July 31st, 2021

As always, the Old Testament reading is connected to the Gospel reading of the New Testament. And the next three weeks are quite special in that the gospel text is from the Gospel according to John. This happens at no other time. And the Gospel according to John is exceedingly special, and so that will be the focus here, at least for the next three weeks.

The other gospel accounts are very similar to each other and are often called the ‘synoptic’ or the accounts with a similar viewpoint. But the Gospel according to John is so special that it often uses more library space than the space devoted to the other gospel accounts.

When examining the differences between those three accounts and the Gospel according to John, there is a lot that could be said. And many of the people who examine those differences go to various libraries and schools and examine those differences to their depths. But the first people to hear about those differences did not go to schools and libraries, but they went to churches—and not only churches, but to synagogues as well. The context of those places is significantly different in those two places than that of the school or the library. The ultimate focus of both the church and synagogue should be a gracious LORD.

Within such a context, it may be helpful to see this fourth gospel account as a modified ‘word of exhortation’ or ‘word of encouragement’. This is a Jewish type of message, one that people would expect after the ‘Old Testament’ readings. The entire Epistle to the Hebrews (see Hebrews 13:22) may be considered an actual word of exhortation, and Paul’s speech in Acts 13 is called the same thing (see Acts 13:15).

It seems like there are two basic parts to a word of exhortation, the word of the Lord that is laid out at the beginning, and the exhortation that comes from that word that appears at the end. There are some similarities in the Hebrews and Acts texts that may point to these two transition points: ‘Thus he has said … therefore, do not….’ These points are found in the following verses (and are sometimes translated in a way that does not make these words obvious): Acts 13:34 & 40; Hebrews 4:4 & 10:35

The Gospel according to John lays out a word, and words are certainly special at the beginning of the account [see John 1:1-14]. And the two words of the first phrase, that of the word section, they also appear at a major division in this gospel account, that of the end of chapter 12 and the first part of chapter 13 [see John 12:50].

But this gospel account as a ‘word of exhortation’ falls very short if you were expecting some kind of exhortation at the very end. An overwhelming amount of the text is given to the emphasis on the word.

There are some commands given in the last chapter of this gospel account. It may be interesting to see some of these commands (given in a somewhat-literal translation) in John 21:
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Verse 6            Jesus to his disciples   ‘Cast the net in the right side of the boat, and you will find.’
Verse 12          Jesus to his disciples   ‘Come, breakfast.’
Verse 15          Jesus to Peter              ‘Feed my lambs.’
Verse 16          Jesus to Peter              ‘Shepherd my (little) sheep.’
Verse 17          Jesus to Peter              ‘Feed my (little) sheep.’
Verse 19          Jesus to Peter              ‘Follow me.’
Verse 22          Jesus to Peter              ‘You, follow me.’

There is a lot of repetition here, but that is okay. Although all the commands are directed to the people of that time, the three central commands seem to be the most important. But the really important words given in this account are eternal. Jesus said, in the last verse of the text for today [John 6:35], ‘I am the bread of life.’ He did NOT say that he WAS or WILL BE the bread of life. That is a big difference.