scripture—the sixty-six books of the canon—tell us True Story of the Whole World (TSWW). The TSWW is not a compilation of moralistic fables meant to guide our behavior, nor is it simply one of many religious stories, it is the true story of the whole world. Remarkably, God—the author of the TSWW—invites us into a dynamic relationship with him.
No doubt, the days in which we live are chaotic and constantly changing. The things we once took for granted might never be the same, but the God of the TSWW breaks through the dysphoria and despair. If ever we needed God to defy the laws of nature, to rattle our categories and meet us right where we are, it is now. John’s gospel provides windows into some mind-blowing conversations and healings and transformations—seven of which we will look at together during this Selah Summer.
The Gospel of John fits within the canon of Scripture as the fourth gospel in the New Testament and opens with John’s introduction to Jesus, God in the flesh. Jesus is the one who will awaken our senses and allow us to see and hear and touch God. Jesus is the clue to human history. In the very first verse, John situates Jesus in the beginning and before the beginning (I have been almost mesmerized by this truth over the past week or so).
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 were made through him and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was the life and the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:1–5).
In the first eighteen verses of chapter one John strains to describe this Jesus he has come to know—the Word, light, and life—who will provide innumerable signs attesting to the fact that he is God.
The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the one Son from the Father, full of grace and truth … No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:9–10; 14; 18).
Toward the end of the book, as John reflects on the events that led up to Jesus’s shocking and unexpected death on the cross, the astonishing and equally unexpected resurrection, and the wondrous and mind-bending moments when Jesus, alive and well, literally appeared to many who had lost all hope. “Here, touch my nail-pierced hands … it is me—God—in the flesh.” Listen to John’s closing words,
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.… Now there are many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written (John 20:30–31; 21:25).
The music of John’s gospel begins with a flourish—in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God! and ends with D.C. al Coda (go back to the beginning and play the whole symphony again). John seems to say, “I could write so much more.”
We see this awe and wonder still very much alive in John a few years later in a letter warning churches about the rise of false teachers. The music of John’s gospel sings again in his opening words,
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1–4).
In a very real sense, the music plays on. Stories continue being written, signs and wonders happen all around us, and billions of books have been published in an effort to explain the inexplicable so that we can comprehend the incomprehensible. Like I am trying to do right now.
