John's Passion Narratives

The tone of the Passion Narrative in John's Gospel is set in Ch 12vs23.  "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified."

Two points to make here.  Throughout the gospel, 'The hour' or 'His hour' has been used to signify the time when the climax of Jesus mission is to take place.   In Ch 2, Jesus comments to His Mother, 'My hour has not yet come.' and this expression is used later on ( 7:6, 8, 30: 8:20) to signal the important event to which all of Jesus' ministry is leading. - His 'Glory to be shown'  It will be used at the beginning of the High Priestly prayer of Ch 17 - again, another important passage to read as John's Jesus comments on the significance of his death for those whom He loves.

Secondly, the hour has come for him to be glorified.  As far as John is concerned, the cross is first and foremost the enthronement of Jesus on earth.  In what is arguably the supreme example of Johannine irony the instrument of torture becomes the throne of 'the Son of Man'.  The term 'glory' in John's Gospel is code for 'Jesus' relationship to the Father.  As the Father is  love (1 John 4:7-11), how better can the relationship of the Father and the Son be better demonstrated to a doomed world (and make no mistake, dears, as far as the 4th Evangelist is concerned, this world is a lost and doomed world without the Saviour from the Father) than in this extravagant expression of love for the world.  (This is why I love the 4th Gospel so much.  It is SOOO over the top in its portrayal of God. Everything about Him in it reflects the 'abundant life' which John says that Jesus came to give us.  Nothing mean or grasping about it!)

Interestingly vs 23-26 contain virtually the only teaching  in John's Gospel that has direct parallels with the Synoptics.  They are verses used here not so much for teaching how to be a disciple of Jesus, which is how they're used in the Synoptics, but as comments on the meaning and purpose of the death of Jesus.  Jesus is the one who will be sown like seed and bear much fruit. Jesus will be honoured as He loses his life.  Throughout the passion Narrative, then we will see how (a) Jesus goes knowingly to His given, and chosen, mission, and how he demonstrates his total command not only of Himself (as in Luke) but also of events.

Johannine redactions

John chooses to omit elements of the Passion narratives that demonstrate the human fear and weakness of Jesus.  These events include:

• the Agony in Gethsemane - the nearest we get to this is in Ch 12 27-36:

• The trial before the Sanhedrin, with its accusations.  Instead, typically, John has a 'head-to-head' confrontation with Annas, the 'power behind the throne' of the High Priest, Caiaphas.  This representative of the Jewish people rejects the claims of Jesus.  Note that John shifts the blame for Jesus' death as firmly onto the Jewish Authorities and people from Pilate as Matthew does, (18:40; 19:11)
• Jesus being unable to carry His cross  In this gospel, Jesus literally takes up His own cross and bears it throughout.  This is His hour, and he will see it through to the end.
• The taunting on the cross.  Noone mocks a King who has been enthroned

• The cry of dereliction  Instead, the last words of Jesus are the triumphant declaration 'It is accomplished'
  

Particular use of material includes:
 

•  A series of one to one episodes where Jesus confronts different characters, giving them the opportunity to respond to Him or not - Annas, Pilate (twice)
• A conversation with Pilate (unique to John).  In which John takes the opportunity to tell us that, confronted with the One who is The Way, the Truth and the Life, Pilate asks 'What is truth?'
• The name of the servant whose ear Peter cut off.  (perhaps John's community knew him?)
• The seamless robe worn by Jesus - of the type worn by the High Priests.
• The disposal of Jesus' mother to  the beloved disciple - the King dispensing mercy to his subjects from his throne.
• That Jesus was crucified at the same time as the Passover lambs were being killed for the Seder meal - making Jesus not only the sin-offering that takes away the sin of the world (Ch 1 vs 29), that is, Yom Kippur imagery, but also explicitly, Exodus imagery.  Jesus is the Lamb whose blood  keeps away the angel of God's Judgement on sin, and keeps the 'door' open for all to pass through and out into the promised land of abundant life that he came to bestow.  So the Exodus imagery is complete.
• Leading on from this, John tells us that Jesus' legs were not broken - and helpfully points out that this is a fulfilment of Scripture (Ch 19:36).  The animals for the sacrifices had also to be perfect.

• The piercing of His side - also in fulfilment of scripture (19:37), with the water and blood mingled.  Certainly, the Church later took this to be imagery of the mingling of the human and divine natures in Jesus, which is why in the catholic tradition, christians mix water with wine at the Eucharist.  Possibly a confirmation that this is an eyewitness source (19:35).  Death is caused by an accumulation of fluid in and around the lungs during crucifixion.  A spear aimed at the heart up through the pericardium would puncture the pleurum, releasing water and blood.
  
  

The effect of these redactions is to place Jesus securely in control of events.  The clearest passages which demonstrate this, and which are unique to John are the conversations with Pilate.  There we have Jesus, refusing to recognise the power and authority of the court that tries Him, but accepting that 'His  Hour' has arrived and that this is not only the will of His Father, but also the whole point of his mission.  This is also the fulfilment of the Scriptures concerning Him.  Throughout the Gospel, Jesus has appealed to the witness of the Torah, and the Patriarchs to substantiate His claims to be Messiah (5:39, 45-47; 6:45, 58, 42; 7:38; 8:56).  Therefore, a striking characteristic of John's Passion narrative is the number of times that he refers to specific passages in the Torah and Prophets which, he claims, are fulfilled in the circumstances of Jesus' Passion; see 19:24 (Ps 22), 19:36 (Ex 12:46), 19:37 (Zech 12:10).  We could be in Matthew's Gospel here, couldn't we dears?

From a source critical point of view, it's clear that John has not used Mark as a basis for His Passion Narrative.  His source is the Beloved Disciple, who, as we have seen, is called upon as a witness to the veracity of the events recorded.  Presumably the community of the Fourth Evangelist knew the identity of the Beloved Disciple, and accepted his authority and witness.  Biblical scholars such as Bultmann, have viewed the Evangelist as creative theologian rather than faithful historian of the tradition.  Other scholars, such as J A T Robinson and D Carson have been much more willing to accept that John had a 'Jerusalem' source close to the High Priest, from which he got his information.  The language Jesus uses throughout seems to be very close to that of the Fourth Evangelist and the writer of the First letter of John.  However, this may simply mean that when the 4th Evangelist was writing down his version of events, he expressed what he had heard of the conversations in his own language rather than reporting verbatim.' - you know what it's like when we are reporting back what someone has said, to a 3rd party.  We give the content, but in our own words.   You will need to decide for yourselves what the evidence says.  

 

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