89
Q.
Why is the gospel of John so different?
Suggested Additional Sources for Reading
- James Alison, Living in the End Times (SPCK, 1997).
- Marcus J. Borg and N. T. Wright, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
(HarperOne, 2007). - Raymond Brown, The Community of the Beloved Disciple: The Life, Loves, and
Hates of an Individual Church in New Testament Times (Paulist Press, 1978). - Warren Carter, John: Storyteller, Interpreter, Evangelist (Hendrickson, 2006).
- Richard B. Hays, The Moral Vision of the New Testament (HarperOne, 1996).
- Craig Koester, The Word of Life: A Theology of John’s Gospel (Eerdmans,
2008). - Robert Kysar, John, the Maverick Gospel, 3d edition (Westminster John
Knox Press, 2007). - Mark Allen Powell, Fortress Introduction to the Gospels (Fortress Press,
1998). - Garry Wills, What Jesus Meant (Penguin, 2007).
- Garry Wills, What the Gospels Meant (Viking, 2008).
Suggested Questions for Further Discussion/Thought
- Which image of Jesus in John’s gospel do you fi nd most helpful in
understanding his identity and mission? - Jarrod suggests that any images of God that don’t look like Jesus’ actions
in John 13 must be abandoned. Do you have ideas about God that don’t
look like Jesus’ love? - Compare the judgment images of Matthew 25 with John 3’s insistence
that Jesus is the judgment. How do you understand these passages
together? - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the twentieth-century theologian and martyr who
died at the hands of the Nazis, once said that a Christian is one who
every day answers Jesus’ question, “Who do you say I am?” So who do
you say Jesus is? What does Jesus mean for you? - Read Mark 1:14–15, 35–39; Luke 4:14–21; and John 3:16–18 and 10:14–18.
According to each evangelist, why did Jesus come? What was his
purpose?